ASUS's new ProArt Display PA32DC OLED monitor comes with automatic calibration and a built-in motorized flip colourimeter to ensure professional colour accuracy. All of which makes it a serious competitor for creative professionals.
For creators, colour accuracy and consistency are key. The 31.5-inch 4K HDR monitor ensures pure RGB stripes and 99% DCI-P3 coverage to deliver accurate colours when working with fast-moving HDR content. The OLED panel comes with billions of self-illuminating pixels that can reproduce deeper blacks to enhance the colour contrast in high-luminance images. These pixels feature true 10-bit colour depth to fit the demands of HDR monitoring which is mandatory for most streaming platforms.
To make sure your work follows consistent colour accuracy, ProArt has a built-in motorized flip colourimeter that you can simply flip into place when needed. Used in conjunction with the ProArt hardware calibration software, it makes consistent calibration quick and easy. This way you can be sure that your display is calibrated whenever and wherever.
With the ASUS ProArt calibration software, you can also save different colour parameter profiles on the display’s internal chip. This way you can directly connect the same profiles to different operating systems via the monitor. The monitor is also compatible with other calibrators, such as X-Rite, Datacolor and Klein, as well as working with Calman and Light Illusion ColourSpace CMS professional hardware calibration software.
The back of the monitor features USB-C, DisplayPort 1.4 and three HDMI (V2.0) slots for compatibility with current and future displays. You can also connect your headphones with an earphone jack.
The Auto Brightness Limiter (ABL) maximises your power use. When you are switching between high-contrast display views, the monitor automatically dims the image according to the brightness. This is useful when you are switching different contrast views to ensure comfortable viewing - even after hours of use!
What makes this monitor great on set? Filmmakers and other creators working on set travel a lot for work. Locations vary in terms of studio locations and it is crucial to have hardware that is easy to take with you. ASUS has designed this monitor for on-location studio sets. It comes with a metal handle in the back and a monitor hood to block out any ambient light or glare. Having connectivity ports on each side of the display enables you to easily take this monitor with you and set it up at any location in no time.
Final Pixel is a great example of this in action. It is a global virtual production studio specializing in virtual production for film, TV and advertising. As a global company, its staff travel from one location to another and use the ProArt Display PA32DC on-set as their reference monitor.
“We found it very, very useful on set because it's so important that we have an accurate representation of our color," says Stage Operator, Dominic Maher. "We put a lot of effort into maintaining that color every stage of the process and if it falls down to the point of the reference monitor, which we're all looking at, it's a huge problem for us."
Watch here how Final Pixel uses its ProArt Display PA32DC on-set during its virtual productions:
Just in case you missed it, we have asked the professionals themselves about this monitor and how they find it useful for their workflows. Brett Danton gave his thorough review a while back about the PA32DC here, but we wanted to ask others. Here is what a senior colourist and a filmmaker think of this monitor when we asked them back in April at NAB 2022:
"The new ASUS RGB OLED 31.5" monitor looked like a great solution for SDR grading and with HDR capability via 'smart technology' allowing us to monitor in HDR. 31.5" is a great size for working. Whilst it wouldn't be aimed at mastering HDR it does cover 99% of DCI-P3 colour space and has REC2020 support. The great price point would allow this to become a good accurate production monitor for editors and colourists. I liked the in-built calibration tool - helps keep solid calibration without really having to think about it. Another welcome addition is that the menu buttons are now on the front of the monitor and not on the back like the UCX/UCG.” Darren Mostyn - Senior Colourist, Online Creative
“I think every OLED offering is interesting to me as I like to have a lot of low-end when colouring. For ASUS to come up with an OLED screen with some form of self-calibration and the buttons at the front at below $5000 shows their commitment to servicing this market. From what I've seen at the show, this screen delivers on the typical OLED promises of deep blacks and great contrast. While OLED typically gives you less output in nits, I prefer it if the room is lit right. To me, the perceived contrast is greater and the overall image quality looks more pleasing.” Bas Goossens - Documentary Filmmaker, Ministery of Frames
You can purchase this monitor for $3,499.00.