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To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. Brightness and Contrast testing is covered on page two.
Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
The PG32UQX is part of an elite category of 4K resolution FALD monitors that can run at 144 Hz. In fact, we found only three others in our database: HP’s Omen X 65 Emerpium, Acer’s Predator X27 and Asus’ ROG Swift PG27UQ. To fill in the extra spaces, we’ve included the Asus ROG Swift PG43UQ and LG’s 27GN950 which are both 4K, 144 Hz screens with edge-array backlights, (a step down from FALD).
Asus rates the PG32UQX at 500 nits for SDR, and our sample easily exceeded that. For many, anything over 350 nits will be too bright, even in a sunlit room. If you use the variable backlight, you can turn up the brightness favorably because it'll only make highlight areas brighter, while decreasing the black level for greater contrast.
Without its variable backlight, the PG32UQX is a better than average IPS panel with just under 1,300:1 native contrast, an excellent result. We couldn’t calculate contrast with the variable backlight turned on because the black level was too low to measure. In practice though, having the variable backlight on did not clip shadow detail and was useable with all SDR content.
After Calibration to 200 nits
After calibration to 200 nits brightness (see our recommended settings on page 1), the PG32UQX is the best of the IPS panels here with a 0.1634-nit black level and 1,239.7:1 contrast. That’s one of the best results we’ve recorded for any IPS monitor.
ANSI contrast is similarly impressive at 1,163.3:1. Variable backlight doesn’t change the ANSI result but, as we said above, makes static contrast unmeasurable.
