Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 Review (4K/144Hz)

1. Introduction2. Design3. On-screen Display (OSD)4. Panel Analysis5. Response Times6. System Latency7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

After taking a look at Corsair's first ever gaming monitor in October last year, we were excited to see what would come next from the company. It turns out, the answer to that is the Xeneon 32UHD144, and we have put it through its paces today.

Essentially, Corsair has taken the same design, chassis and OSD system of the 32QHD165, and swapped out the 1440p panel for a 4K one. That's a slight over-simplification, but from a visual standpoint, the two screens are identical, as is the overall OSD system and iCUE integration.

Corsair is clearly using a high quality 4K IPS panel too, with a very wide colour gamut thanks to the Quantum Dot technology, while colour accuracy is absolutely superb out of the box. Contrast could be better, but that's never been a strong point for IPS displays.

For gaming though, it's not enough to simply have a good looking screen – it needs to be fast, too. The 144Hz refresh rate certainly ticks that box, as do the response times on offer. A best-case average response time of 6.89ms may not sound super-fast – and it isn't – but it is at least 1ms faster than both the ASUS PG32UQ and MSI MPG321UR-QD, which are direct competitors to this Corsair display. I think the response times overall will be good enough for the majority of users, too. We have seen better, but not in this specific category of 32in 4K 144Hz screens.

The HDR performance isn't great, however. The 32UHD144 offers DisplayHDR 600 certification, but it only has 16 edge-lit zones for local dimming, which make for quite an underwhelming HDR experience in my book. This is the same level of HDR as offered by the PG32UQ and MPG321UR-QD, but that doesn't make it ‘good' – especially when Sony's InZone M9 offers full-array local dimming and that entire brand only launched two months ago.

As it is, I think the whole class of 32in 4K 144Hz monitors should be better, certainly for the price. The 32UHD144 retails at £899.99, which is right in line with its competitors from ASUS and MSI. Of those three, I do feel the Corsair monitor is the strongest, largely due to its response times being the fastest, so if you are dead set on a 32in high-refresh 4K monitor, it's certainly capable. The HDR implementations needs to get better across the board though, and there is plenty of room for faster panels too.

You can buy the Xeneon 32UHD144 directly from Corsair for £899.99 HERE.

Pros

• Excellent colour accuracy.
• Very wide colour gamut (thanks to Quantum Dot).
• Best-in-class response times.
• Clean, understated design.
• Easy to use OSD, with iCUE integration.

Cons

• Disappointing HDR, especially considering the price.
• Response times, though better than the competitors, are still fairly average.
• Contrast is on the lower side.

KitGuru says: For those who have their hearts set on a 32in 4K/144Hz display, the Corsair 32UHD144 is the one we'd go for right now. There is work to be done across the board however, with this market segment lagging behind in terms of real HDR support and response times.

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