Product Review: The Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 Is A Stunning Monitor But Falls Short of the Competition.
This monitor was tested thoroughly as well as used PERSONALLY everyday to complete this full in-depth review. Here is what I found after this process...
Pros:
4K Resolution
High Brightness
Great Color Coverage
Outstanding Build Quality
Plenty of Ports
Cons:
Worse HDR Than The Competition
Bad Matte Finish
Size, Resolution, & Panel Type
The Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 has a 32 inch screen size with a resolution of 3840 by 2160p, or 4K. This brings the PPI or pixels per inch, how crisp and clear the image is actually going to be to your eye, to essentially the perfect PPI at about 138 pixels per inch.
This means that even very small text will appear very clear and will not have noticeable pixilation. Games, movies, and images appear perfectly crisp and clear.
As for the panel type, this is an In-Plane Switching, or IPS panel, with a quantum dot layer. The quantum dot layer helps to improve color gamut, which is essential since this monitor is heavily centered towards creators.
Refresh Rate & Variable Refresh Rate
The 32UHD144 has a refresh rate of 144Hz and has Freesync Premium. Yes, you heard that correctly. This does not have Freesync Premium Pro, which means no HDR with Freesynce or G-Sync. This is also G-Sync compatible and works well.
Now, not having Freesync Premium Pro is shocking at this price point, especially when compared to the competition. That being said, this is not too big of a deal, since the HDR is not that good.
Brightness & HDR
Firstly, this is rated for 400nits of brightness in SDR and 600nits in HDR. In SDR, this outperforms this by a substantial amount, which I actually expected, coming in at around 520 nits in SDR, which is fantastic. The image is bright, vibrant, and gorgeous. If you have a very bright room with windows, this will keep away the reflections.
As for HDR, well, it honestly sucks when compared to the competition. Now, by competition I mean the LG 32GQ950. Since these two monitors are in the same price range with similar features, I will be comparing them throughout this review.
While HDR does turn the overall brightness up to around 630 nits of brightness, which is great, the colors become extremely washed out. There is no way to change this as well. This essentially makes HDR unusable for gaming, as SDR is such a more enjoyable experience.
Again, when comparing this to LG 32GQ950's HDR, which is very very good for an IPS panel, this falls way short at a very similar price point.
Colors & ACCURACY
The Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 has great colors as you’d expect covering 98% of the DCI-P3, 100% of the Adobe RGB, and 100% sRGB.
That’s partially due to the quantum dot layer, and interesting enough, this feels to me more like a gaming/creative monitor. This feels like it’s aimed at a streamer or YouTuber that games.
Out of the box accuracy is good, definitely photo & video editing ready. This can also output 10 or 12 bits of color at full 144Hz which is great!
Contrast Ratio & Backlight Bleed
The contrast ratio is exactly what you’d expect for an IPS panel at 1000:1.
However, this does have local dimming, but it is awful just like the LG 32GQ950. Although, here it’s even worse than the LG, with dimming zones not even on the top and bottom but literally just vertical zones being bottom lit.
This is completely unusable in all situations except maybe making a black screen dark during transitions in games and movies.
Response Time, Ghosting, & Input Lag
The Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 hits a response time of 12ms GTG which sounds awful since every other monitor is advertising doing 1 or 2 ms. However, in this case it seems that Corsair actually just tested their monitor more legitimately.
So how does that translate into ghosting? Well, it’s very, very little and the best setting is the fastest, which is Dynamic OD. That being said, this setting isn’t crystal clear and still has a small amount of ghosting, unlike the LG 32GQ950 which literally was crystal clear.
For input lag, it's the exact same deal here. It is extremely low but not quite as low as the LG. That being said, it's so low that realistically you probably could never feel the difference.
The Matte Finish
Unfortunately, the Xeneon 32UHD144 has a pretty bad matte finish. It does a great job at keeping away reflections, but its a bad one. On a white screen or white areas of the screen it becomes very noticeable.
This is almost impossible to show through photos, but it essentially looks like you smeared a thin layer of oil on your screen. It may bother some people like me, and some it may not.
However, when the LG 32GQ950 has the best matte finish I’ve ever seen, which is more like a hybrid glossy matte finish with ATW to increase the color and contrast viewing angles, this matte finish just falls way short. So that is something to note.
Menu System & Controls
Firstly, I just want to say that Corsair is very new to monitors, and I fully expected this to suck, but it just doesn't. The controls are on the right back side, which isn’t my favorite if you’re doing dual monitor setup, but besides that its very good!
You use a joystick to control the menu, and there is also a dedicated power button that works fast and is easily differentiated from the joystick just with touch.
The menu system itself doesn’t have a ton of options but pretty much everything you need is there quickly, easily, and without any gimmicks or stupid sub menus. They also have some great picture profiles for creatives like sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB.
As well, for gamers, the standard picture profile is basically perfect. It doesn’t look inaccurate but still manages to have great saturation with deep colors. Obviously this isn’t going to be as accurate as the other modes, but when gaming, this is definitely the mode to leave it in.
Vesa Compatibility
Vesa compatibility is good being compatible with 100mm by 100mm Vesa mounts.
Connectivity & Ports
Ports include: One DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1, one USB Type-C Display, one USB type C upstream, 2 USB type-A downstreams, and a 3.5mm audio out.
The USB Type-C Display is a huge pro to have and is something the LG 32GQ950 does not have. So if you absolutely need a USB Type-C display port, the Xeneon 32UHD144 checks that box.
Also, on the top of the stand, there is a mount for Elgato gear. So if you are a streamer or creator that wanted to mount Elgato lights or a microphone directly to this monitor and plug it in via the USB's, you can do that!
Stand & Build Quality
I’m just going to say it. This is by far the single best stand on any monitor ever. To the designers at Corsair that did this, you are majestic people and thank you for this gift to humanity.
This is stunning. Not only is it pretty, but it’s stable. It's basically all metal, and the stand works quite well. Also to top it off, it has the best cable management of any monitor I’ve used (Tied w/ Alienware).
As for adjustibility with the stand, it has height, tilt, and swivel. Plus, it has a lot of movement with each which is great!
I could go on and on forever about this stand, but the main point is that it’s stunning, functional, and I absolutely love it.
Price & Value
The Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 retails for about $300 cheaper than the LG 32GQ950-B, although the LG is commonly found on sale.
Now the differences of the 32UHD144 compared to the LG are, poorer HDR performance, a bad matte finish, lack of Freesync Premium Pro, an okay menu system, and slower gaming performance.
It just doesn’t make sense to get this monitor over the LG 32GQ950, which is an unbelievably good monitor for the price. That being said, if this monitor is on sale for $100 - $150 off and the LG is not, this may be a fantastic pick up!
Overall Verdict
So overall do I recommend the Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144? Well, as far as performance, the LG 32GQ950-B beats this monitor, and I recommend that monitor over this unless the 32UHD144 is on sale!