The new Porsche Design monitor costs $1,800. It’s a (very) good price

A monitor at $1,800 could give rise to the typical “where are we going!”, but the truth is that this is an interesting product. Is he new display from Porsche Design in collaboration with AOC, and it turns out that its price is much better than you might think.

The key is that we are talking about a monitor with a Mini LED panel, a technology superior to that of many monitors. The comparison with monitors in that price range such as the Apple Studio Display, and at least in that section this product is clearly superior.

A design with many lights

The Porsche Design AOC Agon Pro PD32M -which will not be available until June- is a monitor designed and developed by the Porsche Design division in collaboration with AOC, a manufacturer already veteran in this segment.

The result is a 32-inch monitor with a keystone bracket Made of aluminum that certainly attracts attention and is a tribute to the steering wheels of the brand’s cars.

In this design, the inclusion of the RGB lighting system from the rear. This lighting is more oriented to give atmosphere to the room by projecting on the wall.

There is one more detail: the PD32M is capable of project an LED logo on the desktop, something that you can see at the bottom of that rear image with that beam projecting a logo onto the monitor base.

The monitor also has a unique remote control to use the screen as a television, an accessory that we have begun to see in some monitors “convertible” to Smart TV such as the Samsung M5 that we were able to analyze recently.

Connectivity also brings good news: we have two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort, USB-C, four USB-A (Gen 3.2), and a headphone jack. The monitor even has two hooks that can be attached to either side to act as headphone holders. It also offers two 8W speakers with DTS support.

Specs are outstanding.

The most striking feature of this 32-inch monitor with 4K resolution is your Mini LED panelan item that not many competitors offer.

That makes it superior to traditional LED panels on most monitors today, but here Porsche Design you have not specified the number of independent local dimming zones (dimming zones) has this model.

This type of panel also improves contrast and in fact this model has a VESA DisplayHDR 1400 certification, which guarantees that it is capable of achieve a brightness of 1,400 nits with HDR content.

Its creators go further, and ensure that it is possible to achieve 1,600 nits and 97% DCI-P3 coverage. The thing does not stop there: the monitor has support for refresh rates of up to 144 Hz, response times of 1 ms (GtG) and adaptive synchronization, which makes it also an excellent option for gamers.

$1,800 is not (in this case) that many dollars

That $1,800 price seems steep for a 32-inch 4K monitor, but a quick look at the market makes it clear that we are actually facing a proposal with a very attractive price.

They indicate it in Ars Technica, where they reveal how, for example, the Dell G3223Q —32 inches, 4K, 144 Hz— costs about 1,100 dollars, but it does not have a Mini LED panel.

Monitors with such technology they are much more expensive. The ASUS ROG Swift PG32UQX is around $2,900, and the Acer Predator X32 has a Mini LED panel, 4K resolution and 165 Hz refresh rate, and although its price is expected to be around the same $1,800, it has 576 local zones ( we will see how much Porsche Design offers) and worse certification, HDR 1000.

There is another Mini LED option on the horizon: soon the Cooler Master GP27-FQSa 27-inch 1440p 165Hz model, and will do so for about $700.

And in front of all of them, it is difficult not to remember the recent Apple Studio Display, which costs $1,600 and even with 5K resolution and including an A13 Bionic and a webcam has a clearly worse panel although its sound system shines with its own light.

So we are dealing with a monitor that certainly has a high price, but that is not so high when we look at the price of other similar models. This is indeed good news for the future: Mini LED technology seems to be poised for become much easier (and affordable) to find on monitors in the coming months.