AOC Q32P2 review: A 1440p 32in monitor for under £300

The AOC Q32P2 is frustratingly close to being a great work monitor. Its size, price and feature set are its strongest assets: if you need a large, adjustable display that doesn’t cost the earth, there aren’t many alternatives that offer such good value for money.

At this price, however, there will inevitably be compromises. The Q32P2 is big, but the panel is drab, and although you might expect such a trade-off it doesn’t make the end product any less disappointing to behold. Luckily, the Q32P2 is saved by a few redeeming features – but where image quality is concerned, you have been warned.

AOC Q32P2 review: What do you get for the money?

The AOC Q32P2 is a 31.5in IPS monitor with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, a maximum refresh rate of 75Hz, a response time of 4ms and AMD FreeSync support. On the rear, you’ll find two HDMI 1.4 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.2 port, a headphone jack, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports for your various peripherals and a USB-B port to power them.

The panel is mounted on a removable stand with 150mm of height adjustment, 175 degrees of swivel and 20.5 degrees of tilt. If you’re hoping to mount this monitor on a wall or third-party stand, you’re in luck, as the Q32P2 is VESA mount compatible. You can even attach a mini PC to the rear using AOC’s VESA-P2 mount.

Even at its RRP, the Q32P2 will set you back a very reasonable £269. In the box, you’ll find the monitor itself plus an HDMI 1.4 cable, a DisplayPort cable and assorted literature.

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AOC Q32P2 review: What do we like about it?

This might not be the most impressive 31.5in monitor in the world where image quality is concerned, but the AOC Q32P2 has just enough going for it to save it from a truly disastrous score. Chief among these redeeming features is its stand: you’ll struggle to find many large monitors that can brag about 150mm of height adjustment and have proper swivel and tilt options at this price. The stand even allows the Q32P2 to swivel around into a portrait orientation, if that’s something you’ll find useful.

To accommodate this flexible stand, the Q32P2 has a sizable footprint, so plenty of desk space is an absolute requirement. It is, however, a very smart monitor. Clad from head to toe in black, the Q32P2 is imposing but certainly not flimsy, and I feel quite confident that it looks and feels more expensive than it is.

The USB hub is another boon. It’s a tad disappointing the Q32P2 lacks a USB-C port, but the inclusion of no fewer than four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports is noteworthy all the same, particularly if you plan on plugging in a laptop with a severe shortage of ports. Keep in mind, however, that you will need a USB-B to USB-A cable, which is maddeningly not supplied by AOC.

AOC Q32P2 review: What could be better?

AOC’s 1440p IPS panel is distinctly unimpressive. Viewing angles are good, but brightness peaks at a mediocre 248cd/m² – just barely suitable for brightly lit rooms – and a fairly low pixel density of 93PPI leaves text and icons looking a little bit rough around the edges.

In testing, the Q32P2 couldn’t even reproduce the entire range of colours required of the standard sRGB colour gamut – so photographers and videographers can forget about working with wide-gamut DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB gamuts. In our tests, it covered 87.3% of a total 94.3% sRGB gamut volume, which stops some way short of more able monitors.

Disappointingly, switching the Q32P2 into sRGB mode decreases the overall coverage further to 82.3%. It also locks brightness at 179cd/m², which is a reasonably sensible brightness level for dimmer rooms in the home or office but not so good for bright spaces.

Colour accuracy is disappointing in either mode, however. At default settings, the Q32P2’s average Delta E of 3.67 is mediocre (Delta E is a measure of colour accuracy), and it only drops down to 3.18 in sRGB mode. Maximum Delta E figures were over 10 in both modes, which indicates some rather wayward colour reproduction.

Ideally, you want an average Delta E figure to be below 3, and you don’t really want it to peak much above that in any of the tested colours. Indeed, anything over two will be visible under close scrutiny.

In brief, this is not a colour-accurate monitor, nor is it an especially bright one. Anyone hoping to do a spot of professional photo editing should look elsewhere. The good news is that the 75Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync support and 4ms response time do make the Q32P2 viable for light gaming outside of work hours.

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AOC Q32P2 review: Should you buy it?

The Q32P2 is both practical and affordable but the mediocre image quality is the key reason why this monitor hasn’t received a better score. If you can stretch your budget up and over the £300 mark, you can find a selection of big screen monitors with much improved image quality and colour accuracy.

Alternatively, you could settle for a smaller, better 27in panel and spend a similar amount. The Iiyama ProLite XUB2792QSU-B1 (£259) is a 1440p monitor with similar specs and a phenomenally colour-accurate panel.

If, on the other hand, you just want a large, affordable 1440p monitor for home-office duties – and one that can turn its hand to a bit of after-hours gaming – then you may be quite happy with the compromises. There’s little in this price range or size bracket that offers quite such good value for money.