[JohnE]

I currently have the Asus VG28UQL1A, I like it but I think I want something new when the 4080 comes out.
Do you know of any new Asus 4K gaming monitors on the horizon that you think will be an upgrade over this one?

[PCM2]

See for yourself, we cover all the latest ASUS models of that nature on the site. At the moment the only interesting ASUS ‘4K’ model announced but not yet released is the PG32UQXE. Really you have to ask yourself why you want to upgrade and which aspects you like and dislike about your current monitor.

You should consider expanding your horizons beyond a single manufacturer if you really want a model of similar size but potentially superior capabilities, with the CoolerMaster GP27-FUS probably being the most interesting model of similar size at the moment. It is also priced very attractively for the specs on offer – I’d expect to see ASUS adopt that panel or something similar at some point, but I’d expect it to fetch a bit of a premium as well.

[EsaT]

FALD/Mini LED backlight for actual local dimming would be one upgradable thing if you have the money.
(which you likely have considering GPU prices)

And colour gamut of your current Asus isn’t really wide not even covering DCI-P3.
Also AdobeRGB covering monitors would have deeper green/cyan shades.
(=foliage/vegetation, sky and water in games)

Anyway no sense to stick to single brand.
They’re all after your butt and wallet and would like nothing more than charging brand extras.

Though at that size there really isn’t much of higher up monitor selection with high end panels mostly aiming 32″ size.
That Coolermaster would be one of the few high end models.

[kaneda]

What you guys think about the Msi 321ur qd and the Gigabyte M32u? on paper the look good for content creation and gaming/ps5?

[PCM2]

Hi again kaneda,

In general we recommend the M32U (via the ‘recommended badge’ in the review and also the dedicated gaming recommendations section) as we’ve reviewed it and feel it offers good all-round performance at a very reasonable price. A relevant post is also linked to there which compares the M32U to the MPG321UR-QD or those sharing its panel (AUO M320QAN02.3). The main thing to bear in mind in the comparison, really, is that the Gigabyte has faster pixel responses. Whereas the MSI has a wider gamut, offering superior Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 coverage. Depending on the colour space you wish to work in, that may make it more suitable and flexible for content creation. The superior gamut and higher brightness also provides a better HDR experience, but neither model delivers an amazing HDR experience. And some would prefer the extra vibrancy under SDR as well, whereas others would prefer the ‘less oversaturated’ but still quite vibrant look the M32U delivers with its native gamut.

I’d also add that the MSI has the more solidly built stand (the Gigabyte’s stand base feels quite ‘plasticky’ as I note in the review, but that may not bother you unless you like to tap it a lot 😉 ). The MSI provides full bandwidth HDMI 2.1 (48 Gbps) without relying on DSC, which means the PS5 can use the its full ‘4:4:4’ colour signal instead of ‘4:2:0’. Though as I note in the Gigabte review with respect to this ‘4:2:0’ signal: “In practice this works very well for ‘4K’ gaming or movie content with minimal visual impact in either SDR or HDR. Many people would struggle to see a difference even with a direct side by side comparison, so it isn’t something we’d worry about. But we appreciate some people would ideally like to be able to leverage the full capability of their system without a reduced chroma signal.”

[EsaT]

Content creation would benefit from actually wide gamut instead of semi-wide.
In photography AdobeRGB is important, because it covers that cyan part of usual CMYK print colours.

Also green is the colour of foliage and vegetation with cyan in sky/water affecting lot to how vibrant many games look.
Innolux panel of Gigabyte falls clearly short even from overhyped DCI-P3 and extends only little over sRGB in greens/cyan.
Of course if games are those with black-brown-grey colour palette like some Doom III, there’s no real difference…

I’ve myself used very high AdobeRGB coverage monitor for over dozen years and definitely wouldn’t go back to sRGB greens in gaming.
If I want to see dull colours, look outside cures that most of the year, with in cloydy days gray scale and hint of brown colours for over half the year.
(in December not even that with sunrise 1½h after going to work and sunset nearly hour before work ends)

Though for faster paced gaming AUO’s panel is in disadvantage with slower response times.
While Innolux failed to give a damn about achieving actually wide gamut, AUO again used some five years old LCD layer in that panel.
Monitors with AUO’s latest tech panel are only coming out now.
But those are also going to be clearly more expensive, because of real local dimming giving mini LED FALD backlight.
All these edge illuminated models are basically complete BS for local dimming and good only for some left side white, right side black split test image.
Still even FALD backlight is compromise needing carefull control of brightness to keep halos around sharp edged bright objects under control.

As for PS5 use you would ideally want true HDMI 2.1 monitor.
For some inexplicable reason PS5 lacks DSC.
And bandwidth of these half assed really HDMI 2+ ports isn’t enough for above 60Hz 3840×2160 without use of some kind compression.
That forces PS5 to use very lossy chroma subsampling, which throws away lots of colour information.
While it doesn’t show in smoother colour changes/slides, it affects sharp line graphics and text.
Especially some coloured lines on coloured background can get wrecked badly.

[kaneda]

Thank you both for your responses, I still waiting for my “blue prince” I was going to get the asus PA329c but to many bad reviews, so I found this 2, or maybe wait till the new minileds come out, I can pass of the gaming, I have a qled tv for that, but I will like to have a ok monitor around 700$/1k for photo/video, I not a pro.

[PCM2]

Honestly, I think the MPG321UR QD would be fine for that. And to be clear, some people would also find it perfectly responsive for gaming. It isn’t as bad as the PG32UQX, for example, which some also find fine for gaming. It’s all very subjective. And it’s certainly a capable monitor in terms of its gamut, which gives a lot of flexibility for content creation. Mini LED solutions, unless they have an absolutely massive number of dimming zones (beyond current models), are not ideal for static content creation as they just don’t offer sufficient luminance precision. It affects shade representation and effectively adds ‘noise’ to the image, so you’d likely want to disable the local dimming anyway when editing photos or creations that are sensitive to that sort of thing.

[EsaT]

For “photoshopping” any kind local dimming is indeed bad thing:
It makes same RGB value pixels have different brightness depending on what’s around it.
Hence it should be either uniform backlight, or self emissive pixels in that use.

[momita]

G’day everyone.

New to this forum. I’m a photographer who likes to game.

On the hunt for a 27″ monitor which has a good adobe 98 coverage.

I’m currently playing cod warzone via xbox series x on my 65″ c1 but want to go to a keyboard and mouse. Once I upgrade my computer I’ll most likely just game on the pc.

Forgot to mention I do want it to look nice and be nice and solid.

I do a lot.of photoshop work and have a budget of under 1k aud. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[PCM2]

G’day momita and welcome,

Current 27″ gaming-oriented ‘4K’ models go for strong DCI-P3 coverage if anything, but often miss out on strong Adobe RGB coverage. The notable exceptions would be those with Quantum Dot Mini LED backlights which are not yet available (Cooler Master GP27-FUS and Acer X27 S ). They’d also be beyond your budget and as noted earlier in this thread the local dimming is not attractive for photo editing, so you’d disable it for that anyway. You could perhaps look at an older model and possibly buy used, the PG27UQ for example. Or consider dropping to the 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) resolution or upping the screen size to ~32″ so suitable options are available.

[momita]

What would be my best 2k resolution option?

[PCM2]

The best WQHD options (please avoid the term ‘2K’, it’s inaccurate and undersells the resolution) would be either of these two at 240Hz or the original Gigabyte M27Q as a cheaper 170Hz alternative. I feel the 240Hz options are probably worth paying the extra for as the Adobe RGB coverage is slightly higher, they have regular RGB subpixels and the pixel responsiveness is better. Plus the original M27Q seems to have gone AWOL in some markets, perhaps pending release of the mysterious ‘Rev 2.0’.

[momita]

Msi mag274qrf?

[PCM2]

The MAG274QRF-QD offers excellent Adobe RGB coverage so would be a strong contender, depending on price. The gamma calibration isn’t great, I’d strongly advise calibration with a colorimeter or similar device to correct that (relevant thread). The MAG274QRF (without QD) does not offer good Adobe RGB coverage so shouldn’t be a consideration for you.

[planarray]

Recently I purchased/tried a few 4k monitors and found out they displayed a more warm/yellowish white.
I did tried using different colour modes but it still remain the same. Cool modes didn’t change much.
I noticed that the coating is much lighter than my old IPS QHD monitor. With a grainier surface white was more white.
Dell P3222QE yellow, LG panel?
Gigabyte M32U yellow, Innolux panel
Dell G3223Q yellow, AUO panel
This monitors use the low blue light panels.
I read the manuals and we can see this note: The Monitor uses Low Blue Light panel and is compliant with TÜV Rheinland (Hardware Solution) at factory reset or default setting. This always on, built-in low blue light solution reduces hazardous blue light emissions, without sacrificing true-to-life colors.
As we can’t turn off this “feature” what can we do? Everything is more yellow, I needed to tweak red and green down a lot to have more blue.
What IPS options are available under 550 euros?

[PCM2]

Monitors which are certified by TÜV Rheinland as having a ‘Hardware Solution’ for Low Blue Light (LBL) have a shifted blue peak, which is less energetic. As there is technically less blue energy at a given white point relative to a monitor with similar colour gamut and WLED backlight solution, the model with shifted blue peak would look appear to have a warm or slightly yellow tint as you describe. Equally, you could say that the other monitor has a relatively ‘icy’ or cool tint in comparison. Even if they’re both calibrated to the same white point, these natural differences in their spectral output will mean they appear quite different in overall colour temperature or tint. It isn’t really that one is ‘right’ and one is ‘wrong’ – they’re just different. And you’ve become accustomed to how things look on a monitor or monitors with rather different spectral profiles. If your existing screens aren’t properly calibrated to 6500K or below, you may also have become used to an overly ‘cool’ tint regardless of the natural spectral quality.

This isn’t unique to such models, either- there are a diverse range of monitor light sources used with differing spectral profiles and you really need to consider each monitor in isolation. Matching them up exactly can be challenging. You can compensate for this to an extent with colour channel adjustments, but if you don’t need to use the screen side by side with another which is very spectrally different then it might be the case of giving your eyes (and brain) time to adjust. And understanding that what you’d become accustomed to wasn’t necessarily ‘correct’ and therefore trying to match that is pointless. By all means adjust colour channels according to taste, but don’t go crazy with such adjustments – you’ll be harming contrast in doing so.

As for models which avoid such a backlight and are available within your budget, refer to the recommendation section. The BenQ EW3280U and LG 32UN650 are two ~32″ IPS examples which don’t have that kind of spectral profile. That doesn’t guarantee they’ll look like your other earlier display(s) that you’ve become used to, however.

[Jeffrey]

Like so many readers here, I really appreciate the work you do reviewing and explaining. Thank you. Perhaps unlike many readers, after having spent perhaps waaay too much time reading, I’m not sure how much I ACTUALLY understand given my particular situation. . . which may not be that unusual. Currently thinking: VA, 32″, 4k, and I’ve become open to curved given your inclusion of the Philips 328E1CA in multiple “Recommendations”. The particulars: general home PC, only me 60-80cm – no pivot or up down required, emails, spreadsheets, Youtube, basic drawing and photo editing, Netflix drama (not action) movies, no gaming, some daytime room light. I sometimes watch Youtube reruns of competitive tennis; it would be nice to be able to see the ball. I’ll be using exterior speakers currently fed directly from my Acer Desktop Aspire TC-895-UA92 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10400, Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630(integrated/on board) . with 1 – USB 3.2 Type C Gen 1 port (up to 5 Gbps); 5 – USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports ; 2 – USB 2.0 Ports (Rear); 2 – HDMI Ports.

1. I wonder that the 328E1CA is so many years old now and has not been surpassed by earlier models? But I’m 73 years old and pretty good myself.
2. If I go with the 328E1CA, am I better off figuring out Display Port, or is HDMI as good?
3. There’s also a couple recent negative Amazon reviews about quality control and changes in the base panel. Perhaps that’s just due to inevitable variations in the production/shipping lottery.
4. I was expecting to pay a lot more than the current $299 US, but I’d be happy to send my surplus for medical relief in Ukraine. Or pay $400-500 for something enough better (that I could actually SEE with my old eyes) than the 328E1CA and still send some money to Ukraine.

Your thoughts, and yes, I’ll definitely buy through your site.

[PCM2]

Hi Jeffrey and welcome,

I do indeed still recommend the 328E1CA for its all-round performance and haven’t been compelled to switch it out for any ‘comparable but better’ product. Because as far as I’m aware, there isn’t one. The monitor is getting on a bit, but as you know age doesn’t have to be a bad thing. There haven’t been any positive developments when it comes to ~32″ 60Hz ‘4K’ VA panels since our review of the Philips was published. There are more flat alternatives now, such as the Dell SE3223Q, but I see this as an alternative for those who dislike curved screens rather than a ‘better’ product. The attention from the manufacturers has largely gone towards higher refresh rate alternatives such as the Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 we recently reviewed. Obviously a very different price and product position so not an apples to apples comparison. But just to highlight where the panel manufacturers have spent their energy and other resources recently. So no, I don’t really see the need for you to spend more than ~$300 USD as the monitor is currently priced at. 🙂

Speaking of panel manufacturers, Samsung (who manufactured the panel for the 328E1CA we reviewed) no longer manufactures any LCD panels. So this and various other products now use alternative panels, mainly from manufacturer CSOT who has taken on Samsung’s ‘recipes’ for these LCD panels and continued production from their own factories. This switchover started late 2020 and monitors manufactured 2021 that originally had a Samsung panel no longer use one. This applies to newer models as well, naturally. But in this sense you could say the 328E1CA has been ‘refreshed’ so isn’t such an old product after all? I must admit I don’t have experience with the new version of the monitor, but I have received a bit of feedback from people who have purchased one relatively recently – with the new panel. And they do feel the sort of experience shared in the review strongly applies.

Unfortunately people are far more willing to share negative rather than positive feedback on Amazon. When people say things such as “blacks look grey” or things look obviously washed out or red looks orange etc. it’s usually because they haven’t corrected the colour signal. This mainly applies to Nvidia GPUs – I’m not sure if it is still a potential issue on the Intel side. But it’s amazing how often this catches people out. Having looked through feedback on Amazon on other websites for many products, I don’t get the sense the Philips is any worse than average. Perhaps that’s a damning endorsement for the state of monitor ‘Quality Control’ in general, but sadly that’s how things stand. Still, do remember that for every negative review you see posted there are probably 3 or more people with positive experiences who didn’t feel compelled to share them. I also monitor returns for products purchased through our links (I appreciate you wanting to support the website, by the way) and haven’t seen anything alarming with the Philips. It’s something I continue to monitor, along with user feedback, but as it stands at the moment it’s still a model I recommend.

[Jeffrey]

Thanks for your thorough reply. I went immediately to Amazon this morning and they’re out-of-stock. Ugh. I can wait. Do you have any idea how long it will take to get more stock? I also looked in the Amazon Phillips “store” where they are listed for $355, not yesterday’s $299.
Anticipating it’s arrival someday, am I better off figuring out Display Port, or is HDMI as good? As mentioned above I’ll be using my Acer Desktop Aspire TC-895-UA92 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10400, Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630(integrated/on board) . with 1 – USB 3.2 Type C Gen 1 port (up to 5 Gbps); 5 – USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports. The PC currently feeds my exterior speakers directly.

[Author]

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