Writing a review due to a rather strange lack of reviews out there for the PA32UCR-K. It blows my mind this particular model has not been reviewed more.
Anyway I grade HDR video and use a 13" M1 iPad Pro with XDR and a 14" MBP with XDR displays at 1600 nits. Wonderful HDR displays for grading but they are small. I didn't want to get an Apple Pro Display for $6,000 and have it limited in what it could connect to. So I took a chance n the Asus PA32UCR-K since there are very few comments on using it for HDR grading and editing.
The short: Buy this damn thing now!
The long: Buy this damn thing now! Seriously I could not have asked for a better compliment to my smaller XDR displays. the built in HDR standards, the HDR calibration, the 1200 nits, the 87% rec2020 color is all worth every single penny.
Sure it's not 1600 nits like my XDR displays but so far I find the Asus PA32UCR-K to sustain 1200 nits very well. Even way above 50% coverage I have not noticed the brightness dip down very much. It all depends how you hook it up. MacOS HDR mode is a bit non standard and seems to limit the display to about 700 nits. Maybe I'm doing something wrong yet. Hooking it up to a BMD video output device for a proper HDR signal however reaches the displays full potential. Even throwing a solid white color on the output and increasing the brightness looks like I'm sustaining about 1200 nits. I have not done a super accurate measurement yet and just eye balling what my scopes read until I no longer see it get brighter. Basically I'm super impressed. I also run both my XDR displays in 1000 nit DCI mode so if the Asus is in fact sustaining 100% 1000 nits thats a perfect match.
The color on the Asus PA32UCR-K is mind blowing. I'm seeing reds that are just not possible on any other display. Sad thing is I'm now limiting the Asus PA32UCR-K to HDR PQ DCI mode to match the P3 color of the XDR displays. Accuracy first.
Now the elephant in the room. The 576 local dimming zone blooming. Yeah so what. All mini LEDs bloom. Even my 2048 local dimming zone XDR displays. This topic is way over exaggerate and I find blooming a much smaller compromise than OLED. I'm frankly baffled so many think OLED is superior. Its not. Just because you have blooming doesn't mean you can't grade HDR. Anyone experienced should know what the black levels would really be and not be influenced by the blooming. Honestly I hardly notice it on either of my HDR displays. I have a lot of HDR displays as well. A Samsung 1500 nit 50" TV, A Vizio 500 nit 65" TV with 83% rec2020 color, Two XDR displays, Now the Asus 1200 nits display, a LG 32" 350 nit display and a small portable 400 nit 13" OLED. I hardly ever notice blooming compared to the OLED in any real life material. The only shots I ever see blooming are space scenes or Disney+ title screens on a solid black background with a lot of glow. The glow throws off the blooming. Anyway it's grossly over exaggerated. Yeah it's there but it takes a sliver of imagination and understanding to not let it get in the way. OLED has its own negative issues like crappy brightness and dimming of static content to reduce image retention and burn in. It's completely unpredictable and all over the place. Plus tone mapping down to 200 nits kills colors and values in skin and other normal ranges in video and I find that to be completely worthless for grading.
Dimming zones are kind of like megapixels as well and you need 4k the amount to really have a decent impact on the blooming. Even then it's there no matter what you do. 576 local dimming zones could divide the width of the screen into 24 zones. I say could because I don't know the exact shape of each zone on each display. I'm using simple math where it can be 24x24 zones. 1152 zones on the $3,400 Asus display is only 34x34 zones. While better and slightly smaller the blooming is still there. Even my 2048 zones XDR displays are only about 48x48 regions. Better yet but still clearly they're around the edges. Nothing will get rid of blooming. Even if Apple jumped up to over 8,000 local dimming zones (96x96) thats still clearly visible zones around bright objects on black. Even dividing a screen into 96 regions across still uses 40 pixels wide zones. Again thats much smaller but it's still there.
We always want as many zones as we can get but don't let the 1152 zone $3,400 Asus fool you into thinking it's worth 3x the cost of the 576 zone Asus PA32UCR-K. Don't get me wrong I would have loved the $3,400 model instead but I just couldn't justify that cost right now.
A few others thing missing from the highest end $3,400 Asus. 144hz vs 60hz. Yeah to some gamers thats a big deal. Personally I have always gamed at 60hz and I love it. Jedi Fallen Order, Diablo 3, Witcher 3 and too many other time sucks I'm guilty of to list all look great at 60p. Still I get it and some competitive games want 144hz. Honestly I would question using a grading display for that. Seriously get the Asus PA32UCR-K for grading and color critical work and a gaming 144hz 4k display for that. Wear out the cheaper display first and save the expensive display for what matters. Innocen makes some killer HDR 32" panels now that are still visually great but cost much less to game open and wear out vs $3,400.
The Asus PA32UCR-K also lacks Dolby Vision which was something I factored but honestly I'm perfectly fine working with HDR10 and, puke, HLG. Maybe someday I will specifically need Dolby Vision. I can still create Dolby Vision with a bit more guess work. For now I don't need it however so I'm fine spending 1/3 the amount. I personally find the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ situation a bit frustrating anyway. I prefer to stick with HDR10 as a universal standard.
The Accuracy compared to my XDR displays is stunning. Yes it works perfectly fine with MacOS. Those that say it does not do not know what they are doing or just hates Macs. It is the perfect complement to the XDR displays. This is also the only solution I know of to calibrate for HDR without buying special $2,000 software. That may not matter to casual users but it really matters to me. No I'm not talking about the crude manual HDR calibration tool Windows 11 has to set brightness an contrast. That does nothing for the color. Thats not even calibration. It's a contrast helper tool.I have used calibration hardware on displays for a long time and they are currently really limited in calibrating color for HDR. The hardware is capable but the software is greatly lacking. Plus using a computer profile for calibration is not always optimal and it's better to have the calibration on the display itself.
The Asus PA32UCR-K so far has been worth every single penny. Would gladly buy a second one its that good. I will likely hold off however and wait to see what we get in a few years or just get one of the new HDR models coming out of China at 144hz if I ever decide to get into higher FPS gaming. I really only need my video output display to have perfect HDR so I don't need a second one just yet.
One last point about the 4k vs Apple 6k. It doesn't bother me at all just like using a 4k 27" vs the 27" 5k iMacs. I use my 32" displays with Mac scaling at 3008 wide (6016) or essentially the same 6k as the Apple Pro Display. Don't believe the hype and myth that it impacts performance. It does not. Only like a 1% hit on resources. A frame buffer is designed to handle resizing with hardly any hit on the system. In terms of quality its stil retina. Maybe not 2x retina and more like 1.5x retina but still retina. The visual difference is almost non existent and totally worth spending $1,200 vs $6,000.
| Standing screen display size | 32 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 3840x2160 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 3840 x 2160 Pixels |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth, 801.11ac |
