While awaiting delivery of my Asus PA32UCX-K this afternoon, I thought I’d compare a few of the features and specs of the two displays, bearing in mind that the XDR has not yet been tested.
The XDR boasts 6K, while the Asus is a 4K monitor; however, only the 2019 Mac Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro can run the XDR at full 6K resolution. Both the Asus and the Apple are true 10-bit displays.
Apple claims 500 nits for their display in SDR mode and 1,000 nits sustained and 1,600 nits peak brightness in HDR mode. The Asus can deliver anywhere from 620-656 nits in SDR and from 1,400-1,534 nits maximum brightness in HDR, depending on which reviewer you read.
The Pro Display XDR has 576 local dimming zones, whereas the Asus has 1,152.
On his YouTube channel, Marques Brownlee says his Pro Display XDR is virtually silent, while the Asus is supposed to get quite noisy.
According to Asus, the maximum viewing angle of the PA32UCX-K is 178 degrees in the horizontal and vertical (Apple claims 180 degree viewing angle for the XDR), and according to tests, hue, saturation, brightness, contrast and color temperature remain virtually unchanged even at extreme viewing angles. I expect Apple’s display will be no slouch in this department either.
As far as connectivity goes, Apple’s monitor has one TB3 port and three USB-C ports. The Asus comes with dual TB3 ports, one DisplayPort and three HDMI 2.0 ports.
The Apple Pro Display XDR runs $6,500 in the USA when purchased with stand and AppleCare+. Throw in the nano-texture glass option and that figure skyrockets to $7,500.00. In Vietnam, the ProArt 32UCX-K costs half as much ($3,300.00) and comes with stand, non-glare glass, a three-year warranty and an X-Rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter (value $250.00 in USA, $325 in VN). With the Asus, you will however have to factor in another grand for Blackmagic’s UltraStudio 4K Mini. Ouch!
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