From a 2019 IPS to a 2026 OLED
Back in 2019, my fiancé bought me a 32" XG32VQR (32", IPS, "HDR Support", curved) for Christmas, and it's been my daily driver for my home office/gaming setup ever since. It started having some issues right at the end of its warranty period, so I sent it back on an RMA in 2022, they swapped out the power board, and it chugged on for another 3 years, before eventually succumbing to the same issue, where if for whatever reason it loses power or you turn it off, it's a crap shoot on whether or not you'll get it to turn back on.
What I found worked somewhat reliably (for anyone who might be troubleshooting a similar issue) is leaving it unplugged for a while, holding down the power button to clear the caps, plugging it into an outlet with no power, and using the test/reset buttons to basically shock it back to life lol. Good luck...
Anyway, to the reason your probably here... I'm fortunate enough to have several MicroCenter's nearby, and if you've ever shopped at one, you know that there's some gold to be found in their clearance/open-box sections. So, I stumbled across Asus' new Tandem-OLED panel (really Samsung's panel in Asus' chassis) from 2026 (PG32UCDM3) for a little over $900. Well worth the hour drive to Yonkers to go get it. I probably would have waited for the Odyssey version if my dying monitor was reliable enough to make it through the next few weeks of work, but it wasn't.
So, I wanted to share some of my experience of switching:
- Switching from a 1440p IPS to a 4K OLED is like night/day for picture quality. Everything looks better on this display. From YouTube videos (compressed as they are), to the cloud/desktop apps that I use for work, the color, sharpness/clarity of everything just feels superior.
- Switching from a curved display to a flat display is kind of jarring. After staring at a curved panel for 7 years, switching to a flat panel almost makes it look like its curved the opposite way, like the center of the screen is closer to me and the sides are further apart. I'm assuming that's something I'll get used to, but it's extremely noticeable for now.
- Switching from 144hz to 240hz is noticeable, but not as significant as you might think. Somewhere around 120 is probably the point of diminishing returns. Personally, I think 144hz would be fine for most people.
- Windows HDR is still trash even with the new hotness in display technology. I don't know how to explain my experience with HDR on Windows other than it makes everything look washed out. I tried calibrating it with the HDR calibration tool, but maybe HDR just isn't for me. I'll take my colors vibrant please.
- Having the perfect scale from 4K to 1080p will help a bunch when screensharing. Most of my staff are on 1080p or 1200p displays, so sharing 1440p content in Teams/TeamViewer, I'd often get complaints that text/icons are too small and I'd need to bump up the scaling a bit to help there. Being able to drop down to 1080p before sharing should resolve that completely and eliminate any weird stretching that comes with scaling to a non-perfect resolution.
At the end of the day, the UCDM3 is clearly better than the VQR, but I don't think I would have went out of my way to buy it if my old monitor was still alive. For $900, I could have picked up a refurbished 65" LG OLED C5 for my living room which is undoubtedly the better purchase at that price point. I paid more for this 32" display than I did for the S90D on my wall. Do with that information what you will.
*EDIT*
I forgot to mention that the UCDM3 switches the somewhat normalized formula of using the external power brick + barrel plug to supply power to the monitor in favor of a standard C13 that plugs directly into the monitor. I have a built in cable management compartment in the back of the Ikea Alex desk that I use, so this wasn't a hug deal since I could tuck it away, but regardless this is still a favorable change. Between my router, soundbar, focusrite controller, powered headphone stands, Ally dock, Mic/Mic Arm, phone charger, etc. etc. I have more than enough bulk/wires on my desk and not having to find somewhere to tuck away another 100W brick is much appreciated.
-Salt