Monoprice 33822 QHD, 144Hz Gaming Monitor Review: A 32-Inch Steal

Features and Specifications

Monoprice may not be the first brand that comes to mind when you are buying gaming monitors, but it has turned out some solid performers. The $400 (£270) Monoprice 33822 is a 32-inch, frameless, QHD resolution (2560 x 1440) display with an aluminum chassis and ultra-thin bezels, a 144Hz refresh rate and FreeSync. That’s all wrapped in a high-contrast VA panel supplied by Samsung.

The 32-inch QHD is a no-frills design that offers high style, a solid build and the performance gamers want. FreeSync is supported through its HDMI and DisplayPorts up to a maximum of 144Hz without overclocking.

The backlight employs a quantum dot film, which should mean a wider color gamut, but, in our tests it only went as far as sRGB. Its color is reasonably accurate out of the box, and image has excellent contrast and good clarity. Pixel density is reasonable at 93ppi, which means you won’t see the dots unless you sit very close.

As a gaming monitor, it checks the fundamental boxes, and at this price, it’s one of the least-expensive 32-inch monitors out there. All that’s left now is to see if it measures up. Let’s take a look.

Specifications

Unpacking & Accessories

The 33822 ships in three pieces you assemble with seven included screws and rudimentary screwdriver. After mating the solid-aluminum base with the upright, the assembly attaches to the panel at its 100mm VESA mount point. Despite the super-slim form factor, the power supply is internal, so the package includes an IEC power cord, along with a DisplayPort cable. 

Product 360

Image 1 of 3

The 32-inch QHD is visually striking with flush-mounted bezels and dark gray trim. The strip across the bottom is plastic, and the panel’s back piece is aluminum. Internal components are in a bulge around back, which makes the upper part of the panel less than 0.25 inch thick. It’s almost OLED-thin. The anti-glare layer is very aggressive and a tad thicker than most, making the picture merely sharp, rather than very sharp. It’s so subtle that you’d have to compare it with another monitor side-by-side to notice the difference.

The mounting hinge is small and a bit wobbly. However, the rest of the stand is solid. Adjustments include portrait mode, 5.5 inches of height, 35 degrees swivel in each direction and 20 degrees back tilt. Movements feel firm.

There are six buttons on the back’s right side. The bottom one is a power toggle and feels exactly like the other five, so you’ll have to train yourself not to press it accidentally. Clicking a key brings up a quick menu that doesn’t line up with the buttons. This is slightly irritating, but we got the hang of it after a little while. Though the menu is extensive, you won’t need to use it much because the 33822 looks pretty good out of the box.

Inputs are two DisplayPort 1.2 (including one Mini) and two HDMI 2.0 connectors. Each will accept the monitor’s full resolution at 144Hz with FreeSync. There are no built-in speakers, but there’s a headphone jack and volume control in the on-screen display (OSD). There are no USB ports.

OSD Features

Though the panel is made by Samsung, the OSD is reminiscent of a few ViewSonic monitors we’ve reviewed. At any rate, there are more than enough features here to keep tweakers happy. There are seven picture modes, each with its own set of adjustments. The Game mode, for example, has three sub-memories you can program for different game types. We stuck with the default Standard mode, which leaves all tweaking options available and offers decent accuracy.

The Color Adjust menu doesn’t have any gamma presets. This is a shame because our tests showed image to be a little light. That, in turn, affects color saturation, which could be a little better (we improved that a little in calibration, which we’ll cover shortly).

The only other options you’ll need to address are Adaptive Sync, which must be turned on manually to use FreeSync, and Response Time. You’ll want to set Response Time to Fast. Fastest produces a good deal of ghosting. The rest of the OSD can be left alone. You’ll get a great image with little-to-no fiddling.

Setup and Calibration

After checking out all the picture modes, we determined that Standard was the best one for both out-of-box accuracy and calibration. Interestingly, when we chose the User color temp to unlock the RGB sliders, brightness increased 10 percent. Contrast also improved a little. Gamma tracked  a bit light, but there were no presets available to make it better. This is a minor error, but a darker luminance curve would have improved color saturation, which is merely good. We’ll show you more detail in our tests on page three.

Here are the settings we used:

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test Monitors

MORE: All Monitor Content