The 7 most interesting PC monitors from CES 2023

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) never fails to deliver a pile of new gadgets and gizmos, but finding products that bring something new and valuable to the table can be a real challenge. CES 2023 had its share of product refreshes, clones, and minor updates, but this year also proved there’s still some “wow” factor to be found at the tech show.

And that includes the event’s PC monitor selection. All the monitors on this list are promised to be real products coming out this year. Better yet, they all have some unique features that aren’t readily available to consumers today.

Here are the seven most intriguing monitors from CES 2023.

Asus ProArt Display OLED PA32DCM

I ended 2022 begging for a better OLED monitor selection in 2023. Those pleas have already started to be answered.

There haven’t been too many OLED monitors smaller than 40 inches. That has meant limited OLED options for people looking for something to put on their desks for productivity and creative work. CES 2023 brought several desktop-sized OLED monitors, but most target PC gamers. That includes Acer’s Predator X27U (27 inches), Asus’ ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM (27 inches), and MSI’s MEG 342c QD-OLED (34-inch ultrawide).

Asus’ ProArt Display OLED PA32DCM is a 31.5-inch 4K monitor aimed at creative professionals. Asus’ blog markets the panel toward photographers, filmmakers, and people working with HDR content, comparing it to a reference display. It attempts to earn that not-so-humble brag with a claimed color error of Delta E <1 (many premium monitors claim a Delta E of <2 or 3). Asus also says the display has 99 percent DCI-P3 color coverage and a max brightness of 700 nits.

The company touts the OLED screen’s use of an RGB stripe panel rather than RGBW, which can hurt text clarity, particularly in RGB-optimized Windows or the much-maligned PenTile layout. The tech is also different from that seen in the QD-OLED monitors that started releasing last year, largely targeting gamers seeking vibrant colors. It’s exciting to see a new productivity-focused OLED option besides LG’s UltraFine OLED monitors hit the market.

Asus said it’s looking to get the PA32DCM VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, which guarantees 500 nits in a 10 percent pattern and 300 nits full-screen with an ultra-low black level. That would help set it apart from LG’s OLED.

Some monitors announced at CES 2023 feature 140 W USB-C Power Delivery (PD), so the PA32DCM’s 90 W Thunderbolt 4 port isn’t very impressive. It’s still sufficient for powering many ultralight PCs, though. We don’t know the full port selection yet, but there should be a 15 W Thunderbolt 4 port and HDMI.

Asus didn’t reveal the monitor’s price but said it would come out in the first quarter of the year.