Product Review: The Pixio PXC327 Advanced Is A Great All-Around VA Gaming Monitor.
This monitor was tested thoroughly as well as used PERSONALLY every day to complete this full in-depth review. Here is what I found after this process...
Pros:
31.5 Inch Screen Size
165Hz Refresh Rate
Low Ghosting
Wide Color Coverage
Good Build Quality
Cons:
Potential Backlight Bleed
Limited Stand Adjustibility
Poor Color Accuracy Out of the Box
Size, Resolution, & Panel Type
The Pixio PXC327 Advanced is a 31.5 inch curved gaming monitor with a resolution of 2560 by 1440p. This brings the PPI, or pixels per inch, essentially how crisp and clear the image is actually going to appear to your eye, to about 93 pixels per inch.
Movies and games look nice and crisp, although static icons or small text will have visible pixelation. However, this all depends on how close you sit to your monitor, which varies wildly from person to person at this screen size.
As for the panel type, this is a Fast VA panel.
Refresh Rate & Variable Refresh Rate
The Pixio PXC327 hits 165Hz natively.
As for variable refresh rate, this has Freesync Premium and works well with G-Sync as expected.
Brightness & HDR
The PXC327 is rated for 320nits of brightness in SDR. After testing, this hit around 315 to 320nits. Although, in the most accurate color mode this was hitting around 280 nits. The image looks very pretty and vibrant, but this isn’t an insanely bright monitor. That being said, don’t expect this to be dim either. The brightness is pretty average.
As for HDR, the overall screen brightness doesn’t really change at all, however, you do get to take full advantage of the wide color gamut. Since this is a VA panel, it does have deeper blacks than an IPS panel , so the overall HDR experience is pretty good considering the price point.
Colors & ACCURACY
The Pixio PXC327 covers 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut which, like I mentioned previously, is great for HDR. This has great color coverage for the price.
Out of the box accuracy is pretty bad being way too cool at 8723K with a target of 6500K. That reading is in the “Normal” color temperature setting. After testing all of the settings, the “Warm” setting seems to be the most accurate and would definitely be what I’d recommend setting this in after getting it. Talking in more basic speak, the colors look great.
Lastly, this can output 10 bits of color at full resolution and refresh rate.
Contrast Ratio & Backlight Bleed
As for contrast ratio, this hits 3800:1 after testing, which is slightly better than their claimed 3500:1 contrast ratio. This is great. The blacks are deeper and richer than IPS panels, although obviously not on the level of an OLED. If you love deep blacks, gaming in HDR, and are on a budget, this could be awesome for you.
As for backlight bleed, this has a lot of it, but none of it is very extreme. From my experience with Pixio, this seems to be their biggest problem. Their quality control with backlight bleed historically isn't the best. If you do purchase this monitor, make sure to check for bad backlight bleed and be ready to ask for a replacement if need be.
Response Time, Ghosting, & Input Lag
The PXC327 hits a claimed 1ms GTG response time, which is quite substantial for a VA panel. How does this translate into ghosting? Like on every VA panel there is ghosting, but this is exceptionally low.
It's not as low as the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8, but it is much lower than your average VA gaming monitor and even lower than more expensive ones. In game, the ghosting didn’t bother me which is telling. Overall, I think this is really impressive and probably the best 32 inch VA panel in this price range due to this alone, not even mentioning the color gamut.
Menu System & Controls
The Pixio PXC327 is controlled with a single joystick on the right backside. This isn't my favorite placement as having a dual or triple monitor setup makes this extremely difficult to access controls.
The menu system itself is not pretty, but it is relatively easy to get to settings and know where everything is. Although, the way the joystick is used is not the most intuitive and will take a little bit of time to get used to.
VESA Compatibility
VESA compatibility is great here being compatible with 100mm by 100mm VESA mounts.
Connectivity & Ports
Ports include: two DisplayPort 1.2, one HDMI 2.0, one 3.5mm audio out, and one USB Type-A.
That being said, the USB Type-A is only for firmware updates, as there are no upstream ports. There's nothing crazy here, but we don’t expect this at the price point.
Stand & Build Quality
The quality of the panel backing is good, but the quality of the stand is great.
It has a nice design and is almost entirely made of metal: it overall feels quite nice. That being said, there is only tilt adjustibility.
Price & Value
The Pixio PXC327 Advanced is extremely competitive. It’s a monitor that delivers way more than its price tag suggests considering the wide color gamut, low ghosting, and overall panel size.
If you are interested in a non-IPS panel gaming monitor to get better blacks and want a 32 inch screen size while still being on a budget, this is really hard to go wrong with. It gives so much for the price.
Overall Verdict
So overall, do I recommend the Pixio PXC327 Advanced? Absolutely! This is a great no frills 32 inch VA gaming monitor!