ASUS CES 2018 Showcase Brings 4K OLED Panels, BFGDs, Z370 Goodness And Killer WiFi Routers
This year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas officially comes to a close today, though by this time, most of the exhibits have been torn down. That's okay, because we were in attendance earlier this week, gathering up information and snapping photos on some of the more interesting stuff on display. One of the vendors we visited was ASUS, and the company did not disappoint. From next-generation wireless routers to a Big Format Gaming Display (BFGD), ASUS brought the goods. Let's have a look.
We will start things off with the company's BFGD. It is a 65-inch gaming display based on NVIDIA's BFGD blueprint, and is intended specifically for gamers. ASUS is one of several companies to unwrap one of these large displays, and like the others, it sports a 4K resolution panel with a true 120Hz refresh rate and HDR support. It also features a full-array direct backlight, 1,000 nits peak brightness, and the icing on the cake, G-Sync support.
Shown above is a look at the backside, with the ASUS Republic of Gamers logo engraved into the chassis. BFGDs also come with NVIDIA Shield integration, allowing users to tap into the Shield platform and enjoy streaming, gaming, and even Google Assistant.
These displays do not have a built-in tuner, so technically they are not televisions. You can, however, attach a set-top box from your cable or satellite TV provider and watch that way, just like any other modern day TV.
ASUS also showed off some traditional monitors (read: smaller than 65 inches). Shown above is the ProArt PQ22UC, a 21.6-inch OLED display with a 4K resolution and HDR10 support. The company claims a high level of color accuracy, with 99 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space.
What's really neat, however, is that ASUS unveiled a bezel-free kit that makes for a much more immersive multi-monitor experience. These kits consist of vertical lenses attached to mounting brackets on the top and bottom. They're essentially refracters that stretch the image over the bezels. Cool stuff.
Another monitor ASUS had on display was its ROG Swift PG35VQ. ASUS is billing this as the world's first 200Hz (refresh rate) ultrawide QHD monitor with HDR support.
The ROG Swift PG35VQ sports a curved panel with barely any bezel to speak of, and a 3440x1440 resolution (21:9 aspect ratio). It can also get plenty bright, with a 512-zone direct-LED backlight matrix and 1,000 nits peak brightness. And with quantum dot technology, ASUS promises a wide color gamut for accurate color reproduction.
ASUS has some interesting motherboards on display, too. Shown above is the TUF Z370-Pro Gaming. It's an LGA 1151 motherboard based on Intel's Z370 chipset for Coffee Lake processors. It supports up to 64GB of DDR4-4000 memory and has two M.2 slots for fast storage, six SATA 6Gbps ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, eight USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, GbE LAN, and 8-channel audio.
The other Z370-chipset motherboard ASUS had on display was the Prime Z370-A. It shares many of the same specs as the TUF-Z370 Pro Gaming, but with fewer USB ports and a different aesthetic.
Finally, here's a look (above) at the RT-AX88U, a next-generation 802.11ax router from ASUS, It sports the aggressive styling that ASUS is known for among its router family, and is ready for tomorrow's devices with ultra-fast speeds, including up to 1,148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 4,804MHz on the 5GHz band.
Other features include a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 256MB of flash memory, beamforming support, a built-in switch with eight LAN ports (most routers have four), and two USB 3.0 ports.
We will start things off with the company's BFGD. It is a 65-inch gaming display based on NVIDIA's BFGD blueprint, and is intended specifically for gamers. ASUS is one of several companies to unwrap one of these large displays, and like the others, it sports a 4K resolution panel with a true 120Hz refresh rate and HDR support. It also features a full-array direct backlight, 1,000 nits peak brightness, and the icing on the cake, G-Sync support.
Shown above is a look at the backside, with the ASUS Republic of Gamers logo engraved into the chassis. BFGDs also come with NVIDIA Shield integration, allowing users to tap into the Shield platform and enjoy streaming, gaming, and even Google Assistant.
These displays do not have a built-in tuner, so technically they are not televisions. You can, however, attach a set-top box from your cable or satellite TV provider and watch that way, just like any other modern day TV.
ASUS also showed off some traditional monitors (read: smaller than 65 inches). Shown above is the ProArt PQ22UC, a 21.6-inch OLED display with a 4K resolution and HDR10 support. The company claims a high level of color accuracy, with 99 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space.
What's really neat, however, is that ASUS unveiled a bezel-free kit that makes for a much more immersive multi-monitor experience. These kits consist of vertical lenses attached to mounting brackets on the top and bottom. They're essentially refracters that stretch the image over the bezels. Cool stuff.
Another monitor ASUS had on display was its ROG Swift PG35VQ. ASUS is billing this as the world's first 200Hz (refresh rate) ultrawide QHD monitor with HDR support.
The ROG Swift PG35VQ sports a curved panel with barely any bezel to speak of, and a 3440x1440 resolution (21:9 aspect ratio). It can also get plenty bright, with a 512-zone direct-LED backlight matrix and 1,000 nits peak brightness. And with quantum dot technology, ASUS promises a wide color gamut for accurate color reproduction.
ASUS has some interesting motherboards on display, too. Shown above is the TUF Z370-Pro Gaming. It's an LGA 1151 motherboard based on Intel's Z370 chipset for Coffee Lake processors. It supports up to 64GB of DDR4-4000 memory and has two M.2 slots for fast storage, six SATA 6Gbps ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, eight USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, GbE LAN, and 8-channel audio.
The other Z370-chipset motherboard ASUS had on display was the Prime Z370-A. It shares many of the same specs as the TUF-Z370 Pro Gaming, but with fewer USB ports and a different aesthetic.
Finally, here's a look (above) at the RT-AX88U, a next-generation 802.11ax router from ASUS, It sports the aggressive styling that ASUS is known for among its router family, and is ready for tomorrow's devices with ultra-fast speeds, including up to 1,148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 4,804MHz on the 5GHz band.
Other features include a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 256MB of flash memory, beamforming support, a built-in switch with eight LAN ports (most routers have four), and two USB 3.0 ports.
