Asus ProArt Display PA329CV Review: Spot On Color Accuracy & Affordable!

If you’re in the market for something that fits into your minimalist desk setup as well as is colour calibrated right out of the box, you’ve come to the right place. Today, we are taking a look at the ASUS PA329CV monitor for creative professionals.

All right, let me just briefly explain what this monitor is all about. First and foremost, it is a 32" 4K UHD display that's Calman Verified and factory calibrated right out of the box.

For people who pay attention to colours really closely for professional work like most of us here in the office, or even others out there who delve more into graphics, photo editing, film editing and much more, this monitor is definitely something that would probably fit your needs, which we'll touch on later.

To start off, the design is really minimal and will fit into any setup easily. There's actually only one switch on the back which would be the on/off switch along with a simple ProArt moniker. The rest of the controls are actually located upfront on the bottom right of the bezel. We would also say that even the stand itself and the overall look just screams simplistic and honestly? That's the way we like it and we daresay for most professionals as well.

One thing to note for sure, however, is that the base of the monitor stand is actually quite large. Placing it on your desk, you would find that it'll take up quite of bit of what could've been useful desk space. Not too much of a surprise given the fact that it is a 32-inch monitor and weighs 8.03kg but perhaps something to take note of for those of you who have limited desk space.

You can also choose to forgo using the included monitor stand, however, as the back does support the standard 100x100 VESA mount which will make it compatible with almost any VESA monitor arm out there. Going with this option would not only give back the desk space you would've lost, but it would make adjustments of the monitor far more flexible as well.

Speaking of which, however, the included monitor stand does already include a fair bit of adjustments. It can tilt from -5° to 23°, swivel from -30° to 30°, have a total height adjustment of 130mm and can pivot a full 90° into portrait mode. The last might be perfect for you software engineers out there.

In terms of ports, you'll get a single USB-C which also supports 90W power delivery, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2, a USB hub that will support four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports and a 3.5mm earphone jack.

For most people, we would highly suggest using DisplayPort as that's where you'll easily be able to power the full 4K resolution of the panel and up to 60Hz. For those of you who use a laptop, however, that USB-C port is perhaps the best thing ever to be included for not only does it support the full display throughput that DisplayPort provides, but it'll also charge your device, up to 90W.

This means if you're someone who uses the now older MacBook Pros that still uses the USB-C for charging, you can power the entire monitor and charge your laptop with just a single USB-C cable. Frees up more space on your desk and fewer cables for sure, which is always welcome.

But enough about all that, you're probably only interested in the performance of this display. Needless to say, it is really, really good.

Again, it's a 32-inch IPS panel in a 16:9 aspect ratio with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 running at 60Hz with a 5ms response time. The panel also supports 100% sRGB with △E< 2 and a typical brightness of 350 nits and a peak brightness of 400 nits. It's also 10-bit capable via 8-bit+FRC, has HDR10 support and has a non-glare coating. But it doesn't stop there.

Being part of the ProArt series, it does also feature quite a number of colour presets, 11 in total: Standard, sRGB, DCI-P3, DICOM, Rec. 709, Scenery, Reading, Rapid Rendering, HDR, User Mode1 and User Mode2.

What all these basically do is lock the panel into a certain calibrate colour space as it says, all of which are colour calibrated straight out from the factory, ensuring they are true to what they claim.

Personally, we like to keep it standard, but it is definitely nice to know that you can change it up whenever you need with just a click of a button.

So we've covered the specs, the features and perhaps you already have an inkling of what this monitor is capable of. Well, without further ado, let's dive right in and talk about the usability and our overall experience with the PA329CV.

The one thing that we note on this monitor is that it is sharp from edge to edge and we don't just mean that because it is a 4K monitor. If you have ever compared monitors before or experienced different monitors from time to time, you'll notice that some of the cheaper panels out there tend to have less consistency in terms of the pixels and their supposed output when nearing the edges of the display.

Not the case here with this monitor. It is sharp, edge to edge, pixel to pixel. When working in Lightroom or DaVinci Resolve, there is certainly a distinct difference when going back and forth from the PA329CV and the iMac Pro no less. We reiterate, the iMac Pro. That already has a fantastic display but when compared to a professional monitor like this very one, there is still a difference that's discernable from the naked eye, especially if you're a professional who deals with colour almost every day.

The colours are just vibrant and downright accurate and to be expected from an Asus ProArt series monitor.

We then come to the best bit. The price.

For all that we've just shared, the Asus ProArt PA329CV 4K monitor retails for just about S$1,259 or US$799. At that price, it is honestly quite the steal. Gone are the days when you'll have to spend a bomb to get a really good colour-calibrated monitor for all your professional needs.

This is just a great monitor for the price. If you're a professional looking for such a monitor to fit your needs and workflow right now, definitely consider this. It will be very much worth it.