ASUSROG Swift 32” 4K OLED Gaming Monitor (PG32UCDM) - UHD (3840 x 2160), QD-OLED, 240Hz, 0.03ms, G-SYNC Compatible, Custom Heatsink, Graphene Film, 99% DCI-P3, True 10-bit, 90W USB-C

This greatly exceeded my expectations in spite of seeing many video reviews: I've had it two days and used it for the desktop and video apps. The monitor is the display for an Nvidia RTX 4080 super GPU, a Taichi x670E MB, and an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU with 64GB of ram. I don't know how much of this processing power is needed for the monitor to be performing as well as it does, but obviously the hardware has to be able to drive it effectively.1. The zero black level makes a huge difference. I loved my IPS 1440p monitor that took 10 bit color. It was so much brighter, with more and deeper colors and dynamic range than my LED monitors. I have a dual display setup and can compare the images between the monitors. The IPS (PA272W) looks entirely pale and washed out in comparison, quite low contrast. Even the IPS monitor was itself a big improvement over my older LED display.2. Keeping the monitor in HDR mode is not good for SDR videos. I got a convenient windows app "HDRTray-v0.5.90" to easily check and change modes. SDR videos look washed out in HDR mode. Even in SDR mode, though, the video's colors look much wider gamut and more intense and realistic on the PG32UCDM.3. HDR10 4k films look astounding. Better than in movie theaters, even very good ones like the upgraded Grumman's Chinese theater (now Kodak) with 3-laser 4k projection, and much better than your standard 2k digital projection theater. While the resolution is much less than a 35mm film projection (at least 20 million pixels), the wider gamut and dynamic ratio of this monitor are much more important to the experience for me (at least for color video), and obviously for all the theaters moving to digital projection.4. The 4k HDR10 films look astoundingly realistic. I feel that I am actually watching directly, not via a recording. In fact it looks better than in person, perhaps because of being more close up than when usually watching a scene, Night scenes look better too, perhaps because of light scatter reducing black levels in real urban situations, or perhaps due to a bit increase in color saturation by the film studios.It's really more clear, detailed, and with more subtle color variation, than when taking to someone face to face. At least it gives that strong feeling.5. I still find it helpful when using VLC player to have the player upscale from 1080p with video sharpening adjusted to a low level, making the image sharper on the 4k display. The GPU is supposed to do something about this too, but not enough.6. The main drawback to OLED monitors is burn-in. The 3 year warranty shows that Asus has confidence in their new technology and protection mechanisms.There are myths about the pixel clean and pixel refresh options of QD-OLED monitors. What my own research into the details of that show (given the proprietary and secret nature of the Asus processes), is this. Each color of a pixel is a piece of polymer film filled with very tine (0.5 - 2 nm) semiconduction particles called quantum dots. Quantum confinement means the electrons in the free shells or levels in the quantum dots have energy levels dependent of the dot volume. When stimulated by blue LED back lights (3 for each subpixel), the electrons absorb the photons, go to a higher level, then fall back emitting a corresponding color (red or green). The blue subpixel of a pixel has no quantum dots on it.Pixel refresh gets rid of persistent images. It simply cycles each subpixel a number of times that discharges residual energy that causes the persistence.Pixel cleaning happens less often. The organic chemicals in the dots decay with time and use, getting dimmer. The monitor keeps track of how much time the monitor has been used, and how much of that was static images. It estimates the degradation of the subpixels, and increases the set voltage on the transistor gates accordingly. The monitor is manufactured with enough headroom on the blue LEDs to maintain color intensity for some total hours of monitor use- presumably much longer than the 3 year warranty on this monitor.So these processes are entirely desirable and do not negatively affect the monitor performance in any way, as they run by default. (The monitor automatically runs them.)The monitor uses other strategies to prevent burn-in or loss of intensity, such as pixel shifting and dimming the display when nothing is happening. as soon as you do anything, it gets bright again.I did a few more things to prevent burn-in from static images. I installed a convenient app called "AutoHideDesktopIcons.exer" for windows, although windows 11 has a system tray toggle for that. When I left click the desktop, the desktop icons appear. When I middle click the mouse on the desktop, the disappear. The static desktop icons seem a very likely source of burn-in.Another app, "AutoHideMouseCursor", can be set to hide the mouse cursor if it doesn't move after some set time period. If you leave the computer for a long time, the cursor says in the same position and seems like a source of burn in. This avoids that.Both of these free programs leave a small window open on the desktop asking for donations. I made a new desktop (Win+Tab) and moved them to that to hide them.Of course I have the taskbar set to autohide to avoid burn-in from that.7. I did a lot of checking for dead or stuck pixels. I couldn't find one. This is amazing given there are 24 million subpixels on the screen. It says a lot for Asus manufacturing process and quality control.8. Using the OSD (On Screen Display) was a bit tricky for a few minutes. Press in on the tiny joystick to open the OSD. What i took time to figure it out is there are two more pressure buttons under the joystick to either side. The left one exits the OSD and right one is the power switch. The onscreen legend is clear about this but it was not intuitive for me to read it at first. The very brief start guide also did not help.9. Assembly was surprisingly easy. It almost seems to lightweight and fragile a way to support the monitor, and too easy too assemble. But it seems pretty solid, although the monitor has a bit of play in the pivot or roll direction. Maybe I did not secure it to the stand fully.It has no swivel adjustment except for moving the stand. It has no height adjustment and limited tilt adjustment. I am fine with that in exchange for the light, elegant and simple stand. there are other solutions if those adjustments are needed.The monitor is thin yet sturdy, and very light. I like the design, where the screen itself is thin (I estimate 1/8") but a slightly smaller rectangular housing behind it, roughly 1.3" thick, contains the electronics. It looks futuristic. The RGB lighting is minimal and, I think, can be turned off.10. For my eyes, the slightest trace of pixelation disappears at 16". for an 8k 32" display, that would be 8". It would not add to the actual seen resolution of an image. It would need to be 64" to make sense for use as a desktop monitor, which is way too big for most people. It seems to me 4k resolution is pretty future proof for a desktop monitor as opposed to large screen tv where people might be sitting 6' away. Even for a typical large screen tv for the living room, 8k resolution seems to be overkill. In other words, this 4k monitor seems future proof in terms of resolution.What would be a big improvement in the technology would be brightness. This monitor has an HDR rating of only 400, which is minimal. A major improvement in OLED technology would be needed to reach an HDR 1000 rating. That being said, I decided the OLED image quality was more important than the best HDR dynamic ratios, as for example from mini-LED or micro-LED monitors which have their disadvantages. For me the brightness levels of this monitor are great, as I keep my office fairly dark.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG27UCDM is nothing short of breathtaking. The 27” 4K QD-OLED panel delivers stunning visual clarity, true blacks, and incredibly vibrant colors. Whether I’m gaming, editing photos, or watching HDR content, the color accuracy is top-tier and the contrast makes every scene feel immersive. Out of the box, the calibration is excellent, with no need for tweaks. The 240 Hz refresh rate paired with the ultra-fast response time makes fast-paced gameplay unbelievably smooth—no ghosting or tearing at all. This monitor truly feels like the perfect fusion of performance and beauty.Functionality is just as impressive. It supports DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1, making it future-proof for next-gen GPUs and consoles. The USB-C port with 90W power delivery is super convenient for laptop users like me. The stand is fully adjustable and feels solid, while the screen’s anti-glare coating does a great job even in bright rooms. Even the RGB lighting is tastefully done. Yes, it’s a premium price, but for what you get—240Hz at 4K, flawless OLED visuals, and unmatched versatility—it’s absolutely worth every penny.

(Pros/Cons at bottom)My computer is running an RTX 4090 so I am utilizing VRR/G-sync and the response time feels perfect without any tearing, there is without a doubt a competitive advantage in gaming over my previous monitors. Night and day.Really impressed with the ASUS ROG Swift so far. I'm color deficient (aka colorblind), and I kid you not, the vibrancy of this bad boi helps assist some of the colors that I previously had trouble identifying on my previous monitor. The blacks are so deep that a black desktop background literally makes open windows look like they're floating in a void on my desk. And this is all with HDR off, I typically don't use HDR as I am still on Windows 10 which has never played nice with HDR in general (possibly a me problem). That being said the HDR isn't washed out at all, and the Dolby Vision seems to work well too, maybe I will play with these options more and update this review."Shadow Boost" Level 3 setting looks real nice and plays a part in the black "void" mentioned above and below, BUT I did notice some flickering in dark areas during my playthrough of the new game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. I feel like I read about this flickering on other reviews, and I was a bit afraid of it being extreme, but it's really minor and I was specifically looking for it. It's worth mentioning that you can easily turn down or off the "Shadow Boost", which solves the flickering and compromises a bit of the darkness, if you find it too unbearable. It's not consistent though, this was specifically only with the game mentioned, while I have not noticed any flickering from other games.There are lots of settings via the monitor button, as well as software you can download for it with all of the same functions. When switching through the options, there is a slight black out before the input comes back, which is one of my only gripes because it can be hard to differentiate between settings if you can't compare during the black outs.The Picture-in-Picture works great. I was able to work while having a separate input in the corner of the screen for light-gaming. My previous monitor had issues with different sources not playing well with each other, so far this hasn't been an issue with this monitor. It's a little tricky getting the inputs in if you don't have easy access behind the monitor/your table, and I have accidently smudged the monitor with my fingers a few times now trying to blindly plug things in, but this is more of a me problem.This is my first OLED and I plan to take good care of it, it's nice there's a feature to remind you to pixel clean after a certain amount of screen time - 2, 4, or 8 hours. During that process it takes around 5 minutes of blank screen, which is a short enough time to stand up or take a bio break... which you should probably be doing anyway from time to time ;)-Pros:Colors are insanely vibrant.Contrast with and without HDR are a nice deep void.VRR/G-Sync and high framerate look and work great.Response time especially in FPS video games has me at the top of the scoreboard, no joke.No issues with PiP.Cons:Couple seconds of black out while switching between settings.Minor flickering with "Shadow Boost" on, which can be turned off btw.A bit annoying to access the inputs on the back.Smudges somewhat easily (try not to touch the screen obviously).-I'm giving this a 5/5 stars because it surpassed my expectations and the Pros definitely outweigh the Cons (so far). Will update along the way, as this is my first OLED, I am hoping the pixel cleaning function makes this beauty last a long time!