Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P Monitor Review

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P is dark gray and has a gamer-oriented design. While looking relatively straightforward from the front, the back has RGB lighting.

The build quality is fantastic. The plastic materials are solid and don't flex or creak easily. However, there's a circular shroud on the stand that's loose, and it rattles if you move it, though it's cosmetic and doesn't impact your use of the monitor. The stand features a metal base and a plastic pillar, and it supports the monitor well, with great recovery if it's bumped. There isn't any noticeable fan noise.

The ergonomics are fantastic. It has excellent height adjustment, so it's easy to place in your preferred position for a long gaming session. It also has a good swivel range, so it's easy to share your screen with someone else. The stand features both a cutout and a clip for cable management.

The V-shaped stand is solid and holds the screen well. The thickness measurement is with the monitor at its minimum height. At its maximum height, it's 7" (17.7 cm) thick, as the stand is slightly angled.

This monitor has a joystick and two buttons to control the on-screen display and power the display on and off. The controls feel great and are responsive.

• Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-B to USB-A cable
• USB-C cable
• Power brick
• Type I power cable
• Type J power cable
• Type B power cable
• Documentation
• Cable clip (attached to stand, not in photo)

The monitor has a near-infinite contrast ratio, as its QD-OLED panel can turn individual pixels on and off. This means it displays deep blacks next to bright highlights in dark rooms. That said, like previous QD-OLED displays, ambient light causes blacks to look purple, so it doesn't display the same deep blacks in bright rooms.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P doesn't have a backlight, so it doesn't require a local dimming feature. However, with a near-infinite contrast ratio, there isn't any blooming around bright objects, and it's the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

The SDR brightness is okay. It maintains its brightness very consistently across different content if you set APL Stabilize to 'Low.' While it doesn't get bright enough to fight intense glare, it's still fine if you have a few lights around. These results are with the following settings:

• Picture: Custom
• Static Control: Off
• APL Stabilize: Low
• Sub-Logo Dim: Off
• Corner Dim: Off
• Brightness: Maximum

You can achieve a higher Real Scene brightness if you set APL Stabilize to 'Middle' or 'High.' However, if you do this, gamma doesn't follow the target curve well. You can see how changing APL Stabilize affects brightness below:

The HDR brightness is adequate. It gets bright enough to make really small highlights pop, but it can't sustain this brightness with larger highlights, so they don't stand out as much. It follows the PQ EOTF curve well until there's a gradual roll-off before a sharp cut-off at the peak brightness, so it lets highlights get the brightest they can. These results are with the following settings:

• Picture: HDR
• Static Control: Off
• APL Stabilize: High
• Sub-Logo Dim: Off
• Corner Dim: Off

Setting APL Stabilize to 'High' has different effects on the image depending on what Picture mode you choose. In 'HDR' only the highlights are brightened. In 'HDR Game' dark scenes are over-brightened, which may help you see shadow details in games more easily, but it's not as accurate as the recommended 'HDR' Picture mode, and highlights don't get as bright. 'HDR Movie' has a far more gradual roll-off, so highlights don't get nearly as bright as the recommended 'HDR' Picture mode. However, you may prefer this mode if you're connecting a device that doesn't allow you to configure HDR brightness. You can see how changing APL Stabilize to 'Middle' in the 'HDR' Picture mode changes the brightness below:

You can also see how Real Scene brightness is affected by changing Picture and APL Stabilize settings:

The horizontal viewing angle is outstanding. Although it technically isn't perfect, you visually won't see any inconsistencies when viewing from the sides or if you sit close to the screen.

The vertical viewing angle is remarkable. The screen looks the same, even if you're standing up and looking down on it.

This monitor has fantastic gray uniformity, and there aren't any noticeable issues. However, like any OLED, there are thin gray vertical lines in dark scenes, but you won't notice them unless you look for them.

Thanks to its OLED panel, there isn't any blooming around bright objects.

The accuracy before calibration in the 'sRGB' picture mode is remarkable. The white balance and most colors are very accurate, and the color temperature is fairly close to the 6500K target. Gamma follows the target curve fairly well when APL Stabilize is set to 'Low,' though dark scenes are slightly too dark. Using the sRGB mode locks you out of a few settings, including Contrast, and you need to use another mode with worse color accuracy if you want access to those settings.

Note that if you set APL Stabilize to either 'Middle' or 'High,' gamma is quite far off the target curve. You can see this here, where APL Stabilize is set to 'Low' in the left graph, 'Middle' in the middle graph, and 'High' in the right graph. You can see the incorrect brightness levels in various parts of an image when looking at content or the desktop.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic when APL Stabilize is set to 'Low,' and you won't notice any issues. However, if you set APL Stabilize to 'Middle' or 'High,' gamma doesn't follow the target curve well.

The SDR color gamut is superb. It displays all colors in the common sRGB color space and a wide range of colors in the Adobe RGB color space, which is sometimes used for photo editing. That said, some colors are off in Adobe RGB, and it oversaturates red.

The HDR color gamut is fantastic. It displays nearly all colors in the common DCI-P3 color space and a wide range in the Rec. 2020 color space, and colors are fairly accurate. Color accuracy is very similar in all APL Stabilize modes.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P has an amazing HDR color volume. Thanks to its QD-OLED panel, it displays bright and vivid colors without any issues, and dark colors look fantastic, too.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P has excellent text clarity. Thanks to its high pixel density, text looks very sharp, and enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) improves the boldness of letters. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see them in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off.

Due to the triangular subpixel layout, there's still some color fringing around letters and at the edge of windows, so text doesn't look quite as good as on other 4k monitors with IPS and VA panels. However, it's hard to see unless you look closely at the monitor. Although we didn't experience any eye strain during testing, even with long periods of use, this is something that changes from person to person, and it depends on how sensitive you are to this subpixel layout.

The reflection handling is incredible. The glossy screen coating reduces glare extremely well while maintaining a clear image. That said, strong ambient light causes the black levels to rise, making blacks look purple, which is a known downside of QD-OLEDs.

The gradient handling is remarkable, and you won't notice any banding.

You can reach the max refresh rate with a 4k resolution over both DisplayPort and HDMI. If your graphics card supports DisplayPort 2.1's full bandwidth of 80Gbps, you can do this without Display Stream Compression (DSC). However, if your graphics card only supports DisplayPort 1.4 bandwidth or you're using HDMI, it needs to use DSC to reach the maximum frame rate and resolution. Most modern graphics cards support DSC.

Though you can't turn DSC off, it shouldn't be active, provided your selected resolution and refresh rate don't exceed the bandwidth limitation of your graphics card's connected port.

On top of FreeSync and G-SYNC compatibility, the Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P has outstanding motion handling across its entire refresh rate range with VRR enabled. CAD remains low throughout, and there's minimal blur with fast-moving objects.

The refresh rate compliance is outstanding. Its near-instantaneous response time means it makes full-color transitions before drawing the next frame.

The CAD at the maximum refresh rate is incredible. It displays fast-moving objects as intended, and motion is extremely sharp.

The CAD at 120Hz is incredible. Pixels transition to their target RGB level almost instantly, so there isn't any blur trail or noticeable inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 60Hz is incredible. Pixels transition colors almost perfectly, and any noticeable blur is persistence.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P doesn't have an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce the persistence blur further.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P has noticeable VRR flicker with changing frame rates in the darker parts of scenes. Although it isn't as bad as some other OLEDs, it's still there and can be distracting if the frame rate changes a lot. That said, this doesn't happen if your PC can maintain fairly consistent frame rates.

The backlight isn't technically flicker-free because it has a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the 240Hz refresh rate. However, it isn't considered pulse-width modulation like on LED-backlit monitors because it isn't a full-screen on-and-off flicker, and you won't notice it.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P has low input lag for a responsive feel.

The Xbox doesn't support HDR with 1080p or 1440p signals, so that isn't an issue with the monitor.

This monitor is rated to support up to 80Gbps bandwidth over its DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort inputs. However, our highest-bandwidth graphics card can only transmit 54Gbps, so we can only confirm that the monitor supports at least 54Gbps bandwidth. Its daisy-chaining port is limited to DisplayPort 1.4 bandwidth.

The DisplayPort Alt Mode on the USB-C port allows you to connect a laptop to display an image from it and charge it with 65W of power at the same time.

• If you turn Type-C Compatibility on, the monitor is limited to 4k @ 60Hz when using a USB-C cable to display the image. This mode increases compatibility with mobile devices.
• If you turn USB 3.2 Support on, the monitor is limited to 4k @ 120Hz when using a USB-C cable to display the image.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P works well with macOS. If you use a MacBook, windows don't migrate to or from the display when closing the lid or waking the laptop from sleep with USB-C or HDMI 2.1. However, with HDMI 2.0, windows do return to their original position when opening the lid or waking the MacBook up from sleep. The KVM works well with macOS, though daisy chaining doesn't work.

The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2P has a number of extra features, including:

• KVM switch: Allows you to use the same keyboard and mouse with two different sources.
• Resolution Switch: You can use this setting to change the resolution and size of the display, including decreasing the image size to simulate a 24.5- or 27-inch screen size.
• Game Assist: Includes extra settings, like crosshairs, FPS counter, PC info, and different vision modes.
• Daisy Chaining: Allows you to connect another monitor with only one cable going to your computer.

Like most OLED displays, there are also a few settings to help reduce the risk of burn-in, which you can find in the OLED Care section of the OSD. Gigabyte also offers a three-year warranty, including against burn-in, although that may vary between regions.

• Corner Dim: Dims the four corners of the screen.
• Sub-Logo Dim: Dims static logos and the taskbar to help prevent image retention.
• Pixel Shift: Moves the image by a few pixels to one side to help reduce the risk of burn-in.
• Static Control: Automatically dims the screen when there's inactivity.