LG’s award-winning C Model line of OLED televisions has been consistently hailed as being among the best in class for gaming for several years now, and while PC gamers tend to be a more discerning bunch than the average person who’s in the market for the latest OLED television, it’s encouraging to see the company faithfully to address that segment of its audience and continue to extend its quality expertise to its line of UltraGear gaming monitors as well. Accordingly, LG’s latest gaming OLED, the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE, has some big shoes to fill.
As the direct follow-up to LG’s 2023 27-inch UltraGear 27GR95QE, which at the time of its release had the distinction of being the world’s first 240Hz OLED gaming monitor, the 32GS95UE immediately sets itself apart with a couple of impressive firsts of its own. For starters, while its predecessor was a 27-inch 1440p panel, the 32GS95UE is the first 32-inch gaming monitor from LG to offer a 4K, 240Hz panel that incorporates the company’s second-generation “W-OLED” (i.e. White OLED) technology. W-OLED is effectively LG’s answer to rival Samsung’s QD-OLED (Quantum Dot OLED) technology featured in competing products from Samsung, Dell (Alienware) and others.
Long story short, W-OLED panels rearrange the composition and structure of the more traditional OLED/QD-OLED panel and add a fourth subpixel to the traditional trio of red, green and blue, allowing for the “white” light of the OLED layer to pass through. The result is that in addition to the ability of each and every individual pixel to dim or shut off to produce dark scenes that can literally display jet black, the 32GS95UE W-OLED also achieves higher peak HDR brightness than QD-OLED in certain situations and enhances pixel density, offering cleaner text quality for productivity-related tasks.
The 32GS95UE is also the first OLED in the world to offer a VESA-certified Dual-Mode, which, at the press of a button, allows the user to switch between the panel’s already astounding 4K240Hz default settings and blazingly fast 0.03ms response time to a blisteringly fast and fluid 480Hz1080p presentation with only a 0.02ms response time. This feature is no doubt aimed at competitive gamers willing to sacrifice image detail in order to gain the ultimate edge over their opponents in reducing input latency. There are caveats to this of course, but the hype is indeed real. More on that later.
Supplied in the retail box are a 1.8m HDMI (ver 2.1) cable, a ver 1.4 Display Port cable of approximately the same length, a USB-A to USB-Type B Upstream cable, the OLED panel itself, and a sleek-looking L-stand which only requires minimal and practically tool-less assembly. Oh, and naturally, the offering wouldn’t be complete without all the expected documentation, as well as a power cable and an AC chunky adapter whose cord lengths are both a tad too short.
When it comes to basic ergonomics, functionality and I/O, however, there is barely a single thing about the 32GS95UE that I can complain about, as the panel checks off pretty much every box that I have come to expect from a gaming monitor in 2024 without the traditional cutting of corners I’ve seen with past LG UltraGears. For instance, the 32GS95UE’s panel can be raised or lowered, tilted forward or backward, swivelled moderately left or right and even rotated into a portrait mode (a.k.a. “ta-te” mode) for vertical gaming and/or productivity purposes), allowing for minor repositioning without having to move or lift the feet/foot. Previous models didn’t offer any swivel at all, which was “ultra-annoying.”
“The 32GS95UE is also the first OLED in the world to offer a VESA-certified Dual-Mode, allowing users to switch between 4K240Hz and 1080p480Hz settings.”
As for the hookups themselves, all the essentials are present and accounted for: two HDMI 2.1 inputs, a Display Port 1.4 input, a USB 3.0 Type-B Upstream port, two Type-A USB 3.0 Downstream ports for connecting other devices like a wired keyboard, mouse or other peripherals (essentially a USB hub) and a 3.5mm headphone jack with built-in support for DTS Headphone:X.
Many UltraGear monitors are infamous for not including built-in speakers, including last year’s 27GR95QE, but in 2024, the 32GS95UE has more than remedied this with its new “Pixel Sound” technology that uses the entire panel to deliver immersive 3D DTS Virtual:X sound. Don’t go expecting window-rattling bass akin to what a powerful sub-woofer and sound bar might deliver, but the fidelity is still clear, loud, bass-rich, and detailed. It’s more than serviceable when you have the house or apartment all to yourself, and you don’t feel like putting on a pair of sweaty cans.
Ok, so I might have lied about not having any gripes with the design. I’m a bit puzzled as to why LG chose to move the central control nub (or “joystick,” if you will) from the bottom of the monitor to the cable cavity just behind it, technically placing it on the back of the monitor. The placement just feels awkward to me, since it’s so easy to locate the nub on my own LG monitor (an 27GL850B) every time just by reaching under the panel at its centre.
The process is similar to the 32GS95UE, but now locating the button requires the user to reach back behind where one would normally find the button if it were centrally placed on the bottom. I suppose it allows for cleaner lines, but it’s impractical in my view.
A second pet peeve of mine is that all of the I/O ports on the back of the 32GS95UE (apart from the headphone jack) face downward, which can be a real pain if you are the sort of gamer or streamer who likes to make changes to your setup often and wants easy access to your monitor’s inputs.
You’ll either need to have a good amount of space behind the monitor to see the inputs clearly or get really good at probing around with your fingers and guiding your various cables into their respective ports by feel. Thankfully, the panel’s ability to swivel, tilt and pivot makes this a bit easier. Conversely, if you are a set-it-and-forget-it type of user, then this problem likely won’t be an issue beyond the initial setup.
Visually the 32GS95UE is a minimalistic work of art when viewed from the front. With ultra-slim bevels measuring only 5mm and an anti-glare matte screen that almost appears to absorb light that shines on it directly, the panel is a black monolith that floats above the elegant yet sturdy L-stand in a fashion that is simultaneously unassuming and imposing. The cable management “port hole” built into the stand is a bit tricky to work with as it could stand to be a little wider, but with some proper threading effort, the cables can be made to look invisible. There’s also an I/O rear cover to keep things nice and tidy.
The back of the monitor evolves the ‘hexagonal’ heatsink design of last year’s models by fully integrating both the heatsink and the whisper-quiet fan into the panel’s chassis itself, while a rounder, cleaner and more irregular hexagonal shape is echoed in both the base of the L-stand and the redesigned LED light strip.
The latter can be set to a specific colour or cycle through the entire selection to illuminate the area behind the panel and add a bit of personal flash. The LED never gets too bright, but it can be switched off. Meanwhile, the L-stand takes up far less space than the annoying triangular feet of previous models and provides a small, flat surface on which to place accessories such as a gamepad.
“Visually, the 32GS95UE is a minimalistic work of art when viewed from the front, with ultra-slim bevels and an anti-glare matte screen.”
Of course, none of the frills listed above mean much of anything if a gaming monitor fails to deliver on either of its two key performance features, HDR (High Dynamic Range) and refresh rate and having reviewed and owned a handful of dedicated gaming panels over the past few years, let’s just say I’ve grown accustomed to being disappointed with the former. While there are a number of industry factors that can be blamed, visually performant HDR on gaming monitors continues to be a mixed bag, even with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400-certified QD-OLED and W-OLED panels becoming more common. All that being said, the 32GS95UE is the first OLED gaming panel whose HDR has genuinely blown me away.
I tested a number of game consoles, both on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, from a variety of genres to assess HDR performance, and a common through-line with every game that I played was the 32GS95UE’s uncompromising local dimming and deep inky blacks. Provided that the signal being received was of true HDR quality and not a poorly compressed CG intro or cutscene, I was unable to notice any blocky compression or colour banding in dark scenes or any “light halos” around bright objects in the blackness. The visual impact on games, which up until now I had only experienced on lesser gaming panels in SDR or inferior versions or simulations of HDR, was simply transformative.
The only real downside is that despite being True Black 400-certified and boasting 1300nits at peak HDR brightness with a 1.5M contrast ratio, the 32GS95UE still manages to “crush” blacks, resulting in some shadow details becoming obscured, though I’m still happy to go on record as saying that these are the best-looking crushed blacks I’ve ever seen on a monitor, with no signs of unwelcome visual artifacts.
Apart from that, with a wide colour gamut of DCI-P3 98.5, colours absolutely pop on the 32GS95UE. When playing games like Ghosts of Tsushima that feature changing times of day, a variety of biomes and a vibrant colour palette, there were countless scenic moments where my jaw dropped wide open in awe. In particular, one time, while on horseback as the game’s protagonist, Jin, I crested a curving mountain path and was greeted by a gorgeous, setting sun just as it started to slip below the horizon. I literally had to stop, and take it all in and snap an in-game screenshot before it vanished.
I also sampled a handful of UHD movies and TV shows across Netflix, Amazon and the Xbox Store, including The Batman, Quiet on the Western Front, The Blacklist, The Boys and Invincible, and found the 32GS95UE ideal for enjoying 4K filmed content as well. Not only did the excellent local dimming contribute to the overall immersion of dark scenes, but it also displayed the black bars in letterboxed content as pure black, further enhancing said immersion. Mysteriously, however, the 32GS95UE only supports HDR 10 and not Dolby Vision, despite the latter HDR mode being regularly featured in LG’s line of OLED televisions. That’s a bit of a bummer, especially given the 32GS95UE’s premium price tag.
As mentioned earlier, the other key performance feature of a gaming monitor is its refresh rate, and needless to say, this is a category that the 32GS95UE has completely covered. Firstly, full disclosure: None of my gaming hardware, neither my Xbox Series X, nor my PS5, nor my now two-generation old NZXT Frankenstein PC gaming rig have the graphical horsepower to play a 240Hz game that could truly put this OLED through the paces, but I gave it my all at 120Hz regardless.
“The 32GS95UE’s ‘Pixel Sound’ technology uses the entire panel to deliver immersive 3D DTS Virtual
The monitor performed very well in the new console testing, where the NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro-compatible 32GS95UE handily withstood any game I threw at it. Of course, the stars of the show were Halo Infinite Multiplayer and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, two games in the Xbox catalogue that are widely celebrated for their 120 frames-per-second gameplay.
Both ran virtually flawlessly on the 32GS95UE, where neither I nor the frame counter could spot nary a missed frame, whether the panel had Adaptive-Sync, a.k.a. Variable Refresh Rate, engaged or not. Ori, for some reason, would not run at 120Hz until VRR was disabled on the Xbox, but once that was sorted, everything was a lock. Likewise, the aforementioned Ghost of Tsushima, Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Stellar Blade, and Cyberpunk 2077 all ran beautifully at 60fps without issue.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to explain the 32GS95UE’s flagship feature that I brought up earlier, called Dual Mode. Once enabled, users can instantly switch their panel’s default resolution and framerate from 4K240Hz to 1080p480Hz at the push of a button. This is a bespoke feature of the panel that doesn’t require additional fiddling around with the actual settings of the game being played and also allows players to run the 1080p480Hz mode at 32” full-screen, 27” bordered and even 24” bordered modes. The feature is ideally aimed at competitive gamers who prefer smaller screens for FPS gaming and are willing to accept a notable resolution hit in exchange for higher accuracy and lower input latency.
The downside is that Dual Mode won’t work if your gaming rig isn’t capable of outputting a rock-solid 480Hz signal, so using this feature with a game console or anything less than a powerful, modern PC rig is out of the question. As a counterbalance to that, however, enabling Dual Mode doesn’t interfere with other features of the monitor, such as VRR, so beyond the obvious hit to resolution quality, users don’t have to sacrifice too much to take advantage of the mode. Sadly, for reasons already explained, I wasn’t able to test the feature using the hardware available to me.
It should be mentioned that while I passionately dislike the new location of the control nub, the OSD menu is fantastic. It’s simple to use, and beyond basic settings offers intuitively easy access to indispensable gamer tools like the oft-mentioned framerate counter, on-screen crosshairs, adaptive sync and LED light strip customization, among other helpful controls.
By now I think I’ve made it more than clear that I absolutely adore the 32GS95UE, but at the same time it’s not a monitor that I can easily recommend to everybody. At an MSRP of $1399.99 USD for example, the 32GS95UE is prohibitively more expensive (up to $400 more) than equivalent QD-OLED monitors on the market with nearly identical feature parity if you take Dual Mode out of the equation, like the Dell Alienware AW3225QF.
“The LG UltraGear 32GS95UE may not be the ‘perfect’ PC gaming OLED monitor, but it’s pretty darn close to being a ‘masterpiece’.”
Competitive gamers that have the available space and desire a smaller, 24” or 27” 1080p480Hz dedicated screen for FPS games can likely purchase one separately for the difference in cost with fewer compromises. And the HDR performance isn’t the best when it comes to shadow detail.
However, for the gamer that only has space for a single 32-inch monitor, owns at least one current-gen console in addition to a powerful, modern gaming rig, and/or prefers an all-in-one setup with all of the essential PC and gaming console-friendly trappings, the 32GS95UE is a much easier sell.
It may be built primarily with the “PC Master Race” in mind, but it’s superbly suited to current-gen game consoles like the Xbox Series X and PS5, offers excellent visual clarity for productivity, and is also great for enjoying more passive media UHD content like TV shows and Movies. The LG UltraGear 32GS95UE may not be the ‘perfect’ PC gaming OLED monitor, but it’s pretty darn close to being a ‘masterpiece’.
- 4K/UHD UltraGear OLED @ 240Hz – 4K UHD at up to 240Hz on an OLED display is the best of all gaming worlds – smooth, ultra-fast OLED gaming with immersive, breathtaking visuals.
- Dual Mode – LG UltraGear OLED introduces the World’s First VESA Certified Dual Mode gaming monitor, offering 4K up to 240Hz or Full HD up to 480Hz.
