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Brightness and Contrast

To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

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Asus ProArt PA32UCDM — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The PA32UCDM is an exceptionally bright monitor among OLEDs with a 1,000-nit capability. This can be measured using a 3% window pattern. I use 25% and was able to see over 706 nits, so Asus’ claim tracks. This is with Uniform Brightness turned off in the Natural preset. Otherwise, the peak is around 250 nits which is plenty of output for SDR content in a moderately lit indoor environment. Like any OLED, black levels and contrast cannot be measured.

After Calibration to 200 nits

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The brightness slider has 400 possible settings and suggests that its value will match the actual output level. It’s close but not quite. I found it was offset by 11 to 84 clicks, depending on where in the range it was set. With Uniform Brightness on, 284 was right at 200 nits. Each click is less than 1 nit so it’s possible to dial in very precise levels. Black level and contrast measurements were not possible for either static or ANSI (intra-image) values.

Test Takeaway: The PA32UCDM adds flexibility with its Uniform Brightness toggle feature. For SDR and workday content, the 250-nit peak is plenty of light. For video and HDR material, 1,000-nit peaks mean lots of dynamics and punch to the image. It’s great for gaming and movie watching.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

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Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

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6 Comments Comment from the forums

Geef

You've convinced me! I'm gonna buy one... just as soon as I win the lottery.
Reply
JTWrenn

No Displayport? That's just weird to me.
Reply
qwertymac93

Is it possible to use a usb-c to display port adapter backwards to plug in a graphics card to the monitor? A single HDMI input and no display port is a real PITA for those of us with normal graphics cards that also want to plug in a gaming console.
Reply
gamer_jim

I've read the gaming sections of this review twice. I bought a new PC for Lightroom and flight Sim 2024, Hunt Showdown and Age of Empires with a 9800x3d and 5080.

I'm wanting a monitor to photo edit (hobby enthusiast) and game.

Given adaptive sync cuts at 120hz but I may able to achieve above this. Will I get screen tearing or any issues. I've only ever known my 165hz 27" that supports gsync to the refresh rate limit of the monitor.

Is this something they can update with firmware. Guessing it's a limit of the HDMI port.....wish they included display port.

Basically should I buy this or get something like the Gigabyte Aorus fo32u2p or PG32UCDM??
Reply
oofdragon

No bling advert.. coff review will shake the fact this product is a utterly fail at this price point. No monitor justify costing more than a grand, even $600 for every other 32 inch OLED is kind of too much already. And you know, 32 inch is such a dumb size l, c'mon. It's 27 for 2k and 40 for 4k, in between is dumb. Just give it another resolution if you want to sell it at 32
Reply
gamer_jim

gamer_jim said:
I've read the gaming sections of this review twice. I bought a new PC for Lightroom and flight Sim 2024, Hunt Showdown and Age of Empires with a 9800x3d and 5080.

I'm wanting a monitor to photo edit (hobby enthusiast) and game.

Given adaptive sync cuts at 120hz but I may able to achieve above this. Will I get screen tearing or any issues. I've only ever known my 165hz 27" that supports gsync to the refresh rate limit of the monitor.

Is this something they can update with firmware. Guessing it's a limit of the HDMI port.....wish they included display port.

Basically should I buy this or get something like the Gigabyte Aorus fo32u2p or PG32UCDM??
Thought I'd come back and say I decided not to go with this screen and Bought the Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P which RTINGS had as a great gaming and photography monitor.

Asus did a big fail not making this a proper use for color critical workers who also game in the offline at home. All they had to do was add DP1.4 (or 2.1) and add features from their 32" PG32xxxx gaming line and it would have been a home run.

Asus support on the phone told me VRR 120Hz cap is a hardware limit and won't be able to go to 240hz in future firmware updates.

Plenty of us gamer dads are willing to pay slightly more for something not so RGB crazy in their office. Hopefully in the future they add a DP port and VRR through to the max frame rate of the monitor.
Reply