Review Verdict: If you’re the type of gamer who has deep pockets and wants only the very best for your gaming PC, you shouldn’t look any further than the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM. Its insane refresh rates and immersive image quality will change your life, along with its steep price.
Pros
- Lots of RGB lighting
- High peak brightness
- Great image quality
- Insanely high refresh rate for a 4K monitor
- Lots of OLED panel care options
Cons
- Very expensive
- Stand takes up a lot of space
OLED monitors are becoming the rage for high-end gaming, which is only natural as these panels are typically brighter and have better overall image quality than traditional IPS and VA displays. But ROG being ROG isn’t happy with just providing a milk toast OLED display–they made a feature-packed monitor that’s hard to match.
ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM Review Philippines: Design
I’ve tested big displays before, but the sheer size of the 32-inch ROG OLED panel was a little overwhelming at first. Even after years of using a 32-inch ultrawide panel, the gigantic 32-inch 4K monitor had me reeling for the first day, not because of just how big it was, but how bright it was – more on this later.
Unfortunately, the ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM suffered from the same problems that other ROG monitors had before it. Aside from a borderline unpronounceable product name, the monitor also uses gigantic feet to stabilize it on your desk, which eats up a lot of real estate. It wasn’t a problem for me since my desk is fairly big, but for anyone who has a smaller workspace that might be a problem.
The ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM also uses a cyberpunk-ish design that’s been oozing into the brand’s other peripherals for a while now, complete with RGB lighting on the back (which won’t be seen if you use it against the wall like me) as well as a ROG logo that’s projected on your table.
You can turn them both off if you want, or you can sync the backlighting to your RGB setup via ASUS’ armory crate.
There are plenty of ports and connectors on the back, including two HDMI 2.1 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.4 connector, a Type-C port that can handle displays, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and an optical digital out for audio.
ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM Review Philippines: Performance and image quality
ASUS uses a QD-OLED panel made by Samsung to drive its phenomenal viewing experience. An OLED panel can control the brightness of each of its 8.2 million pixels individually. This is something that traditional IPS or VA panels can’t do, and the result is that the display can give you phenomenal black levels and dynamic range, which is why the monitor is VESA True Black 400 certified.
Because of the nature of the OLED panel, the ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM can display a wide array of colors accurately even in dark, challenging scenes.
Not only is it able to pump out impressive performance in dark scenes, it’s overall brightness is pretty insane as well. It’s able to hit a hair over 1000 nits in peak HDR brightness, which is insanely bright, but useful if your home setup has you setting up your gaming/work desk beside a window that lets in a lot of ambient light.
The rest of the features are equally as impressive. You get a 99% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, so you get accurate colors for professional work and a 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio for those silky blacks. This isn’t just a monitor for play – it can also double as a content-creation machine.
Speaking of play, the ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM is a gaming monitor first, so it’s also packed with an insane 240Hz refresh rate, along with a sub-1ms response time. There’s also NVIDIA G-Sync on tap, as well as AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, so gameplay is going to be silky smooth. You’ll need powerful hardware (maybe even an NVIDIA RTX 5090) to enjoy the ultra-high refresh rate on 4K, but if you’re already looking at buying this thing, it’s obvious that you have the cash to splurge.
Playing games on this thing is an event in itself. There is a huge change in the way the graphics look when you jump from an IPS or VA panel to an OLED one. It’s insane how visually engaging everything looks on an OLED panel once you make the jump.
One thing that OLED panels are known for is screen burn-in. That’s why ASUS has put in several features that’ll help prevent that problem. There’s a custom heat sink in the monitor to help dissipate heat, along with numerous vents at the back to circulate air. There’s also a graphene film that’s put right behind the panel to help draw away the heat that’s produced by the screen. The monitor also has a “pixel cleaning” function that occasionally pops up that’ll help detect and correct pixel degradation of the monitor, further extending service life. ASUS Philippines also offers a 3-year warranty for the panel, which includes damage caused by burn-in, so you’re covered for the first three years as far as burn-in is concerned.
ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM Review: wrap-up and final verdict
The ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM is probably one of the best monitors I’ve tried in a while, and if you have fairly deep pockets and want the best panel in your gaming rig, this is the way to go.
Unfortunately, those have to be very, very deep pockets – at Php 93,500, it’s very expensive for a display, but to be fair you need a beefy machine to enjoy all of the features it has to offer, especially the 240Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution. At that point, you’re already deep into high-end PC territory and the price of this panel probably won’t matter.
