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Our review of the MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 is now live. This glossy ‘Penta Tandem’ QD-OLED benefits from the new Samsung Display ‘Quantum Black’ (MSI ‘DarkArmor Film’) treatment. This makes it easier to clean, with a smoother glide of the cloth when cleaning and significantly improvement (though not entirely fixing) the lightening up of dark shades in brighter room lighting. This is combined with a pixel-dense and immersive 31.5″ @3840 x 2160 screen and 240Hz refresh rate, with he usual strong QD-OLED image quality and exceptional responsiveness. SDR brightness was boosted up to ~300 nits with uniform brightness, or ~500 nits using the ‘Dynamic’ setting for ‘SDR brightness’. The ‘EOTF Boost’ HDR setting offered a reduction to medium shade dimming in higher APL (Average Picture Level, bright dominant) scenes, combined with the usual ‘Peak 1000 nits’ setting. It overbrightened dark to medium shades in lower APL (dark dominant) scenes, but didn’t affect the darkest shades or crush highlight details. The ‘TrueBlack 500’ setting offered an alternative if you want a lower brightness but ‘well-calibrated’ experience with more pop than ‘TrueBlack 400’ would provide.

Some additional thoughts and points of comparison from the review conclusion:

– At ~$1100 USD (or ~£800) this model is neither cheap nor super expensive. It’s really in-line with some other recently released competitors and somewhat cheaper than some of the more premium priced offerings from ASUS.

– If you want to stick to QD-OLED, then I feel the improvements made to the screen surface and arguably HDR brightness are worth paying more for over the older models.

– In some regions you’ll find the AOC AGON Pro AG326UZD2 for a similar price to this one. In most respects the experience is very similar to the MSI, which is expected given it uses this same ‘Penta Tandem’ QD-OLED panel. And overall QD-OLED performance is generally quite consistent between brands.

– My main issue with the AOC is that it fails to use its gamut appropriately under HDR, with significant undercoverage and undersaturation issues which can’t be fully corrected.

– The MSI doesn’t have this issue. It also offers in my view a more premium ‘feel’ (so better build quality) and a more feature-rich OSD with some useful additions like the SLMB BFI mode, the AI Care Sensor and more configurable HDR.

– The AOC lacks an HDR configuration comparable to ‘EOTF Boost’ on the MSI, too.

– Something the AOC does have which the MSI doesn’t is integrated speakers, if that’s of interest to you.

– If you want to go the WOLED route, then I’d recommend considering the ASUS PG32UCWM (the larger brother of the 26.5” version we reviewed).

– At time of review this is around $300 USD more expensive and offers a bit of a different experience. The screen surface is ‘TrueBlack Glossy’, showcased in one of the linked videos in this review. This doesn’t ‘lighten up’ like QD-OLEDs in brighter lighting, but is more reflective.

– The PG32UCWM includes a ‘Frame Rate Boost’ option for 480Hz FHD, which some might find useful.

– It also has true RGB subpixels, which entirely eliminates fringing issues. As pointed out in the MSI review, the pixel density helps make most QD-OLED fringing unobtrusive to most people. But there’s still some remaining in places which you don’t get with that ASUS model.

– It offers impressively accurate EOTF tracking for higher APL (bright-dominant) scenes using its high brightness configuration for HDR, but does overbrighten some elements in darker scenes.

– Overall, I found the HDR accuracy a bit tighter on the ASUS WOLED than on the MSI model using its high brightness configuration. Unlike on the PG32UCWM, there’s moderate (with ‘EOTF boost’) or significant (with ‘Peak 1000 nits’) medium shade dimming in high APL scenes. ‘EOTF Boost’ will also brighten up medium shades somewhat in low APL scenes.

– With that said, the MSI can sustain higher peak luminance levels for various APL levels, so small highlights can ‘pop’ more. This allowed it to offer a VESA DisplayHDR 500 certified mode, which as I mentioned earlier I quite enjoyed using.

– It’s also got a more generous colour gamut for the green to blue edge, for a bit more vibrancy to some shades and better Adobe RGB and Rec. 2020 coverage.

– For people who are very picky about such things, the MSI also suffers less from ‘DSE’ (‘Dirty Screen Effect’) and offers superior off-angle white uniformity. Although I would stress that the ASUS was relatively good for a WOLED when it came to grey uniformity, even if it can’t quite match QD-OLEDs like the MSI.

– Really I think they’re both very capable monitors and there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had from either option. Given I enjoyed the experience I got from this ‘Penta Tandem’ QD-OLED panel on the AOC but felt it was held back by the HDR gamut issues, it’s only natural that I’d enjoy what the MSI offers given it fixes that issue.

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