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Fed up with cheap and not-always-cheerful monitors based on TN panel technology? Then get a load of new Asus PA238Q.

At around $365, it's pricier than your average 23-inch TN screen. But joy of joys, it's got an IPS panel.

IPS, of course, stands for in-plane switching and it just so happens to be the finest panel technology known to man or beast. That's why Apple, for instance, exclusively uses IPS in its iPhones and iPads. It's simply the best when it comes to color accuracy and viewing angles.

As it happens, color accuracy is a big part of the remit for the Asus PA238Q. It's pitched as a low-cost screen for he graphics professional.

However, Asus is also claiming 6ms response times, which is very impressive for a IPS screen and makes for a tantalizing all-round package.

Cloud this affordable, color-accurate screen also be killer in-game and at the movie? There's only one way to find out.

Asus PA238Q Open goal

We've been desperate for something, anything other than a TN screen at an affordable price. Few monitor makers have been willing to deliver. Admittedly, BenQ has given us a few cheap screens with VA panels. But its most recent effort, the BenQ EW2430, was seriously disappointing. There's an open goal waiting for Asus to slide home a winner.

On paper, the Asus PA238Q certainly looks like premier league material. Along with that all important IPS panel, you get an LED backlight and a huge color gamut that captures 100 percent of sRGB. Nice. You also get a full complement of inputs including HDMI, DVI, VGA and even DisplayPort. There's picture-in-picture support, too.

The Asus PA238Q is a fine physical specimen, too. The stand is fully adjustable in all directions and hewn from the right sort of plastics. It's sturdy stuff.

The minimalist styling vibe is also loving. The overall effect is like an IBM laptop from the ThinkPad heyday. No nonsense quality, in other words.

It ain't easy picking holes in this classy screen, but one or two imperfections are visible. The review sample had the slightest whiff of backlight bleed on the right hand edge and, like all IPS screens, there's a little backlight glow at some angles when viewing very dark tones. But that's about it.

Image quality

The real clincher, though, involves image quality. Asus claims every PA238Q is carefully color calibrated at the factory and the result is indeed impressive. Rarely, if ever, have we seen a screen with such deft black, white and color scales out of the box. The viewing angles are impeccable, too.

As for pixel response, it's very good news indeed. This is one of if not the snappiest IPS panels we've ever seen.

The panel. The backlight. The chassis. The colors. The input options. The price. Frankly, what's not to like?

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