AOC And Porsche Unveil A Jaw Dropping 32-Inch 4K 144Hz Mini LED Gaming Monitor
AOC is collaborating with Porsche Design again, this time on an exceptionally bright and sufficiently fast 31.5-inch gaming monitor, the Agon Pro PD32M. Built for high octane gaming, the standout feature here is the use of mini LED technology, which plays a pivotal role in the monitor's ability to hit an eye-searing 1,600 nits peak brightness.
Mini LED technology has only somewhat recently started to penetrate the market in a meaningful way. Samsung got the party started in earnest with its Neo QLED televisions (TCL was actually first to market), and then earlier this year at CES we saw several monitors jump on board with mini LEDs.
As the name implies, mini LEDs are smaller LEDs that are just a little bigger than a pixel. The technology offers multiple benefits. One of them is the potential to light up a display much more brightly than traditional LEDs, and the other is finer grain control over lighting up and darkening specific parts of a scene through a bunch of dynamic lighting zones, otherwise known as full array local dimming (FALD). This is important because it makes the image look better, and can significant reduce blooming or the halo effect—light from a bright object spilling out into a darker surrounding area.
In this case, AOC says the PD32M sports 1,152 dimming zones. To put that into perspective, Samsung's excellent 65-inch QN90A Neo QLED TV has 792 dimming zones. We haven't seen this monitor in action, but in theory it should offer tight control over where and what gets illuminated.
Beyond the backlight, the PD32M is built around a flat IPS panel with a native 4K (3840x2160) resolution that promises 97 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. It's also purportedly responsive with a low 1ms response time (gray to gray) and 144Hz refresh rate. You'll need a fast GPU to take full advantage of its capabilities in more demanding titles, though technologies like DLSS (NVIDIA), FidelityFX Super (AMD), and XeSS (Intel) can help.
This is a DisplayHDR 1400 certified display. It also features a couple of HDMI 2.1 ports, and with them comes variable refresh rate (VRR) support, making this a good option for both PC and console gaming (it supports up to 120Hz on consoles). There's a DIsplayPort too, if you prefer, as well as a USB Type-C port, four USB 3.2 ports, a headphone jack, and a pair of 8-watt speakers with DTS sound. Finally, it sports customizable RGB lighting.
The Agon Pro PD32M is available to preorder for $1,799.99 from Porsche Design, and will land at Amazon in the fourth quarter of this year. It's not cheap, especially when you can get Alienware's new 34-inch OLED (AW3423DW) monitor for $999. It won't get quite as bright as the PD32M and there's no worry whatsoever of burn-in with the Agon display, but it's worth an extra $800 is something buyers will have to decide.
