Asus ROG PG32UQX gaming monitor review – Screen Queen

A good monitor can be a seismic shift in how you play PC–or even console–games, and right now there’s no shortage of attractive flatscreens out there to pop on your desk for some high-resolution bliss. Most people will settle for a decent 2560 x 1440 monitor, like the superb LG UltraGear 32GN600. What if you wanted more though, technology that could take full advantage of that new Nvidia graphics card that you just barely acquired by beating back a legion of shopping bots to obtain?

That’s where a slab of 4K visual delight enters the picture, with the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX being a stunning screen on which to consume media and make your games pop with its sharp output. The only downside? All of that clarity comes at an eyewatering price, but when you see this screen in action, you can understand why it’s on par with OLED TV pricing.

Specs

• Screen size: 32-inch
• Panel: IPS Mini-LED
• Native resolution: 3840 x 2160
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Refresh rate: 144 Hz
• Response time: 4 ms
• HDR: VESA DisplayHDR 1400
• Video Inputs: DisplayPort 1.4, 3x HDMI 2.0

Out of the box, you’ve got a monitor that’s screams gamer, as the rear of the device sports a techno-organic splash of strong lines, the Asus logo, and a stand that looks like it can double for a background prop on Star Trek. It’s always weird to see this much effort put into a side of the monitor that most people will never see, but you’ve got to admire the effort here.  There’s a solid array of ports here, with three HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 inputs to jack a PC and several consoles into, while the controls for this monitor are activated via a delightfully clicky dial on the bottom.

The lack of HDMI 2.1 though, feels like a major missed opportunity for Asus. With a monitor packing this much forward-thinking hardware grunt into its design, the absence of a more modern input standard feels like a major caveat to consider.

Asus also included what it calls a LiveDash display, which gives you information on how your PC is running and various other numbers, and while it’s neat, it’s not something that I could see myself using too often. There’s even an RGB light projector that displays an image on your desk for…reasons and it’s it’s nice to have for when you want it. Rather have a useful gimmick available at the right time than be without one, right?

As for the actual panel, Asus has designed it to make use of Mini-LEDs, absolutely minute bulbs of light that can offer more precise control over an image’s light and dark zones to simulate more natural blacks and eye-blinding whites with full-array local dimming. Every color between those two extremes is simply outstanding, vibrant and punchy blasts of life from across the entire spectrum that remain accurate yet natural depending on what you’re looking at.

The only real downside to this technology is that you won’t get OLED-level blacks and some elements will a case of haloing around them, but these are minor gripes when compared to the overall package of jaw-dropping beauty. Media creators will get a kick out of this monitor, as it features 10-bit colour with 160% Adobe sRGB coverage and 98% DCI-P3 wide color with a Delta E<2. I don’t even understand half of what I wrote in that last sentence because I rely on my eyes too much, but according to a friend of mine who does graphic design, “hot damn that’s good.”

My own testing with the monitor provided me visual entertainment and a range of colourful imagery that’s usually reserved for my annual acid-trip, as I threw my usual selection of PC games at this beast of a display. Batman: Arkham Knight, Gears 5, Forza Horizon 5, and Control all looked fantastic, but what of the console gamer? It’s a bit of a mixed bag on this front, as I hooked up both my PS5 and Xbox Series X to the Asus monitor.

The experience was definitely better on Xbox Series X, as that console played well with the monitor’s VRR and Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate. Forza Horizon 5, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Doom Eternal ran like a dream, but on PS5 I did have some screen-tearing issues to deal with. Far Cry 6, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift part made good use of the Asus display’s color and sharp pixels, but it wasn’t quite on par with what the Xbox Series X could pull from that monitor.

The Asus ROG PG32UQX is easily one of the best monitors I’ve ever used for PC gaming, as well as Xbox Series X. It’s also admittedly beyond the realm of the average gamer with its $3,000 price tag–I’ll update this post once I have some local pricing on it but prepare to tighten your financial sphincter on that final number–but the Mini-LED technology is a fine alternative for anyone who’s pining for an OLED gaming monitor.

A gorgeous slab of high-resolution gaming that packs a colourful punch, the Asus ROG PG32UQX monitor is one of the best displays that you can own right now for PC gaming…if you can afford it.