A 32-inch 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate and DisplayPort 2.1 support
Updated: Aug 19, 2024 11:29 am
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P is a new premium 4K OLED gaming monitor with a whole host of features, including being one of the few of its kind to support DisplayPort 2.1 bandwidth on its connections. It doesn’t come cheap, but the question is, is it worth the money? Read on for our in-depth testing on this display and verdict of whether you should consider buying it.
Specifications
Refresh rate: 240Hz
Response time (claimed): 0.03ms (gray-to-gray)
Screen size: 31.5″
Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (UHD)
Panel technology: QD-OLED (3rd gen Samsung Display)
Adaptive Sync: FreeSync Premium
Weight: 13.2kg (with stand)
Ergonomics: Tilt (+20° ~ -5°), Swivel (+20° ~ -20°), Pivot (+90° ~ 0°)
Connectivity: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DP 2.1 (UHBR 20) in, 1x DP 1.4 (HBR3) out, 1x mini DP 2.1 (UHBR 20), 1x USB Type-C (AM; Upstream port; Power Delivery up to 65W), 2x USB-A 3.2 Downstream ports, 1x USB-B 3.2 Upstream port, 1x 3.5mm Earphone Jack, 1x 3.5mm Mic Jack
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What We Think
The Aorus FO32U2P is a fantastic display for both gaming and productivity, thanks to its superb refresh rate, response time, high color accuracy and gamut coverage in the sRGB and DCI-P3 spaces, plus a whole host of features to improve connectivity. It falls short of a perfect score primarily due to its some lackluster peak brightness outside of HDR content, though if you can live with this and aren’t put off by the steep asking price, then it’s a fantastic piece of kit.
Pros
240Hz refresh rate & excellent response times
Perfect blacks & contrast as you’d expect from an OLED panel
Good text clarity for an OLED panel
DisplayPort 2.1 plus great array of other ports
FreeSync Premium
High color accuracy on sRGB mode preset
Cons
Brightness could be better
Expensive
G-Sync compatible but lacks full support
Pricing & availability
The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P has an MSRP of $1,299.99 in the US, which is obviously not cheap, but is pretty much the same price as the competing ASUS ROG Swift PG32UCDM and similar to what the Alienware AW3225QF sold for when it was first released (which you can now pick up renewed off Amazon for $999). Ultimately if you want a high-quality 4K OLED monitor at this screen size and refresh rate, you’re going to have to pay a fair bit for it.
The monitor is also available in Canada but we haven’t yet seen the AORUS FO32U2P for sale in UK markets, nor in the wider EU, so we’ll have to wait and see what it retails for there.
Design & specifications
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In terms of the looks, the AORUS FO32U2P has a dark gray finish all over, with nice thin bezels on the top and either side and a slightly wider one on the bottom (though it’s still thinner compared to the one on most competing models). The screen portion of the monitor is very thin, with the thicker area on the rear-central section housing the stand mount and cable ports. The back of the display and the stand have an angular, vaguely sci-fi ‘gamer’ aesthetic but still wouldn’t look out of place in a normal office. RGB lighting comes from strips across the top and bottom of the rear-central section; there is also an iridescent AORUS logo in the base.
The majority of the monitor chassis is made of plastic, with only the base of the stand being metal, but the build quality is good. The V-shaped stand was sturdy with little screen wobble or rattle when bumped or moved. In general, the ergonomics of the monitor are great, with excellent height adjustment and swivel range.
The monitor was fairly easy to construct, being composed of three sections (the panel and two stand sections), held together by one screw.
OSD controls consist of a joystick plus two buttons on either side of it, located underneath the screen.
The screen itself is glossy, though has an anti-glare coating that works well.
QD-OLED (3rd gen Samsung Display)
Tilt (+20° ~ -5°), Swivel (+20° ~ -20°), Pivot (+90° ~ 0°)
2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DP 2.1 (UHBR 20) in, 1x DP 1.4 (HBR3) out, 1x mini DP 2.1 (UHBR 20), 1x USB Type-C (AM; Upstream port; Power Delivery up to 65W), 2x USB-A 3.2 Downstream ports, 1x USB-B 3.2 Upstream port, 1x 3.5mm Earphone Jack, 1x 3.5mm Mic Jack
The AORUS FO32U2P comes with a great array of ports including a DisplayPort input, DisplayPort output, Mini DisplayPort, 2x HDMI 2.1 sockets, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB-C, and separate 3.5mm audio in and out ports. There’s even a USB-B port for connecting compatible devices like printers and scanners etc. though there’s also a USB-B to USB-A connector included in the box if you don’t have a need for this.
As mentioned the monitor comes with DisplayPort 2.1 support for 80Gbps of uncompressed 4K data at 240Hz, which both the full-size DisplayPort socket and Mini DisplayPort are compliant with; although this isn’t yet supported by graphics cards outside of the very high-end AMD Radeon Pro workstation models, it means the monitor comes with great future-proofing for any GPU upgrades you might want to make that do come with this technology.
OSD, features & settings
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The interface looks clean and has a lot of detailed options for tweaking and customization. There are a wide variety of visual presets, adjustable brightness, contrast, color temperature etc. You can use one of the presets or come up with your own custom one. One of the buttons alongside the joystick can be programmed as a shortcut ‘Tactical Button’ to complete various actions if you wish.
The monitor has FreeSync Premium to help minimize screen tearing though it only has G-Sync support, not full G-Sync compatibility, unfortunately.
In terms of OLED-specific features the FO32U2P comes with ‘corner dim’ zoned screen dimming, plus other OLED care anti-burn-in tools like ‘pixel clean’, ‘static control’, and ‘pixel shift’.
Gigabyte offers a 3-year warranty which should give some piece of mind for those worried about OLED burn-in, but this can vary by country and region, so double-check before you buy!
Other useful features you don’t see every day include a KVM switch which makes it easy to multitask with different computers, the options for monitor daisy chaining, and a USB-C port with 65W of power delivery: more on these below in the productivity section. A Resolution Switch also allows you to convert the display to a 24-inch 1080p screen, for those who think this will help them when playing fast-paced competitive shooters.
Screen testing & performance
Subjectively the screen of the monitor looks great (more on this below), but how did it measure up in our testing? Read on for the results.
Color gamut
sRGB gamut coverage for GIGAYTE AORUS FO32U2P
DCI-P3 gamut coverage for GIGAYTE AORUS FO32U2P
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In terms of gamut coverage, the sRGB and DCI-P3 results were spot on Gigabyte’s claims of 100% and 99% respectively, both being good enough for professional color work.
Color accuracy, contrast, gamma & brightness
Below are the results we recorded for the different presets we tested that are available within the monitor’s settings menu. We tested for white point, black point, contrast ratio, average deltaE*00 (a measure of color accuracy), gamma, and brightness. In the top row we’ve listed what is considered the ideal value for each of these data points, though this is primarily from an accuracy standpoint: the preset you actually prefer ultimately depends on your subjective preference and what you happen to be viewing on the monitor.
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As you can see above, the sRGB mode was near enough perfectly accurate across the various data points, with the average deltaE*00 score of 1.17 definitely being accurate enough for color-accurate work on a professional level.
Gigabyte claims a peak brightness of 250cd/㎡ in SDR mode and 1000cd/㎡ in HDR mode. The highest brightness setting we achieved was in SDR mode when we tweaked the content brightness bar in the settings, and recorded 310cd/m². We couldn’t get it to go higher when using the HDR presets, though RTings achieved better results in their review where they described the results as ‘adequate’. In SDR mode the 0% brightness we recorded was 35 cd/m² and the brightness setting which most closely equates to 120cd/m² (the approximate value for natural light) was 20%.
Whichever way you slice it, 250cd/㎡ – 310cd/m² is not a good peak brightness for such an expensive monitor, and it won’t perform very well in direct sunlight.
Panel uniformity
Panel uniformity measures how consistent the luminance and colors are across the whole screen. The display is divided into a 5×5 grid, with the central square used as the reference point from which every other square is tested for variance.
Variance below 1.00 shows up as green, and this is the ideal result, with the variance being imperceptible to the naked eye. Yellow represents a greater degree of variation between 1.00 – 3.00, though at the lower end, this is still unlikely to be discernible to the untrained eye/general user, and doesn’t necessarily preclude the display from color-accurate work. Greater variance is more of a problem, and shows up as red.
As you can see from the graphic above, every sector showed a sub-1.00 variance, making this a very good results indeed, and confirming that the display could easily be used for professional color-accurate work as well as gaming. That being said, although the above is likely to be somewhat consistent across most monitors of the same model, panel uniformity can differ between different units, so do bear this in mind.
Viewing angles
Like the vast majority of OLED monitors and TVs, the AORUS FO32U2P has superb viewing angles, with almost no detectable color shift to the naked eye when you view the screen from the sides, until you approach the 180° mark.
Gaming performance
We tried out the GIGABYTE AORUS FO32U2P with a variety of games, including CounterStrike 2, Doom Eternal, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Cyberpunk 2077 and were very impressed with how it performed.
The picture was crisp, colors popped, and the contrast looked as great as you’d expect from an OLED screen. Loss of color was minimal in both very dark and very bright scenes. The 32-inch screen provided for a nice and immersive experience, helped by the minimal bezels around the top and side edges.
In terms of the screen responsiveness the claimed 0.03ms response time seemed bang on the money. Pretty much all OLED panels have fantastic response times, so this wasn’t really surprising, and at the native 240Hz refresh rate ghosting was barely perceptible, even when playing fast-paced games like CS2. Unless you’re really looking for it, you likely won’t notice any whatsoever. We conducted the Alien UFO test and the result was the same on there. Similarly, with FreeSync switched on we didn’t notice any screen tearing whatsoever, so great results all-round.
General performance & productivity
Although a gaming monitor first and foremost, the FO32U2P does have various features that make it useful for general productivity. The included KVM switch allows you quickly switch between different computers/laptops/other devices connected to the same monitor, and if you use the USB-A slots to connect your keyboard and mouse to the FO32U2P you won’t need to change these either as you flick between devices. Daisy chaining is also available, allowing you to connect the FO32U2P to another monitor and have them both connect to a PC using only a single connection from one monitor, this is however limited to DisplayPort 1.4 and does not work with MacOS.
The 65W USB-C charging feature means that you can simultaneously use this connection to to output your laptop screen onto the monitor and charge it at the same time; the ‘Type-C Compatibility’ setting makes this connection more likely to work with different mobile devices (laptops, tablets etc.) whilst limited the monitor to 60Hz at 4K resolution.
One of the common disadvantages of OLED panels is that clarity of text can be somewhat lacking compared to VA, IPS, and Mini-LED panels; you can often see some ‘color fringing’ around black text on a white background, which for some people who are susceptible to it can cause eye strain after prolonged use, meaning that for working purposes OLEDs are sometimes not the best option. We found the FO32U2P to be pretty solid in this respect, not quite as clear as the best of alternative panel types, but certainly towards the top end by OLED standards.
When watching YouTube videos, Netflix, and feature films the color on the screen really popped, along with the terrific contrast you’d expect in an OLED panel, although it would have benefitted from a higher peak brightness.
In terms of color-accurate work the AORUS FO32U2P can certainly be used for professional work in the sRGB space as discussed, as well as the DCI-P3 gamut if 99% coverage is sufficient. For non-professional purposes, the 96.6% Adobe RGB coverage would also be sufficient for work in this space.
