Do you really need to flood your retinas with 500 nits of full-screen SDR brightness on a daily basis? This question gets to the heart of the new Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM. Because it’s painfully close to gaming monitor perfection, with one obvious limitation. Yes, full screen brightness.
To be frank, this new Asus OLED panel has no particular issues with full-screen brightness compared to other OLED monitors. It doesn’t advance the game by that measure. On the other hand, it definitely offers things that previous OLED monitors could not in terms of pixel density and resolution. This is the real 4K deal, all 240Hz. And it’s quite majestic.
Cherish this thought as we rev our engine through various speeds and progressions. So this is a 32-inch 4K monitor with Samsung’s latest QD-OLED panel technology. 4K bit means much higher pixel density than before, which requires a new inkjet printing method to manufacture the panel.
This new process doesn’t appear to affect the panel’s broader capabilities beyond pixel density. For example, it’s rated at the same 0.03ms response as previous QD-OLEDs, and 250 nits of full-screen brightness are transmitted just as well; 1,000 nits tops out for HDR brightness on very small windows and 99% of DCI is covered. -P3 color space.
In terms of connectivity, you get a KVM switch along with DisplayPort 1.4, a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports, and USB-C with 90W power delivery. Basically all your link bases are covered. It’s worth noting that a full 240Hz at 4K is only possible via DSC or Image Stream Compression, and theoretically adds to latency, but such a small amount doesn’t really matter (0.5 microseconds, in case you’re wondering).
Swift OLED PG32UCDM features
Screen size: 32 inch
Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160
Brightness: 250 nits full screen, 1,000 nits maximum HDR
Color coverage: 99% DCI-P3
Reaction time: 0.03ms
Refresh rate: 240Hz
HDR: DisplayHDR 400 True Black
Features: Samsung QD-OLED 3rd Gen panel, adaptive sync, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-C with 90W PD, KVM switch
Price: $1,299 | £1,349
As for other features, there is HDR400 certification, a dedicated cooler, uniform brightness mode, and various burn-in reduction measures such as pixel refresh and pixel shifting. By the way, as always with the latter, this requires overprovisioning of pixels, which slightly increases the visible size of the screen frames.
Not much of a deal breaker then, but if you’re expecting the edge-to-edge OLED feature you get on TVs, you’ll be disappointed here. You also don’t get an overly overgrown design.
Aesthetically, Asus’ ROG line of gaming peripherals looks a bit stuck around 10 years ago. This is a beautifully created display. But the sharp lines, RGB lighting and logos are all a bit new and outdated.
This is undoubtedly a good thing for some of the more affordable segments of the gaming market. But we’re talking about the $1,299 high-end monitor here. Slightly less cheesy surroundings probably wouldn’t hurt.
With all that being implicit, what’s it like to actually use this thing? The answer is mostly surprising. It’s a revelation to finally have an OLED desktop monitor with good pixel density, as opposed to a laptop or phone panel. It pretty much solves all those finicky font rendering problems that low-resolution OLED panels suffer from because of their weird subpixel layout.
It’s a revelation to finally have an OLED desktop monitor with good pixel density, as opposed to a laptop or phone panel.
This non-standard subpixel arrangement continues. But the density compensates for this to the extent that the sharpness of the text is almost the same as an RGB LCD with the same resolution and density.
This is really important because it means this is the first OLED panel that you can use versatilely without sacrificing font quality. Yes, if you look you can only see some fringes Really difficult. But you have to look very closely.
In other respects, this monitor looks almost identical to previous QD-OLED panels. And that’s a good thing. The colors are gorgeous, the HDR performance is absolutely stunning. The answer hits almost every LCD monitor.
And then there’s full-screen brightness. This is where things get a little more complicated. 250 nits is reasonable, in fact Asus’ own 34-inch panel is nearly identical to the latest OLED panels, including the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM. This is sufficient for most indoor users. But arguably only. If you’re using this monitor in an environment with really bright ambient lighting, you’ll sometimes feel like you want a little more pop.
But if there’s a more pressing issue with brightness, it’s more related to HDR gaming. When the scene is mostly dark with a mix of dark and light elements in a ratio of about 50:50, this monitor absolutely sizzles. In Cyberpunk 2077, for example, it renders neon lighting on a dark background as good or better than any monitor we’ve ever seen.
This is helped in part by the well-reviewed glossy finish, which highlights the OLED panel’s natural contrast without adding too much reflectivity. It’s a real visual thrill.
No LCD panel comes close to 0.03ms pixel response.
Where the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM is less convincing (an issue it shares with all OLED monitors to date) is in truly bright outdoor gaming scenes. In this scenario, limited full-screen brightness is quite obvious. Even a fairly basic 400 nits IPS monitor has this and every other OLED panel when it comes to rendering this type of image.
So, do you really want to slap your retinas with up to 400 nits of full-screen crackle every time you play a game on a bright outdoor scene? Is this really comfortable and sustainable?
It’s a tough decision. It’s safe to say that it would be better if this monitor at least gave you the option to do this. The absence of this ensures that this is not a great all-round gaming monitor.
FYI, this OLED panel also handles SDR content perfectly in HDR mode. So you can always run it in HDR mode with SDR brightness turned on in the Windows Display Settings tool. You don’t need to always switch between SDR and HDR mode in Windows depending on the content you’re watching or playing.
When it comes to response and delay, few will be disappointed. Yes, there are monitors with higher refresh rates. But no LCD panel can come close to 0.03ms pixel response. Moreover, if you want to game at 500Hz, you won’t be in the market for any 4K panel.
This thing is slick enough and fast enough for 99% of players. The only real issue in this regard is that you’ll need the megabucks Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU to really get the most out of the 4K at 240Hz combo.
By the way, if you’re wondering whether this new class of QD-OLED panels have the same internal reflectance issues as other QD-OLED panels, they do. So yes, it can look a little gray when there is a lot of ambient light. But most of the time, if you’re in a dark room, this is almost no problem. For me this is totally okay.
If you buy…
✅ You want an OLED experience with high pixel density: This is the first 4K OLED we’ve experienced and it certainly doesn’t disappoint.
Do not buy if…
❌ You want really high full screen brightness: Like all other OLED monitors, full-screen brightness remains a slight weakness.
Overall, this is a terribly desirable gaming monitor. Once you try it, it spoils you when it comes to LCD panels. Perfect illumination per pixel and amazing HDR performance, incredible response time, essentially infinite viewing angles; By comparison, all LCD monitors are a bit bulky.
In fact, it’s little things like having black bars at the top and bottom of the movies and the feeling of absolutely uniform image quality across the panel that makes this monitor feel very modern, and LCD monitors seem a bit dated in comparison.
The Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM is therefore not perfect, but as a general recommendation it’s probably closer than previous monitors. Only its high price and the knowledge that even better OLED panel technology is almost certain to emerge in the coming years prevent this from being a complete no-brainer and a must-buy. But if you’re looking for an outstanding 4K gaming monitor right now, this is it.