So I finally got delivery of my new 5K 27" ASUS ProArt PA27JCV after 8 weeks of wait.
It’s a gorgeous display whose 5120x2880 now give me a super crisp display of 2560x1440 at exactly 2x Retina on a 27" panel. It’s noticeably sharper than my previous beloved Dell U2720Q with its 4K scaled to the same resolution.
Setup was a breeze. Very similar to a 27" Dell. Same goes for the construction, very similar to a Dell. Plastic, but sturdy and just decent looking (kind of low-key which is just fine with me).
There’s tiny details that I like such as a dimple on the base to indicate when the display has been swiveled to perfectly forward facing. There’s other quirky things that I’m not a huge fan of such as the tiny “5 way button” which reminds me of that odd nipple IBM ThinkPads use to have. I get how they intend it to be used to navigate a nested menu, but it’s odd to manipulate with just one finger, especially when you’re trying not to push your panel around while manipulating the OSD. And one design issue: the hole in the support for routing the cables is about 1/16" too narrow for the power plug so to get the power cable in there you have to thread it in from the wall side (with the slightly narrower device plug) rather than plug it in and thread the wall plug out through the hole. Seems a bit of an odd oversight to me, but perhaps the display simply wasn’t designed with US plugs in mind.
I use DP 1.4 for input from my 14" MBP and HDMI as input from a Mac mini I also have on that desk. I’m not using its USB-C — it would offer 96 W charging and enables 4 downstream USB (a mix of C and A) ports, but I don’t need either because the screen is connected to my TB4 dock that already charges the MBP and offers plenty of USB-A and -C. So I just connect using a USB-C to DP cable from the TB hub to the display. The display itself ships with an HDMI and USB-C cable apart from the power cord. There’s built-in support for KVM use, but I don’t use that because I have BT peripherals for my MBP while I use USB-attached KB and mouse for the Mac mini.
There’s built in speakers but I have no interest in that. Neither do I in a camera, which, unlike the ASD, is not built in.
I’m not a fan of how the screen handles inputs. When I switch from the MBP to the mini and then back to the MBP, I have to wake the clamshell MBP again. Apparently, when the screen switches inputs it appears to the Mac as if it turned off and so the clamshell MBP goes to sleep. My Dells don’t do that. Perhaps that’s a setting I can change, but I haven’t found that so far.
With HDR set to on in Display Settings, there’s essentially nothing to adjust in terms of brightness and contrast. Display using native settings looks very nice. It has a built-in ambient brightness adjustment, but I turned it off because it reduced brightness too much to my liking. I’m colorblind myself and do only scientific computing so I have no clue about color accuracy, but the screen comes with a bunch of documentation and certificates about being Calman Verified.
Once set up there’s nothing really left to do. I only use the buttons to move from HDMI to DP input to switch the screen between Macs. I like that I don’t have to spend any time in the OSD and even more so that I see no reason to have to download their free software that they advertise everywhere, including via permanent QR code on the OSD.
I had my IT people order this screen for me and so work paid for it. But it seems to me to be a very good 5K deal for just $850. I’d have no hesitation paying for it out of my pocket for personal use at home. This feels like $850 well spent and I’m very happy I rejected the IMHO preposterously overpriced ASD ($2300 for adjustable and matte) right from the start and went this route instead. 
