ASUS Announces First Two Monitors with Mini-LED Backlighting

Ron Perillo / 6 years ago

Introducing the ProArt PA32UCX and PA27UCX

ASUS first announced their latest line of monitors featuring Mini LED backlighting back at CES 2019. Now the first two monitors to use this technology are arriving soon: the PA32UCX and PA27UCX.

The numbers in those names refer to their screen size. So the PA32UCX is the larger of the two with a 32-inch screen. Therefore, the PA27UCX is a 27-inch screen. Since both are under ASUS’ ProArt line, these are targeting professional users rather than gamers or for media consumption.

In terms of colour, the PA27UCX offers True 10 bit colors. It also supports DCI-P3, Rec. 709, Rec. 2020 and Adobe RGB wide color gamut, pre-calibrated for excellent color accuracy (ΔE < 2).

What is Mini LED?

Despite the size difference, both displays support up to 4K UHD resolution and have an IPS panel. Also, despite the proximity to the name “Micro LED”, Mini-LED backlighting is a different technology.

Micro LEDs are much smaller and each pixel is an individual LED unit. On the other hand, Mini-LED refers to miniaturized LEDs used for backlighting the unit only. It still uses a regular IPS panel. Except this time, with a smaller LED for backlighting, ASUS is able to pack more of them in the same space as regular LED backlit monitors. In fact, the PA27UCX has
576 zones with dynamic dimming backlight control. Meanwhile, the PA32UCX has even more with 1000+ zones for local dimming.

The result, according to ASUS, is superior HDR performance. Plus, since it uses regular IPS panels, it does not come with the baggage of Micro LED price tags (which start at 3x that of typical LCD monitors).

What Kind of Connectivity Options are Available on These Monitors?

The PA27UCX offers DP over USB-C with 60W Power Delivery, DisplayPort, HDMI, and a USB 3.0 hub. Meanwhile, the larger PA32UCX has Thunderbolt 3 USB-C supporting data transfers at up to 40 Gbps. Thunderbolt 3 also provides up to 60W of power to external devices. That is on top of having HDMI and DisplayPort as well.