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Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDP review: the best OLED for bright rooms
by Samuel Buchmann
The LG 32GX870B is the monitor that many have been waiting for
7.1.2026
Translation: machine translated
No ultrawide, no curvature, no RGB subpixel layout: the 32GX870B is overshadowed by LG's other announcements - quite wrongly.
In addition to new ultrawide flagships, LG is showing a normal-format monitor at CES that could hit the sweet spot for many people: The 32GX870B has a 32-inch display in 16:9 format, a 4K resolution and a frame rate of 240 hertz (or 480 hertz in FullHD). OLED monitors with these key data have already been around for two years - they are good and very popular.
The 32GX870B stands out from previous models because it comes with LG's new Tandem WOLED panel. It offers a significantly higher maximum brightness of around 380 nits at 100 per cent APL (i.e. full screen). Monitors with the previous panel were limited to 270 nits. This corresponds to an increase of 40 per cent. As brightness is one of the weak points of OLED compared to LCD, this development represents an important step forward.
Black levels and colour reproduction have also improved according to LG. The manufacturer claims 99.5 per cent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space. However, the display will still not be able to reproduce bright colours very richly. This is because LG does not use the new RGB sub-pixel layout here, but continues to use an RGWB structure with white pixels. This is the only way to achieve the high peak brightness.
This means that there may still be slight colour fringing when displaying text. However, thanks to the relatively high pixel density of 140 pixels per inch (ppi), «fringing» was no longer a major problem with its predecessor. For most applications, the RGWB panel with its higher brightness is probably the better compromise.
WOLED vs. QD-OLED
And how does the new panel compare to the QD OLED equivalent from Samsung? That depends on what's more important to you. The bottom line is that WOLED has slight advantages, especially in bright rooms.
- Brightness: The 32GX870B (380 nits) is brighter than fourth and fifth generation QD-OLED (300 nits).
- Colour reproduction: Bright colours fade less with QD-OLED than with the 32GX870B because Samsung's panel has no white subpixel.
- Black level: Samsung is trying to improve the black level of QD-OLED in high ambient light with a new coating. However, the WOLED panel of the 32GX870B still has the advantage thanks to the polarisation filter.
- Text display: The previous 32-inch models with 4K resolution and QD-OLED also do not use Samsung's V-Stripe subpixel layout. Text sharpness should therefore be the same.
Source: Samuel Buchmann
KI upscaling and DisplayPort 2.1
The 32GX870B is part of LG's new premium line «UltraGear evo». It includes «on-device AI upscaling» - content can be sent from the PC to the monitor in a lower resolution. The monitor then scales the image to its native resolution. This is intended to reduce the hardware hunger, similar to Nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR. In contrast, however, the necessary computing work is outsourced to the monitor.
Two HDMI 2.1 ports, one USB-C (90 watt power supply) and one DisplayPort 2.1 (UHBR20) are available. The display is not curved and has a very discreet design for a gaming monitor with a flat stand. There is no information on price and availability yet.
Header image: LG
Samuel Buchmann
Senior Editor
Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.chMy fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.
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