I’ve been editing with a 5K Ultra Wide monitor for a little over a year now, and it has been a fantastic experience. I love the resolution, I love the screen real estate for my timelines, but there’s been one limitation I kept running into, and it all comes down to my camera: the Panasonic S1II.
This camera films in 6K resolution, and I’ve had no way of viewing that footage natively on any monitor I owned. None of them were high enough resolution, so I always had to let the monitor downscale to display it. And while going from 5K to 6K might not sound like a huge leap, that’s actually 75% more pixels this camera can record than my Ultra Wide could show. A pretty gosh darn big difference.
That is, until now. Enter the ASUS ProArt PA32QCV, a 6K monitor that feels purpose-built for video editors. It’s incredibly color accurate, covers a very wide color space, and I’ve been using it to edit my own work. Today I’m reviewing it from the perspective of a video editor who also does some gaming on the side, and I’m going to tell you whether you should buy it.
For the sake of ethics: this review is not sponsored by ASUS and I haven’t been paid by them, but they did send me this monitor so I could make this review.
Also, if you want to level up your video editing while you’re here, go grab my free Edit Videos Like a Pro guide. It’s completely free and packed with some of the best techniques I’ve learned over the years.
Unboxing and Physical Design
Like all monitors, this one comes in a big box inside another big box. The unboxing process is smooth, which is always appreciated when dealing with large equipment.
Once you get it out, you immediately notice just how big this thing is. ASUS calls it 32 inches in the product name (hence the PA32), but the fine print says it’s actually 31.5 inches. Honestly, not a huge deal. This monitor is still massive, they can round up if they want to.
The front has minimal bezel except for a strip along the bottom, and here’s something I genuinely love: buttons on the front of the monitor. Yes, actual physical buttons you can see and press without guessing. Companies have been moving away from this for years in the name of aesthetics, replacing them with buttons on the bottom or the back. And while that looks cleaner, it’s a nightmare in practice. You end up running your fingers along the back of a $1,000+ monitor, blindly pressing things, hoping something works. Some monitors even have joysticks. Joysticks on a monitor!
ASUS said forget aesthetics, here are the buttons you need, plus a little nipple joystick to make things even easier. Every monitor company should do this. Somebody start a petition, I’ll sign it.
The stand is also excellent. You can easily adjust the height and rotate the monitor vertically. You know, in case you want to edit an Instagram Reel in 6K. Some of you just cringed reading that, which is very funny.
Ports and Connectivity
On the back you get: one HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, four USB-C ports (one Thunderbolt 4 at 96W for charging and display input, one 15W USB-C for charging or daisy-chaining, one general USB-C), two USB-A ports, and a headphone jack.
That sounds like a lot, and it is, but here’s my one gripe: there’s only one HDMI and one DisplayPort. For a monitor at $1,300, that’s a bit surprising. My old $300 Dell has two HDMI inputs. If you’re running multiple computers on your desk like I am (a custom Windows PC, a Mac mini, and a MacBook Air), you may find yourself wishing for an extra HDMI. Just something to be aware of going in.
Image Quality: 6K Up Close Is Something Else
Here’s the thing about 6K TVs: they don’t really exist. Manufacturers skipped from 4K straight to 8K. And even if they did exist, you’d be sitting so far away from a TV that you’d never appreciate the extra resolution. But when you’re sitting a few feet from a 6K monitor at your editing desk? You can absolutely tell. This screen has over double the pixels of a 4K display, and it shows.
This thing looks phenomenal. And honestly, are you surprised? The ProArt line has been ASUS’s flagship brand for filmmakers and photographers for years. Color accuracy is exceptional right out of the box, it comes factory calibrated with documentation to prove it.
I still calibrated it myself using my Spyder X2 Ultra, and the screen looked nearly identical before and after. Gamma was at 2.31 initially and settled at 2.22 post-calibration, extremely close to the 2.20 target. The Spyder software confirmed 100% sRGB and 97% P3 coverage. ASUS claims 98%, so that’s about as close as you’re realistically going to get.
In short: this is a very color accurate panel that you can trust for color correction and color grading. If you want to speed up your grading workflow once you’ve got a reliable monitor like this, check out my LUTs as a starting point, and I’ve also got a full tutorial on how to use LUTs to color grade your footage in Premiere Pro.
One note: this is still an IPS panel, so contrast isn’t going to match an OLED. It’s not even an IPS Black variant. But to my eye it still looks very good, and I wouldn’t let contrast be a dealbreaker here. The more important IPS advantage is the 178 degree viewing angle. Even if this is your secondary monitor sitting off to the side, colors won’t shift or wash out unless you’re extremely far off center. That matters a lot when you’re trusting a monitor for color work.
If you want a monitor that handles OLED-level contrast and color accuracy, I also reviewed the Dell U3226Q, which actually calibrates itself. Worth a look if that’s more your speed. And if you’re on a tighter budget, I reviewed the BenQ VideoVue PV3200U, a solid 4K editing monitor around $650 to $800.
Scaling and Pixel Density
At 216 pixels per inch, this display is essentially a Retina display in Apple’s terms. Individual pixels are not distinguishable. But there’s a quirk to be aware of: at native 6K resolution with no scaling applied, everything on your operating system, buttons, menus, text, is going to be extremely tiny. Like, squinting-and-getting-close tiny.
The good news is that both Windows and macOS handle this well. I tested with both, and on Windows, scaling to 200% looks great. On Mac, the default 2x scaling shows the system UI at 3K resolution while playing back video natively in 6K, which is exactly what you want as a video editor. It just works.
The 60Hz Limitation (and Why It Matters for Gaming, Not Editing)
Here’s where things get interesting. This monitor runs at 60Hz. That’s the same as the Apple Pro Display XDR, which makes sense given the resolution demands. But the Pro Display XDR costs five to six times more, so it’s really only going to be purchased by dedicated professionals who aren’t thinking about gaming on it. The ASUS at $1,300 sits in a zone where editors who also game might be tempted by it.
For reference, my 5K Ultra Wide is also 120Hz, and it’s an absolute unicorn because it handles both video editing and gaming beautifully. This ASUS won’t give you that.
That said, for video editing, 60Hz is not a dealbreaker at all. Most of the time you’re editing footage at 24 or 30 FPS, and even high frame rate footage gets slowed down in post. The refresh rate just isn’t a factor in that context.
For gaming, though, if you’re coming from a 120Hz panel, motion will feel like a noticeable downgrade. And for what it’s worth, I’d also recommend not gaming at native 6K. Even the most powerful GPUs are going to struggle. Drop it to 4K or 2.5K and you’ll be much happier.
(This is also why DisplayPort 1.4 is sufficient here. At 60Hz, it can handle 6K without issue. You don’t need DisplayPort 2.1 unless you’re pushing higher refresh rates at this resolution.)
Extra Features Worth Mentioning
ASUS threw in some genuinely useful extras with this monitor:
M Model-P3 Mode is designed to match the colors of this display to your MacBook screen for a consistent look across devices. If you’re frequently moving between your laptop and your desk setup, that’s a real convenience.
DisplayWidget Center is a software app that lets you control all monitor settings from your mouse rather than pressing the physical buttons. Gamma, color temperature, brightness, contrast, saturation, it’s all there. I know I raved about the physical buttons, and I still love that they exist, but for precise adjustments this app is excellent. I’d love to see more monitor companies offer something like this.
Auto KVM lets you connect a keyboard and mouse dongle to the monitor itself and switch control between computers based on which display input you’re using. If you’re running a Mac and a PC at the same desk without smart peripherals, this is a fantastic feature. I personally use Logitech mice and keyboards with their built-in multi-device switching, so I don’t rely on this, but if your setup doesn’t have that, the KVM switch alone is very useful.
LuxPixel anti-glare coating works really well. There are lights behind me when I edit, and this screen handles reflections better than almost any monitor I’ve used. If you’re editing in a brighter room, this is a genuine advantage.
How Does It Compare to the Apple Pro Display XDR?
Both displays run at 6016 x 3384, the same 16:9 aspect ratio and resolution. The key differences:
The Pro Display XDR hits 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness. The ASUS hits 600 nits. That’s a significant gap if HDR grading is a core part of your workflow. The Pro Display XDR also gets to 100% DCI-P3, while the ASUS lands at 98% (and I measured 97% in my test). In terms of color accuracy for standard dynamic range work? They’re honestly quite close.
Here’s a thought: if you already have a Pro Display XDR and want a secondary monitor that matches its resolution without another $5,000+ investment, this ASUS is a compelling answer. You could buy four of these, stand included, for the price of one Pro Display XDR (before even factoring in Apple’s $1,000 stand). Use the Pro Display XDR for HDR grading, and use the ASUS as your timeline monitor. That’s actually a really solid dual-monitor setup.
Should You Buy It?
If you need a 6K monitor that can play back your 6K footage natively, and you want exceptional color accuracy for color grading, you are going to love this monitor. There really aren’t many 6K displays out there, and none of them feel as purpose-built for video editing as this one does at this price.
If you need both top-tier editing performance and a high-refresh-rate gaming experience from a single monitor, look at the 5K Ultra Wide I reviewed previously (5K at 120Hz is still wild to me). But if editing is your primary focus, or if 60FPS gaming is fine with you, the ASUS ProArt PA32QCV is a stellar monitor that’s going to feel current for a long time.
At $1,300, it isn’t cheap. But considering what 6K resolution, this level of color accuracy, and all the extra features typically cost, ASUS has done something impressive here. And hey, maybe it’ll help push 4K and 5K monitor prices down a little for the rest of us. We can hope.
If you want to make the most of a great monitor like this with an equally dialed-in editing workflow, grab my free Edit Videos Like a Pro guide. It’s completely free and covers some of the best techniques I’ve picked up over the years.