Asus’s New OLED is Like Two Monitors in One with a TrueBlack Glossy Finish

Asus has been making immoderate of the astir high-end OLED gaming monitors implicit the past respective years, adjacent delivering immoderate of the champion ones successful the space… if you could spend it. Still, the Asus ROG Strix XG32UCWG is importantly much affordable than galore of its competitors and adjacent its predecessor, which was released lone past year.

Launching astatine $999, the XG32UCWG is simply a feature-rich display, offering a dual solution 4K and 1080p screen, up to a 330Hz refresh rate, and the potent operation of deeper blacks and vivid colors acknowledgment to Asus's caller TrueBlack Glossy surface finish. It’s a performer and decidedly worthy picking up if you’re buying successful the upper-echelons of the gaming show market.

Asus ROG Strix XG32UCWG - Design and Features

When you’re talking astir gaming monitors, there’s a fewer staples erstwhile it comes to design: RGB, hard angles, small bits of edginess similar cybernetic scrawl oregon fake PCB traces connected the backmost of the show that are each but invisible erstwhile the show is successful spot connected your desk. Responsiveness is besides key: gaming monitors request to beryllium fast, without ghosting oregon smearing. Ideally, they’re precocious solution for clarity and person decent capable colors that you tin bask the crippled without being distracted.

The constituent is, determination are expectations, and past determination are expectations. Not conscionable a bully picture, but an astonishing picture. Not conscionable responsive, but rapid. So-called gaming features aren't conscionable staples, but propulsion the boundaries of what you tin find anyplace else: zoomed-in sniper modes, nighttime vision, adaptive AI that tin set the representation truthful you ever person the champion visibility, nary substance the concern and don't person to interest astir changing it yourself.

The XG32UCWG is that second benignant of gaming monitor. It checks each 1 of the boxes you would expect and past steps it up truthful nary 1 tin doubt: this is simply a show designed astir making your gaming acquisition much fun, whether that’s successful offering visuals that are affluent capable to marque your teeth wounded oregon by offering a competitory advantage.

It’s besides beautiful, with a 32-inch, glossy WOLED panel. It’s the cleanable size for its 4K resolution, delivering a crisp pixel density of 140 pixels per inch. At this resolution, it’s capable to excel up to 165Hz. That’s accelerated capable for astir gamers already, but if you’re a competitory player, you tin crook connected Frame Rate Boost mod and up that to 330Hz, though that limits the solution to 1080p. If those aren't accelerated capable and you're consenting to walk a mates 100 dollars more, you tin prime up the XG32UCWMG, and bump that to 240Hz astatine 4K and 480Hz astatine 1080p.

Refresh complaint is important, but it's not the lone happening that matters. The show besides needs to beryllium responsive, and it doesn't get overmuch amended than OLED for speed. The sheet exertion is inherently much accelerated than competing IPS, VA, and TN panels, which typically person a 1 sclerosis effect time. The XG32UCWG is rated astatine 0.03 ms. Whether you're gaming astatine 4K with its 165Hz refresh complaint oregon 1080p astatine 330Hz, the show offers question clarity that should beryllium toward the apical of what's imaginable today.

But portion competitory gamers person historically been consenting to commercialized representation prime for effect time, the XG32UCWG demands thing of the sort. In fact, it's just to accidental that this is 1 of the best-looking OLED monitors I've tested implicit the past respective years. It offers the aforesaid midnight blacks arsenic each OLED monitors (which let each pixel to beryllium a section dimming portion and controlled for brightness, close down to turning off) — but past the “all” portion of that isn’t precisely true.

In examination to accepted gaming show panels, OLED blacks are better, but what's not often remarked connected successful OLED show reviews is that, successful agleam ambient light, those achromatic levels really commencement to emergence again, undermining wherefore you mightiness person chosen an OLED successful the archetypal place. This is particularly existent with QD-OLED monitors. Glossy coatings assistance mitigate this and, arsenic a result, person a inclination to person colors that popular and pictures with enhanced crispness, but determination hasn’t been a hole until now.

The XG32UCWG debuts Asus' caller TrueBlack Glossy surface coating. This caller surface decorativeness manages to connection the champion of some worlds, maintaining the enhanced vividness of precocious gloss portion managing to forestall much airy from reflecting from its panel, keeping blacks visibly darker. And it’s nary gimmick. Between the exceptional colors that the sheet is capable to connection connected its own, its enhanced opposition is much noticeable.

In essence, you get the champion of some worlds: genuinely heavy blacks and the added colour popular of the glossy screen. The reflections tin beryllium thing else, though. It’s arsenic adjacent to a reflector arsenic monitors come, truthful you whitethorn request to put your situation to debar this becoming a distraction.

The show offers a highest brightness of 1,300 nits, covers 100% of the sRGB colour gamut, and is rated for 99% of DCI-P3. SDR brightness continues to beryllium a regulation of OLED technology, particularly if you’re moving astatine little than 100% brightness. Asus doesn’t connection a rating, but successful its sRGB mode, adjacent astatine 100% brightness is clamped and the output averages astir 290 nits. The brightness tin beryllium driven to astir 450-nits by swapping to its Custom Settings mode, and this besides scales down with the magnitude of achromatic contiguous connected the screen.

Returning to the carnal broadside of the monitor, it is precise akin to what we've seen passim this procreation of OLED displays from Asus. The sheet itself is exceptionally bladed with a container connected the backmost to location the motherboard and cooling components. The constituent enclosure is connected the chunky broadside but similar the RGB ROG oculus that illuminates connected 1 half, it’s astir apt going to beryllium invisible erstwhile you spot it connected your desk. What you perceive is the bladed panel, not the box.

There’s a generous larboard enactment too, which has been emblematic with Asus’s premium offerings, but I inactive emotion to spot it since it’s not a given, adjacent successful the flagship show space. Along the bottommost edge, it comes with 1 DisplayPort 1.4 larboard (with Display Stream Compression), 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 USB Type-C that besides supports video and 15 watts of powerfulness delivery, 3 USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports, a USB Type-B to thrust the USB hub and firmware updates to the monitor, and a headphone jack. It’s a decent selection, though 15W of PD charging isn’t going to beryllium capable to complaint your laptop portion you usage it, truthful you’ll inactive request to powerfulness your instrumentality if you’re utilizing it that way.

The basal has undergone a large revision and, portion I similar it, it’s decidedly a double-edged sword. Instead of utilizing the tripod basal of galore different high-end Strix monitors, it uses a tiny basal sheet for its foundation. It astir looks excessively tiny for a 32-inch show but it held it dependable without difficulty. And this allows it to person a importantly smaller footprint and much easy spot things similar an Elgato Stream Deck underneath it. On the different hand, its elemental plan conscionable doesn't look arsenic premium arsenic the aged tripod. Personally, I would inactive take this caller plan to prevention space.

The limb of the basal is precise similar, if not identical, to the aged design, though. It slots into the basal and is held steadfast with a azygous thumb screw. You tin set the tallness by conscionable implicit 3 inches, swivel ±15 degrees, and tilt +20 to -5 degrees. There's nary rotation accommodation for representation mode, though that's little communal connected a show this size. It includes the 1/4-20 thread astatine the apical to easy equine a camera, light, oregon different streaming gear.

The Asus ROG Strix XG32UCWG is perfectly packed with features. As an OLED monitor, burn-in is inactive a interest you request to beryllium alert of, but acknowledgment to Asus's OLED Care suite (as good arsenic its cooling strategy and 3-year burn-in warranty), it’s little of a interest than it has adjacent been. Asus took the room descend attack erstwhile it comes to OLED burn-in prevention. If determination is simply a information diagnostic retired determination it doesn't include, I haven't heard of it. It has toggleable options for pixel shifting and regular pixel refresh cycles, logo and taskbar detection, a people mode that darkens everything but the model you're looking at, selective dimming, and a Neo Proximity Sensor that tin observe erstwhile you're not astatine your show and show a achromatic surface to forestall pixel deterioration entirely.

It besides comes with a wide enactment of gaming features. It has your accustomed content-based representation presets (Movie, Racing, sRGB, etc.), but besides comes with Sniper Mode, Extreme Low Motion Blur achromatic framework insertion, OLED anti-flicker, 24.5-inch and 27-inch show simulations (if you’re utilized to gaming connected a smaller screen), and respective AI options to dynamically alteration the colour of the crosshair, rise the shadows, oregon set representation settings based connected what’s connected the screen. It besides comes with KVM functionality to rapidly swap betwixt 2 devices, similar your PC and a console, and supports Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture to support way of 2 inputs astatine once.

All of this tin beryllium controlled done the OSD oregon DisplayWidget Center software. Asus has made strides successful achieving parity with the options disposable betwixt both, truthful you’re escaped to take which works champion for you. The bundle suite is decidedly worthy installing, partially due to the fact that it’s required for the 3 AI modes, but chiefly due to the fact that it offers hotkey support. This includes a hotkey to rise the actual OSD and navigate it with your keyboard alternatively of the joystick.

Asus ROG Strix XG32UCWG - Performance

I enactment the Asus ROG Strix XG32UCWG done its paces successful ceremonial benchmarks and real-world gaming to spot whether it’s really a bully worth oregon if you’re amended disconnected redeeming for a much proven option. After all, monitors similar this often spell for $1,200, truthful it’s just to inquire what trade-offs it whitethorn demand.

Kicking things off, I ran it done a suite of assessments utilizing my Datacolor SpyderPro colorimeter. Its SDR brightness isn’t atrocious if you’re consenting to crook the brightness each the mode up and set the opposition for balance. Under those settings (100 brightness, 70 contrast), I measured highest SDR brightness astatine 447 nits. Lowering brightness to 75 and opposition to 60 dropped that output to 253 nits, connected average. The maxed retired brightness successful sRGB mode peaked astatine an mean of 287 nits. This puts it connected the dimmer broadside if you’re not topping retired your brightness settings which is mostly not recommended if you’re disquieted astir burn-in.

In HDR mode, the brightness besides fell a spot abbreviated successful my measurements. In a 10% window, I measured highest brightness astatine 784 nits but successful a 2% window, that jumped to 1,087 nits. It’s not 1,300 nits, but seems similar it could get determination with tiny capable highlights, similar glinting reflections connected water. The OSD besides includes an enactment to dynamically boost the brightness. I couldn’t reliably measurement a smaller model with my trial setup and couldn’t fig retired however to unit that boost to use to spot if I could manually propulsion its brightness higher.

Gamut and Accuracy

In its sRGB mode, its colour accuracy is stellar and doesn’t necessitate immoderate other calibration. In my tests, it holds an mean Delta E of 1.55, making it 1 of the astir close gaming monitors I’ve tested retired of the box. Asus claimed 100% sum of the sRGB colour gamut and 99% of DCI-P3, and it achieved some of those scores – with 1 caveat. Hitting 99% sum for DCI-P3 required utilizing the circumstantial DCI-P3 colour space. Not a large deal, but it’s not ever indispensable either.

Gaming connected the show is excellent. I’m not a pro gamer by immoderate means, truthful 165Hz is perfectly capable for me, particularly with the natively debased input 0.03 sclerosis input latency. Motion clarity was fantabulous astatine this refresh rate, which is demonstrated successful the crystal seizure I was capable to drawback successful BlurBusters’ Test UFO Ghosting Test. Ghosting conscionable isn’t going to beryllium an contented here. Higher refresh rates would increase clarity successful accelerated question but lone marginally. High level competitory players whitethorn notice, but I fishy astir radical would conflict to archer the difference.

If you are an esports player, the monitor’s Frame Rate Boost mode is for you. Dropping the refresh complaint to 1080p makes hitting its 330Hz refresh complaint with your in-game FPS overmuch much imaginable if you person a reasonably almighty gaming PC, which volition importantly summation fast-motion clarity and responsiveness. By default, this mode stretches that little solution implicit the monitor’s afloat 32 inches. The resulting representation is brushed and the quality is stark and off-putting. It’s a nonstop A/B examination that does the Frame Rate Boost mode nary favors.

Thankfully, that’s wherever the 27-inch and 24.5-inch representation modes travel in. 1080p doesn’t look large connected a 32-inch monitor, but adjacent dropping to the 27-inch size makes a large difference. This comes with its ain trade-off successful that the representation crops in, leaving achromatic bars astir the remaining surface space. But there's ever a trade-off with dual resolutions, and if you're a competitory subordinate that wants to propulsion that higher framework complaint portion of the clip and bask a higher solution for the remainder, it goes with the territory.

Christopher Coke has been a regular contributor to IGN since 2019 and has been covering games and exertion since 2013. He has covered tech ranging from gaming controllers to graphics cards, gaming chairs and gaming monitors, headphones, IEMs, and much for sites specified arsenic MMORPG.com, Tom’s Hardware, Popular Science, USA Today’s Reviewed, and Popular Mechanics. Find Chris connected Twitter @gamebynight.