In recent years Asus has accustomed us to continuous innovations in the field of PC monitors. Obviously we refer to the consumer segment, in the professional sector monitors with incredible but also very expensive specifications are available. Here's why this ProArt PA32UCX manages to stand out from the crowd, offering features superior to those of any monitor we have tried so far, all at a high price, of about € 3000, but aligned with direct competitors in the sector, if not lower.
ProArt is in fact the Asus brand born to meet the needs of creators, a demanding user who needs monitors calibrated to the point to work at their best. The choice of LCD technology instead of OLED, which remains the most used in the sector, should not be surprising. A normal Full LED backlight was not enough to push performance to the max, that's why Asus has focused on Mini LEDs, currently the most advanced technology in this area and which works perfectly on this product.
Design
The peculiarity of the ProArt PA32UCX is already understood from the bundle, which includes an XRite i1 DisplayPro probe. As we will see, the panel is excellently calibrated from the factory, but if you want to get even closer to the reference values, further calibration is necessary, even if totally optional. Together with this we find all the cables necessary for installation and a cover for the monitor (monitor hood), to avoid reflections during use.
The PA32UCX is designed for professionals, it does well in any context but its target requires a certain sobriety. Forget the lines seen in the ROG monitors, in this case it is minimalism that takes over. Seen from the front, the wide support base can be seen, which also guarantees excellent mobility of the panel, adjustable in different directions (also vertically), and the frames, thin enough. Moving to the side you immediately understand that you are not in front of a common LCD monitor, the thickness is in fact almost 6 cm. The use of Mini LEDs requires space, this explains the reason for the above average thickness.
On the back the metal pedestal is clearly visible, elegant and with a particular design, complete with a cable gland for a better organization of the spaces. All the inputs are located in the lower part where there are 4 USB 3.0, 1 DisplayPort 1.2, 3 HDMI 2.0 and finally Thunderbolt input and output.
Also on the back, on the right side, there are four buttons for navigating the menus, convenient thanks to the small analog stick, which facilitates use. The build quality is good, with the use of metal and plastics of fair quality, but not exceptional, probably to keep costs lower.
A concentrate of technology
The ProArt PA32UCX has a 32-inch diagonal in 16: 9 and a 4K resolution, with a maximum refresh rate of 60 Hz. The panel is of type 10-bit AHVA-IPS with Quantum Dot technology, essential to achieve adequate coverage of the different color spaces available. Speaking of color space, there are all the standards most used by professionals: in fact we find sRGB (100%), Adobe RGB (99.5%), DCI-P3 (99%), Rec.709 (100%) and also Rec. 2020 (89%). This versatility in the management of color spaces is important, under this front it is difficult to find better. Full compatibility is offered with the most important formats, such as HDR10, HLG and even Dolby Vision, the first time we see it in a screen for the consumer market.
Incredible peak brightness, which can reach 600 nits in SDR and i 1200 nits with active HDR. This is possible thanks to the Mini LEDs installed inside it and to the 1152 zones that can be managed individually by Local Dimming, which also allow for an exceptional level of contrast.
No calibration is needed
The high cost of the ProArt PA32UCX is not only justified by its technical specifications, but also by a practically perfect calibration performed directly at the factory. You can proceed with a further calibration that would improve the result, but is recommended only for the most demanding professionals. The discrepancy of the reference values is minimal so much so that the calibration, performed with DisplayCal in the first instance and HCFR to verify the results obtained, is very simple, it takes just a few steps to get even closer to the reference values.
With the REC.709 color space we have achieved a dE on the color of only 0.3, while the gray scale values have an average dE of 0.5. Also impressive is the coverage of the Rec.2020 color space, which we had never observed in a monitor so far, which comes very close to 89% declared Asus. In simple terms, the ProArt PA32UCX offers performance suitable for professional use already out-of-the-box, which can be further improved thanks to the calibration probe inserted in the sales package.
Needless to say, in practice this translates into a simply exceptional rendering of any type of content, especially from high quality sources, such as an Ultra HD Blu Ray, with which to also take advantage of the compatibility with the Dolby Vision standard, unique in the PC panorama. Even in gaming, the performance is excellent, the only limit is the 60 Hz refresh rate, but remember that the ProArt is not designed for this use.
Despite this, the contrast offered by the Mini LED backlight and the absence of the typical defects of the LCD panels, such as backlight bleeding, makes the vision superior to that offered by a common PC monitor. Instead we observed the presence of a slight blooming effect, barely noticeable if you look at the monitor from the front and more accentuated by looking at it from the side, but nothing that can ruin the excellent work done by Asus.
