Innocn 32M2V Review: 4K 144Hz Mini LED HDR Gaming Monitor

If you’ve been waiting for a 32″ 4K high refresh rate gaming monitor with proper HDR support, the Innocn 32M2V is the first model available at a reasonable price!

There’s now also a version of this monitor with a darker design, the Innocn 32A6V.

Image Quality

The Innocn 32M2V is based on AU Optronics’ IPS panel (AHVA M320QAN02.x), the same or similar one used in the $3,000 ASUS PG32UQX (M320QAN02.6) model!

It uses a QDEF (quantum dot enhanced film) layer for an exceptional color gamut of 99% Adobe RGB and 99% DCI-P3 color space coverage.

You’ll even find dedicated gamut clamps for sRGB, DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB color spaces with excellent Delta E < 2 factory calibration.

As a result, you get vibrant and accurate colors with 178° wide viewing angles, which ensures flawless image consistency regardless of the angle you’re looking at the screen. This makes the monitor suitable for professional color-critical work.

Additionally, the Innocn 32M2V monitor has a mini LED backlight with an 1152-zone full-array local dimming (FALD) solution. These zones can dim parts of the screen that are supposed to be dark without greatly affecting areas that should remain bright, thus effectively boosting the contrast ratio.

In turn, you can simultaneously get bright and punchy highlights up to 1200-nits as well as deep and inky blacks.

In some scenes with small bright objects, the light can bleed into the surrounding dimmed zones and crate blooming or the ‘halo effect.’ This is mainly visible in particularly demanding scenes (fireworks, stars in the night sky, etc.), so it’s tolerable and an expected drawback of this technology.

You will need to manually enable local dimming and HDR in the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu when you first hook up the monitor. It’s also possible to use local dimming in the SDR mode.

Overall, you get exceptional SDR and HDR image quality with vibrant colors, deep blacks and vivid highlights.

Further, the 4K UHD resolution perfectly suits the 32″ sized screen as you get a high pixel density of 140 PPI, resulting in plenty of screen space and sharp details. Since it uses a regular RGB subpixel layout, text is also crisp and without any fringing artifacts.

Performance

There are four response time overdrive modes: Off, Normal, Fast and UltraFast.

We recommend using the UltraFast mode as it offers the pixel response time speed without adding any noticeable overshoot.

Just like the ASUS PG32UQX based on the same (or similar) AUO panel, there’s minor ghosting visible behind fast-moving objects. While these IPS panels are not as fast as the fastest IPS monitors available nowadays when it comes to pixel response time, the amount of ghosting overall is tolerable (negligible even).

Competitive FPS players might find the amount of ghosting bothersome, but they shouldn’t be interested in a 4K HDR monitor anyway as there are many better eSports gaming monitors around this price range.

Input lag performance, on the other hand, is excellent with only around 4ms of delay, which is imperceptible.

Once you enable ‘Adaptive-Sync’ in the OSD menu, the monitor supports variable refresh rate via AMD FreeSync Premium, NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatible and HDMI 2.1 VRR.

While the Innocn 32M2V doesn’t appear on NVIDIA’s list of certified models, VRR works without issues with compatible GeForce GPUs for tear-free gameplay up to 144FPS (48-144Hz range with LFC support).

When using local dimming and VRR simultaneously, you might notice some flickering in certain scenes/games. Sadly, this seems to be the issue with most of these ‘cheap’ mini LED displays, such as the Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q and probably the KTC M27T20 (cannot enable VRR + LD at the same time yet, but a firmware update should allow it).

Since it doesn’t appear in every game (it might also vary from unit to unit of the monitor), we recommend just disabling VRR in affected games as screen tearing is not nearly as noticeable at 144Hz as it is at 60Hz/75Hz.

Note that the monitor uses PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) to regulate brightness, which introduces flickering that’s invisible to the human eye. However, it’s flickering at a very high 40KHz frequency that shouldn’t bother those sensitive to flicker.

Features

Beneath the bottom bezel of the screen on the right side, there is a power button and four hotkeys for navigation through the OSD menu.

We would’ve preferred a directional joystick as the buttons are rather clunky to use, but the OSD menu itself has plenty of useful features available, such as PiP/PbP mode, gamma modes, various picture presets, automatic input detection, as well as the standard brightness, contrast and color temperature adjustments.

There’s also a light sensor that can automatically adjust picture brightness according to ambient lighting.

We recommend using ControlMyMonitor, a free third-party application, for quicker access to some monitor settings. To enable/disable HDR, you can also use Win + Alt + B keyboard shortcut.

Design & Connectivity

The stand of the monitor is sturdy and offers a good range of ergonomics, including up to 80mm height adjustment, -5°/20° tilt, +/- 25° swivel and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility. You cannot pivot the screen into the portrait position.

The screen has a light matte anti-glare coating that prevents reflections without making the image too grainy.

Connectivity options are abundant and include DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, two HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth, USB-C with DP Alt Mode and 90W Power Delivery (65W if HDR is enabled), dual 5W speakers, built-in KVM functionality, a headphone jack and a dual-USB 3.0 hub.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Innocn 32M2V goes for $800, which is excellent value for money considering that the ASUS PG32UQX and the ViewSonic XG321U with similar specifications go for ~$2,000. They do have a G-SYNC module and an even higher 1600-nit peak brightness with proper local dimming + VRR performance, but they’re simply too expensive.

There’s also a version of this monitor with a darker design, the Innocn 32A6V, as well as a 27″ sized model, the Innocn 27M2V.

Other 32″ 4K HDR gaming alternatives include the Acer X32FP and the ASUS PG32UQXR. These have fewer dimming zones, but faster response time speed and smoother VRR performance. However, they’re also more expensive at ~$1,300.

You should also consider the Samsung Neo G7, which usually goes for $900. It has a VA panel with a faster response time speed and a higher native contrast ratio resulting in less blooming.

However, it has an aggressively 1000R curved screen that some users don’t like. Its VRR performance isn’t flawless either as there’s some brightness flickering or micro-stuttering (depending on the VRR Control setting), but it’s not as intrusive as the VRR flickering on the Innocn 32M2V.

Finally, you should check out the Dell Alienware AW3225QF with a 32″ 4K 240Hz QD-OLED panel.

Check out our best HDR monitors buyer’s guide for more options and information.

Conclusion

All in all, if you want a 32″ 4K high refresh rate gaming monitor with proper HDR support, the Innocn 32M2V is an excellent option for the money as long as you’re familiar with its flaws.

Specifications

Screen Size	32-inch
Resolution	3840×2160 (Ultra HD)
Panel Type	IPS
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	144Hz
Response Time	1ms (GtG)
Speakers	2x5W
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync (48-144Hz)
Ports	DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, USB-C (DP Alt Mode, 90W PD)
Other Ports	Headphone Jack, 2x USB 3.0
Brightness	450 cd/m²
Brightness (HDR)	1200 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	1000:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC) 99% DCI-P3, 99% Adobe RGB
HDR	VESA DisplayHDR 1000
Local Dimming	1152-zone mini LED FALD
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)