I am losing my mind!!!

I ended up picking up an Asus XG27UCDMG and TCL 27r94 since the fringe was bothering me, I'll use them a bit more and write up some notes about them all...

The stands on both are awful for different reasons, the Asus is too stiff so it makes leveling it flat very hard and the TCL one is just way too big and a stupid V shape. Also the bottom bezel on the TCL is gloss so depending on the positioning it may reflect keyboard LEDs.

Erebus said:

I've recently been looking for a 32" 4K mini-LED monitor, and came across this [H] thread (post #39) when researching the TCL 32R84. I've all but convinced myself that this is my best option until the RGB mini led monitors start to come out later this year. Anyways, I came across this (translated from Japanese) review of the TCL 32R84 which is comprehensive. They call it "the new benchmark for 4K HDR gaming" for what its worth. Thought I'd post here incase anyone else is researching this monitor.

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That review is really in depth.

mullet said:

I have been trying to find a monitor to upgrade to a 32" or a better 27" and all I see is OLED!

I game some gaming and also video editing and PS. I went to the local best buy to look at some OLED's and I have a feeling that my old grumpy ass isn't liking the text on these monitors, don't get me wrong I like the contrast ratio and refresh on the OLEDs and the price on some of them is fine and the burn in doesn't really concern me but I am not sure about the text and the fact I am on linux most of the time unless I am gaming. So I guess what I am asking is, is there a solid IPS panel out there that is worth a shit in the 32 to 27 range or should I just wait till OLED fixes the text issue?

Thanks for any help from a old grumpy dude.

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Sounds like the new RGB strip oleds might be up your alley.

I'll post some more thoughts later I guess perhaps in my own thread, but the Asus XG27UCDMG QD-OLED has insane black crush so you completely miss out on detail that is supposed to be there, it just doesn't even show it.

https://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/d...-understanding-and-testing-oled-shadow-detail

They have results for the PG version here instead of the XG one I have, mine I calibrated so it shows 6-7 instead of 10 but still, amazingly bad. If you switch to the sRGB Cal Mode though it's great...which kind of defeats the purpose of the whole monitor lol.

This combined with the pathetic brightness in HDR mode means it's basically totally useless in HDR. You lose detail at both ends, it has really bad crushing detail at high brightness levels too in all HDR modes.

D-EJ915 said:

I'll post some more thoughts later I guess perhaps in my own thread, but the Asus XG27UCDMG QD-OLED has insane black crush so you completely miss out on detail that is supposed to be there, it just doesn't even show it.

https://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/d...-understanding-and-testing-oled-shadow-detail

They have results for the PG version here instead of the XG one I have, mine I calibrated so it shows 6-7 instead of 10 but still, amazingly bad. If you switch to the sRGB Cal Mode though it's great...which kind of defeats the purpose of the whole monitor lol.

This combined with the pathetic brightness in HDR mode means it's basically totally useless in HDR. You lose detail at both ends, it has really bad crushing detail at high brightness levels too in all HDR modes.



View attachment 795553
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Yep. People are quick to glaze QD OLED's over WOLEDs, but a lot of it comes down to factory calibration as well. QD OLED is generally better, but even it can be botched as well.

MistaSparkul said:

Yep. People are quick to glaze QD OLED's over WOLEDs, but a lot of it comes down to factory calibration as well. QD OLED is generally better, but even it can be botched as well.

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I'm curious how the new RGB stripe one will be but I think I might just stick with the TCL one I got and buy a monitor arm for it. Highlights in HDR not having any impact is a real downer in games and it doesn't seem like it's improving much at all.

Speaking of calibration, based on stock settings and profiles the white balance I got were:
TCL standard 7500, warm 6600
MSI normal 6450
KTC native 8000, warm 7000, P3 6800
asus 6500k OSD option 6600

Of course this is just white balance but still the KTC is just off in lala land for people without calibration tools. I'd never had one before, bought it just to get the brightness off my X27 so I could set them all to the same to even the playing field a bit when comparing.

D-EJ915 said:

I'm curious how the new RGB stripe one will be but I think I might just stick with the TCL one I got and buy a monitor arm for it. Highlights in HDR not having any impact is a real downer in games and it doesn't seem like it's improving much at all.

Speaking of calibration, based on stock settings and profiles the white balance I got were:
TCL standard 7500, warm 6600
MSI normal 6450
KTC native 8000, warm 7000, P3 6800
asus 6500k OSD option 6600

Of course this is just white balance but still the KTC is just off in lala land for people without calibration tools. I'd never had one before, bought it just to get the brightness off my X27 so I could set them all to the same to even the playing field a bit when comparing.

Click to expand...

Yeah unfortunately I do not see OLED monitors having big HDR impact for a long long time. I also have the TCL 27R94 and it's an awesome little monitor, especially since I got it for just $599. It gives my S95F quite a run for it's money, would have never expected a $599 mini LED to fair so well against a $2000+ flagship QD OLED TV.

MistaSparkul said:

Yeah unfortunately I do not see OLED monitors having big HDR impact for a long long time. I also have the TCL 27R94 and it's an awesome little monitor, especially since I got it for just $599. It gives my S95F quite a run for it's money, would have never expected a $599 mini LED to fair so well against a $2000+ flagship QD OLED TV.

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I'm hoping there's a good 32" one at some point. I've just come to like 32" too much to go back to 27" but I would love a better MiniLED. The PG32UQX is amazing, but the slow pixel response and large zones would be real nice to fix. When I compare it with my laptop which is a 16" monitor with 2000+ zones and 240Hz the laptop gets noticeably less blooming and a much cleaner image. My PG32UCDP OLED fixes all that right up, of course, and looks great... but the HDR just doesn't hit. It isn't BAD in HDR mode, I like it, but it lacks the impact the PG32UQX can have. For some games, it matters very little but for others it is noticeable. I'm replaying Cyberpunk 2077 and while the per-pixel dimming makes dark scenes with bright highlights look amazing, the overall game just doesn't hit like it did on the PG32UQX.

I don't hate OLED, obviously having bought and kept one, but I still feel like MiniLED is the way forward at least in the near term for computers.

MistaSparkul said:

Yeah unfortunately I do not see OLED monitors having big HDR impact for a long long time. I also have the TCL 27R94 and it's an awesome little monitor, especially since I got it for just $599. It gives my S95F quite a run for it's money, would have never expected a $599 mini LED to fair so well against a $2000+ flagship QD OLED TV.

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Why does the 27 inch version have 2000+ dimming zones but the 32 has 1400? If there was a TCL 32R94 and not R84 with a 2k+ zone count i'd buy one.

Decko said:

Why does the 27 inch version have 2000+ dimming zones but the 32 has 1400? If there was a TCL 32R94 and not R84 with a 2k+ zone count i'd buy one.

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Honestly...I don't know lol. That's also why I opted for the 27 inch version instead of the 32 myself, but really I wish we had a 40-42" inch option available with these specs. That's the perfect size IMO and it's really just a no man's land for both mini LED and OLED options. The 42 inch C series has been stagnant for the past 4 years.

Submitted my return for the XG27UCDMG since it's the last day to do so.


1 Being a gloss panel the contrast and clarity are really good and it pops.
2 Colour, brightness, etc. is consistent depending on how you look at the screen.
3 The automatic shut-off sensor works very well and is really cool I wish every monitor had it.
4 Has 2 separate buttons in addition to the joystick so just more customizability here.


1 6500k setting is 6600k, could be better.
2 Variable brightness (ABL) is weird.
3 The improved black levels don't really mean anything if your room is even somewhat bright, you can't even tell the difference it just looks like a gloss IPS panel. Also due to how eyes work you still see glow around bright stuff on dark backgrounds.
4 HDR is extremely mediocre, the brightness is so low I don't even think you can really call it HDR. I tried the various modes with the boost on and off, the trueblack is darker but the other modes have raised black levels so they don't look as nice.
5 Asus USB Firmware update doesn't work, I tried several USB drives from 2 to 32GB and none worked, had to use windows utility. Mine came with the 101 firmware which is pretty old.



1 Uniform brightness cuts down maximum brightness by quite a lot. - see below
2 HDR brightness is really bad which pretty much negates a lot of HDR content in games which utilize bright flashes. Also it loses details in bright scenes such as looking at the sun behind clouds it just looks like a blob rather than defined like on a HDR1000 display.
3 Every SDR mode but sRGB Cal Mode crushes blacks so you lose a lot of black detail.
4 The semi-gloss coating really does show direct light and it is very distracting.
5 The stand is horrible, it is so stiff to adjust the tilt side to side it takes forever to get it even. You have to get it to a position where when the tension breaks it snaps into the correct level.
6 VESA mount is an adapter, it's included but kind of annoying.
7 Only has a gaming and an sRGB mode no other pro modes.
8 Some things have banding in games.
9 If you take pictures of the screen for whatever reason this has the worst artifacting I've ever seen but really just take a screenshot lol.

1 Regarding the blacks turning purple, I didn't really notice that so much, refer to #3 above in meh.
2 Text clarity was pretty much fine, it just looks like an AG coating. You can see fringing on white text on dark backgrounds, not so much on black on white. (100% scaling)
3 Gloss coating can reflect RGB keyboards and stuff
4 Coating has been noted to be fairly easy to damage

brightness settings for measured values
stock 80 contrast
uniform brightness enabled:
159 nits: 69
197 nits: 86
uniform brightness disabled:
160 nits: 41
198 nits: 52