One of the most stylish monitors in these Labs, the Asus ML248H will cut a dash on many a desk. We particularly liked the controls: illuminated touch controls hidden on the bezel fade into view when a finger brushes past.
For all its charms, though, we can’t help feeling let down. There is only D-SUB and HDMI inputs at the rear, with a 3.5mm headphone output acting as a pass through for audio sent via the HDMI cable.
The specifications don’t give much cause for excitement, either, with a standard TN panel at 1080p resolution. But it performs well. It was very bright out of the box, at a measured 326cd/m2. Black and contrast levels were good too; our tests put it at 881:1. Gamma came in at an almost perfect 2.2, and colour temperature wasn’t far off ideal either, ending up at 6,304k. Meanwhile, power consumption was the lowest of all the monitors on test: the Asus drew only 13W at a measured brightness of 120cd/m2.
Colour accuracy is no better than cheaper panels, however, with the Asus managing an average Delta E of 3.5. It’s the maximum Delta E of 11.9 in the greens that’s most worrying, though, and our real-world tests showed the Asus struggling to maintain a neutral tone. Uneven backlighting compounded matters, with the Asus’ left-hand side looking noticeably dimmer than the rest of the panel.
So it looks nice, but at this price we’d expect more than just great design. Performance is merely adequate and that ensures the Asus ML248H sits squarely among the also-rans this month.
