If the flagship display should be what it should look like, then the first is that the resolution must come to the 4K level, while also taking into account the high refresh rate and fast response speed, on this basis, the more delicate and accurate the color reproduction, the more accurate the better. Therefore, flagship displays are often "masters", and the duels between them are often inseparable.
Recently, we received the MPG321UR-QD, a 32-inch 4K flagship display from MSI, which chose the QLED (quantum dot technology) with higher cost and stronger tuning difficulty in the material of the panel, so that its color performance is amazing, and the excellent OSD settings have also impressed us, so why is it called "Wu Zhuangyuan"? Let's take a look.
Design: two sides of a machine, each different
As can be seen from the name, the display belongs to MSI's MPG series, focusing on high-end products. Therefore, in terms of design and workmanship, MSI MPG321UR-QD has shown a high level. The front of the display adopts a relatively family-style design language, and the narrow bezel on three sides is matched with the bottom bezel with an optical sensor, which makes people look a little business-oriented at first glance.
The base part also does not adopt the "octopus-like" design style commonly used in e-sports displays, but instead chooses a more stable rectangular base with a smaller footprint, with a circle of structural bulges on the base, similar to the muscle line design in the performance sports car, and at the same time, the back of the base is also like the tail design of the performance sports car, with a reverie sense of speed and strength.
The design of the back of the display is very eye-catching, the large-area drawing process and the collocation of the Kevlar texture raise the overall e-sports attributes of the display, while the high-gloss mirror part of the middle part and the LED tube embellishment allow the advanced texture of the display to be established, with the classic MSI "Dragon Shield", so that people can understand the positioning of this monitor at first glance.
The bracket section adopts the traditional style, with a cable management hole in the middle to facilitate cable passage, and MSI also comes with a front cable manager for the monitor, which is a blessing for desktop aesthetic enthusiasts. The adjustable angle of the stand is -5° to 20° frontal tilt angle, center rotation angle -30° to 30°, and up and down height adjustment of 100mm, which does not support the rotation of the monitor panel, but also conforms to the common situation of 32-inch monitors.
The interface is located at the bottom and side of the display, the interface group is very luxurious, and the display interface has 1 DP1.4A, 2 HDMI2.1, and 1 USB-C (DP protocol). In terms of transmission interface, there are 6 USB 2.0 downstream terminals (4 at the bottom and 2 on the side), 3 USB 2.0 upstream ends, as well as audio inputs and microphone input interfaces. Overall, it is very comprehensive and luxurious. The accessories also include the data cables of the above interfaces, DP1.4, HDMI2.1, Type-C data cables, and several USB-B to A data cables.
The rich interface group can not only meet the diverse display output needs, but also leave a foreshadowing for KVM technology.
Display performance: top-stream 4K panel + excellent tuning = ultimate look and feel
The MPG321UR-QD uses the M320QAN02.3 panel from AUO, which natively supports 10bit color depth output capabilities and quantum dot technology. This panel can also be seen in many other brands' flagship products, and they all performed admirably, so let's see how MSI performs.
The tested device is still Red Spider Colorimeter Pro with SpyderXElite 5.6 and DisplayCAL software. The monitor is factory reset with a base brightness of 70%.
In the first round of testing, we tested its color gamut and color accuracy performance in its user preset mode.
In terms of color gamut, MPG321UR-QD has achieved a good result of "double hundred", and the 100% sRGB and Adobe RGB color gamut coverage really shows the characteristics of quantum dots to improve color gamut. At the same time, 94% of the P3 color gamut coverage and 97% of the NTSC color gamut coverage also allow this monitor to cope with the access of various types of equipment, and even act as a professional film and television player.
At the same time, we also did a color gamut volume test on MPG321UR-QD, from the results can be known, its sRGB color gamut volume as high as 173.8%, ARGB and P3 color gamut have also come to about 120%, this conclusion further confirms the quantum dot technology to make this display in the color gamut excellent performance, but also reflects MSI's professional ability in doing color gamut reduction, so that the color gamut coverage is reasonably controlled, there will be no oversatuation, etc., so that the color is more realistic.
The color gamut volume of the display in user mode compares to the standard sRGB color gamut
In terms of tone curve, MPG321UR-QD almost coincides with the standard gamma 2.2 curve, which shows the excellent performance of the display on the grayscale display, while the basic tone also fluctuates up and down at the standard color temperature of 6500K, which can obtain a more comfortable visual experience in daily use, and there will be no over-cold and too-warm phenomenon.
In terms of brightness and contrast, the performance of MPG321UR-QD has some regrets, the maximum test brightness of 375 nits on the brightness can meet the use of most scenes, but also in line with the data of the native panel of about 400 nits. In terms of contrast, due to an extra layer of quantum dot film, the contrast ratio is not very high, the highest test value is only 600:1, and the display may be grayed out when used in a non-direct-looking angle.
After turning on the HDR mode, this result will be greatly improved, in the automatic test link in the HDR mode, the maximum brightness is about 300 nits, and the contrast at this time can be pulled to 1570:1. Because the test is conducted on a full-screen white background, the peak brightness and local brightness will be better, and the official HDR600 certification standard can be met.
The brightness uniformity and color uniformity of the panel are fairly good, especially the color uniformity, and it is not easy to maintain the highest Total 2.5 score on such a large screen, and it can be seen that the quality of this batch of AUO 2.3 panels is excellent.
In terms of color accuracy, the MPG321UR-QD achieved an average Total of 0.65 in user-preset mode, which shows that the display can well reproduce the true color of the content, and also in line with the performance level of the flagship display.
One that should surprise us is that the MPG321UR-QD comes with an ambient light sensor that can automatically feel the brightness and color temperature of the environment to adjust the display picture accordingly, a bit like the original color display and automatic brightness function in the iPhone. Below is a video of the demo.
From the video, we can see that when the ambient light changes more obviously, the brightness of the display will also change, and the color temperature will automatically adjust to the color temperature suitable for the current environment, and the adjustment speed is also very fast, almost 70% fast for the smartphone, this function is still very practical, which is the best additional function in my opinion.
OSD Setup & Hands-on Experience: Comprehensive and powerful
MPG321UR-QD's original OSD setup interface is our familiar MSI style, with a lot of professional options to adjust, support a variety of display preset options, but also can be set to the indicators in the display.
At the same time, you can also download the desktop controls officially provided by MSI to control the monitor hardware (you need to connect USB-B To A on the computer side)
In the OSD settings, MSI added a lot of options for the game settings, including sniper scopes and the "bring your own crosshair" function, which is still very practical.
Comes with crosshairs
Sniper key function demo
As well as the shadow enhancement function, it is still very effective for playing some horror games and dark environment games.
Shadow Enhancement Demo
In the actual perception, MPG321UR-QD gives me the feeling of a very gorgeous, but not oversaturated feeling, is a full color overflow but not blind feeling, there may be a small partner at first glance will feel a little too gorgeous, but after a period of habituation to look back at the color gamut is not so wide display will have a clear sense of loss, distortion, just like the existence of high brush.
In terms of gaming, MPG321UR-QD is also quite excellent, first of all, its 32-inch panel I do not recommend to play FPS games, because the screen is too large to make the perspective turn frequently, and it will be very tiring to play. So what games is this monitor suitable for? It should be a high-quality AAA masterpiece, such as Red Dead Redemption, Horizon 5 and other games with exquisite picture quality.
Summary: MPG321UR-QD is a more comprehensive 4K flagship display, in the high-quality panel and quantum dot technology under the blessing, so that the entire screen without pressure to the first echelon of the display, innovative OSD setting content also makes it have more, more humane functions, such as let us heartwarming automatic brightness, color temperature adjustment function, in this era when people are spoiled by smart phones is still very practical, useful. Taken together, it is still very appropriate for us to call it the "Wu Zhuangyuan" of 4K-class non-miniled displays for 2021-2022.