Without getting bogged down in the debate between conventional 16:9 screens and the ultrawide alternative, gaming on a 32-inch 4K OLED has to be up there as one of the very finest experiences currently available. And now it's yours for just $709 from Newegg. Yup, it's a Gigabyte model, the Gigabyte AORUS FO32U. How Gigabyte does it we don't know, but it is so often the best value of the big gaming monitor brands.
It's based on the familiar Samsung QD-OLED panel, like Samsung's own Odyssey G8, which means you're not compromising on screen tech compared with the countless alternatives using the same panel. Well, you're not save for one detail. This is a 165 Hz monitor, where many, perhaps most, 32-inch 4K QD-OLEDs are 240 Hz.
Now, given this is a 4K display and driving it at 165 fps is going to be quite the task for most GPUs, you could argue that the uptick to 240 Hz will mostly be academic. But if you do need the full 240 Hz, hang in there, we have a solution.
Refresh aside, you get the same ridiculously quick 0.03ms response, plus 99% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut as more expensive alternatives. QD-OLED tech is also, arguably, a little punchier than LG's competing WOLED in the real world. Full-screen brightness is nothing special at 250 nits. But these QD-OLEDs have more punch when it comes to rendering colours.
That 250 nit rating is for pure white across the whole screen, after all, which isn't a hugely relevant real-world measure. As for connectivity, there's HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 and USB-C with a KVM switch.
However, note that the USB-C interface only offers 18 W of power delivery, so it's not going to keep even a thin-and-light laptop charged. But then at this price something had to give.
Overall, it's one heck of a proposition for $709. The combination of OLED HDR sizzle with the full 4K resolution and the pixel density that comes with that is something very, very special. Speaking of special, however...
A 240 Hz alternative
If you really must have the full 240 Hz, give it up for the ASRock Phantom Gaming PG032UFS, yours for $820 from Newegg. Along with the 240 Hz refresh, you get USB-C with both a KVM switch and 65 W of power delivery. So, you could very much share this 4K OLED monitor between, say, your gaming rig and a work laptop. Perfect!
Intriguingly, it uses LG's WOLED alternative panel tech. By most metrics it's pretty similar to Samsung's QD-OLED. But it has one clear advantage. Where QD-OLED suffers from a reflectivity problem in bright ambient conditions which can make black tones look slightly grey with a hint of purple, WOLED is much better at maintaining black levels.
Anyway, between these two monitors you have a pretty darned excellent pair of choices at very attractive prices. If you've been pondering a 32-inch 4K OLED, now could be the time to finally pull the trigger.
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