KTC H32S25E Review: 1440p 240Hz Curved Gaming Monitor

If you’re after a large curved display but aren’t a big fan of ultrawide monitors, the KTC H32S25E might be for you! It’s a 32″ 1440p 240Hz gaming monitor based on a VA panel with a steep 1000R screen curvature for added immersion.

It also has a wide color gamut, variable refresh rate, backlight strobing support and more! Here’s how it handles our tests.

Image Quality

As always, first, we’ll have a look at how the monitor behaves out of the box when it comes to color accuracy, gamma tracking and color temperature. For our tests, we’re using the Datacolor SpyderX Pro paired with DisplayCAL software.

The KTC H32S25E uses the ‘User’ preset out of the box. There are six more presets available: Movie, Photo, ECO, Reader, RTS and FPS – however, these just have certain settings (brightness, contrast, etc.) locked at certain pre-set values.

Therefore, we recommend sticking with the ‘User’ preset as it is the most accurate and allows for adjustment of full image settings.

To start with, the monitor has a color temperature of 8073K by default, which is too high (the target is 6500K) and adds a bit of bluish/cold tint to the whitepoint. Luckily, there’s a quick fix for this.

In the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu, you’ll also find a ‘Low Blue Light’ option, which reduces the harmful low-blue light emission. It has four levels, from 0 to 100, in increments of 25. Setting it to ’25’ lowers the color temperature to 6455K, which is much closer to the 6500K target and removes the blue tint.

Next, gamma tracking is decent with an average of 2.12 (target is 2.2). Dark grays are a bit darker than intended, while mid-grays and light grays are a tad brighter than intended. It’s not a big deviation though. Alternatively, you can set the gamma to ‘2.4’ in the OSD menu, which will provide you with a slightly higher 2.31 gamma average for an overall darker image better suited for watching videos graded in gamma 2.4.

Finally, the monitor has an okay average Delta E of 1.97 (target is < 1.5), while the maximum Delta E is not as good at 4.71 (target is < 3). However, this is mainly due to the monitor’s wide color gamut of 125.6% sRGB color gamut volume.

The colors are over-saturated when viewing sRGB SDR content. The over-saturation is not too intrusive though and most users will prefer the extra color vibrancy and variety it adds to the image, mainly to reds and greens.

The KTC H32S25E has an sRGB emulation mode. By setting the ‘Professional Modes’ to ‘sRGB’ instead of ‘Native’ in the OSD menu, the monitor reduces the sRGB color gamut volume. However, it’s too aggressive as the sRGB color space is reduced all the way down to 83.8%.

A better alternative is to use software sRGB gamut clamping via AMD’s Custom Color setting if you have a Radeon GPU, novideo_srgb tool if you have an NVIDIA GPU or dwm_lut if you have an Intel GPU.

Using this method, the sRGB color space coverage is reduced to a respectable 95.1%, while the gamut volume is 100.3%. It also improved the average Delta E to 1.4, while the maximum Delta E is 3.2.

You can learn more about how to set up these applications in the article below.

Related:What Is sRGB Emulation Mode And Why Is It Important?

For a full calibration, we used the User color temperature preset and adjusted the red color channel to 49, green was left at default 50, and blue was reduced to 49. This provided us with a color temperature of 6534K.

Gamma tracking was also improved with a 2.2 average, while the average Delta E is only 0.29, and the maximum Delta E is 1.44. We used a brightness setting of 26/100 to get 120-nits.

You can download our ICC profile here.

Moving on, using the Normal color temperature mode, the KTC H32S25E monitor has a maximum brightness of 307-nits and a minimum brightness of 19-nits. The high range of brightness adjustment makes the monitor suitable for both bright and dark rooms.

In case you plan on using the monitor in a particularly bright room and want to squeeze a bit more brightness, using the User color temperature preset offers a peak brightness of 385-nits (minimum is 24-nits). However, it has a bit higher color temperature of 6804K, which is a tad bluish, but most users will find it negligible.

Next, we measured a high static contrast ratio of 4370:1, which results in deep and inky blacks. Naturally, blacks aren’t as deep as that of OLED displays with true blacks since they can individually turn off each pixel, but it’s a big improvement over IPS and TN panels, which usually have a contrast ratio of around 1,000:1, making blacks somewhat grayish in comparison to VA.

Of course, VA panels have their disadvantages when it comes to image quality too. There are minor gamma and saturation shifts when looking at the screen from certain angles. The screen curvature actually helps with this issue as it brings the edges of the display closer to you.

From a normal viewing position, this is negligible unless you’re doing professional color-critical work, in which case you should be looking at IPS monitors anyway due to their wider viewing angles and superior image consistency.

Further, the KTC H32S25E has a 2560×1440 screen resolution, which on its 31.5″ sized screen results in a pixel density of 93.24 PPI (pixels per inch) – similar to that of 24″ 1080p displays. Of course, as you’ll be sitting a bit further away from a 32″ sized display than 24″, the individual pixels aren’t as noticeable.

You get reasonably sharp details and text, as well as a good amount of screen real estate, while 1440p is not nearly as demanding as 4K UHD, allowing for higher frame rates in video games.

Here’s a look at brightness and contrast uniformity across the screen.

The bottom-left part of the screen is a bit darker (up to ~19%) when measuring 100% white relative to the center of the screen, though this isn’t noticeable during regular use and the result is within expectation for this panel technology.

Finally, we didn’t find any dead or stuck pixels, no excessive VA glow or backlight bleeding, no image retention and no frame skipping. Lagom’s pixel inversion tests from pattern 1 to 4b caused faint horizontal scanlines, which is common for some LCDs, but we didn’t encounter this issue during regular use.

HDR

The KTC H32S25E also supports HDR (High Dynamic Range), but while it can accept the HDR10 signal and display it, there’s no proper hardware for a true HDR viewing experience (an OLED panel or a full-array local dimming).

In some HDR content, you might benefit from 10-bit color depth for smoother gradients or better color tone mapping, but for the most part, you should stick with SDR in order to avoid losing details in the shadows and highlights of the image.

We measured a peak brightness of 312-nits and 6783K color temperature in HDR mode using the User color temperature mode. The default Warm mode had a lower 235-nits brightness and 7141K color temperature.

Performance

The KTC H32S25E has a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, which provides you with a huge improvement in motion clarity in comparison to the standard 60-75Hz displays, as well as a small but noticeable boost from mid-range (120 – 180Hz) displays.

Next, we’ll measure pixel response time speed and display latency using OSRTT.

There are five response time overdrive modes: Off, Standard, Ultra Fast, Advanced and Auto.

Using the default ‘Standard’ overdrive mode at 240Hz, we measured an average GtG pixel response time speed of 4.28ms with a low 0.77% overshoot error.

This can be further improved by selecting the ‘Advanced’ or ‘Auto’ mode, which bumps up the response time speed to 3.32ms, while the overshoot is still unnoticeable at a 3.3% average error.

Now, while the average GtG response time is very fast and below the 4.17ms refresh rate cycle, there are still some transitions that are in the 8ms – 9ms range, which is why the refresh rate compliance is 76.67% – still a good result.

The slow transitions from black to dark gray (from RGB 0 to RGB 51 and RGB 102) are common for VA panel displays and cause noticeable trailing behind fast-moving objects in dark scenes.

It’s not as bad as that of typical VA displays, but you will be able to notice ghosting in certain extreme scenarios, for instance, scrolling a webpage with white text on a black background. Most users will find the amount of ghosting tolerable or even negligible, but it’s something to keep in mind.

The ‘Off’ mode is too slow and not worth using, while the ‘Ultra Fast’ mode adds too much overshoot and should be avoided as well.

The ‘Auto’ mode serves as a variable overdrive. It will automatically pick the best overdrive mode depending on your refresh rate. So, at 240Hz, it uses ‘Advanced.’ At 120Hz, ‘Advanced’ becomes too aggressive, so the ‘Auto’ mode uses ‘Standard’ instead.

At 60Hz, ‘Auto’ has the same performance as ‘Off’, although ‘Standard’ has a bit better performance. Therefore, if you’re strictly playing at 60Hz or around 60FPS using VRR (variable refresh rate), such as FreeSync or G-SYNC, you should use the ‘Standard’ mode instead.

It’s rare to see well-optimized overdrive behaviors, especially on budget-oriented displays, so props to KTC for offering a single overdrive experience.

For optimal performance, you can just set the overdrive to Auto, and you’ll get excellent pixel response time speed without any overshoot regardless of your refresh rate or frame rate if you’re using VRR.

You can see all response time tests at fixed 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates below.

Here are the response time measurements when using the ‘Auto’ overdrive mode at different frame rates with VRR enabled.

The average GtG pixel response time speed across the refresh rate range is 5.58ms with a 1.87% average overshoot error.

The monitor supports variable refresh rate via AMD’s FreeSync and NVIDIA’s G-SYNC Compatible. For Radeon GPUs, VRR works over both HDMI and DP, while GeForce GPUs can only utilize VRR over DisplayPort.

VRR completely removes screen tearing up to 240FPS by synchronizing the monitor’s refresh rate to your GPU’s frame rate. The VRR range is 48-240Hz, but below 48FPS, the monitor uses LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) to show the same frame multiple times to avoid screen tearing (47 FPS – 94Hz, etc.).

As expected for VA panel displays, there is some VRR brightness flickering in certain scenes (mainly in in-game menus, loading screens and around the 48FPS LFC threshold).

The intensity of VRR brightness flickering will vary depending on your PC specs, video game, settings, etc. For instance, we detected frequent VRR brightness flickering in Baldur’s Gate 3 and WarCraft III Reforged, but none in The Witcher 3 or Doom Eternal.

Since screen tearing is not that noticeable at 240Hz, we recommend just disabling VRR in games where VRR brightness flickering occurs. Alternatively, you can use V-Sync to prevent tearing if you’re really sensitive to it.

Next, we’re using Blur Busters’ UFO ghosting test to illustrate how these pixel response time measurements look in real use. The camera shutter speed was set to 1/4 of the refresh rate with fixed focus, ISO and color temperature (6500K).

We’re using the 960 Pixels Per Sec test and the monitor’s been calibrated and warmed up before all tests.

The UFO tests confirm that the Auto overdrive mode offers the best results across the refresh rate range – except at 60Hz, where you can see that ‘Standard’ offers a bit better performance.

The slow black to dark-gray transitions are also visible as short dark trails behind the moving UFOs in the middle and top rows, but they’re not as extreme as that of some slower VA displays.

Here’s how it compares to some other displays. The 240Hz OLED and 360Hz TN models offer a lot better motion clarity, while the other 165Hz IPS and VA models have less ghosting behind the UFO, but the higher 240Hz refresh rate of the H32S25E makes moving objects a bit clearer.

Moving on, the monitor also supports MBR (Motion Blur Reduction), which uses backlight strobing to reduce perceived motion blur at the cost of image brightness.

To use it, you’ll need to enable the MPRT option in the OSD menu. However, FreeSync/G-SYNC cannot be active at the same time.

While active, MPRT reduces brightness to around 104-nits at 240Hz or 118-nits at 120Hz (minimum fixed refresh rate required for MPRT to work), which is still usable under normal lighting conditions.

Further, MBR introduces screen flickering that’s invisible to the human eye but can cause headaches after prolonged use to sensitive users.

You can see how MPRT improves motion clarity in the image above. Trailing is still noticeable due to the slower response time, but the UFO is clearer. However, there is some strobe crosstalk (image duplications) – it’s noticeable the most at the top of the screen, while the bottom of the screen is the clearest.

There are no strobe length and phase settings that could adjust the trade-off between image brightness and clarity or make the image clearest in the middle of the screen instead of at the bottom.

While the implementation is not perfect, it’s worth trying out in fast-paced games. Just remember that your refresh rate should match the frame rate for the best results. So, if you can only maintain 120FPS, reduce the refresh rate to 120Hz. On this monitor, the strobe crosstalk is the same regardless of the refresh rate MPRT is used.

Finally, we measured display latency at 240Hz, 120Hz and 60Hz and got excellent results of 2.92ms, 4.80ms and 8.88ms, respectively. This means that there’s no perceptible delay between your actions and the result you see on the screen.

Features

At the rear of the monitor, there’s a directional joystick for quick and easy navigation through the OSD menu. The joystick also serves as a power button (holding it for 3 seconds will shut down the display).

Besides the standard image adjustment tools (brightness, contrast, color temperature, etc.), you’ll also find some advanced settings, including sharpness, gamma (from 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4 and Off, which is the same as 2.2), 6-axis hue and saturation, aspect ratio control (full, 16:9 or 4:3 – VRR must be disabled) and automatic input detection.

Useful gaming features include Black Equalize (improves visibility in dark scenes by altering the gamma curvature), an on-screen timer, a refresh rate counter and crosshair overlays.

Moving the joystick up, down, left and right also serves as shortcuts for certain settings: Game Assist, Input, Preset and Brightness by default, but you can also change these in the OSD menu to Volume, Mute, Color Temperature, HDR, Black Equalize or Aspect Ratio.

There’s no official desktop application that allows for OSD adjustments using your keyboard and mouse, but the KTC H32S25E does support DDC/CI, so you can use third-party applications, such as ControlMyMonitor or ClickMonitorDDC to adjust the following ‘Read-Write’ settings.

The backlight of the monitor is flicker-free (unless MPRT is enabled) and there’s a low-blue light filter setting available.

Design & Connectivity

The stand of the monitor is tilt-only, but it’s made entirely of metal, so it’s quite sturdy and doesn’t wobble. Further, you can detach it and mount the screen to a third-party stand via the 100x100mm VESA pattern.

Next, the screen has a light matte anti-glare coating that diffuses reflections without making the image too grainy. There are ultra-thin bezels at the sides and top of the display with a 6mm black border before the image starts, while the bottom bezel is a bit thicker at 15mm with a thinner 2mm black border.

The KTC H32S25E has a steep 1000R screen curvature for added immersion. To some users, the curvature might appear too aggressive, though we found it just takes some time to get used to. In the end, it comes down to personal preference.

Connectivity options include two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs, two HDMI 2.0 ports (limited to 144Hz at 1440p), a headphone jack and a USB port for service only.

The monitor also supports virtual 4K 60Hz resolution over HDMI for consoles, though we recommend gaming at 1440p 120Hz instead. We measured a low display latency of 10.3ms at 4K 60Hz.

Note that DisplayPort 1.4 is limited to 8-bit color depth at 1440p 240Hz, but since most SDR content uses 8-bit color, this won’t be an issue.

In HDR mode, you get GPU dithering (2-bit FRC + 8-bit) for 10-bit color depth support, which is indistinguishable from native 10-bit for regular use. You can also set it to 1440p 200Hz 10-bit color (in which case the display adds 2-bit dithering).

In the box, along with the monitor, you’ll get the stand, which is assembled via two screws using the provided screwdriver, a power cord, an external power brick, a DisplayPort cable, a warranty card and a quick start guide.

Price & Similar Monitors

The KTC H32S25E goes for ~$270, which is an excellent value for the price given that it goes for basically the same price as the 144Hz – 180Hz models yet it offers significantly smoother motion clarity!

In case you want a bit different model with a lower 165Hz refresh rate, a height-adjustable stand and a less aggressive 1500R screen curvature, consider the Gigabyte M32QC for ~$270.

There also aren’t many options available in this form factor. The most popular is the Samsung Odyssey G6 with a bit faster response time, but it goes for $450+. It has HDR-600 support, but that alone isn’t worth the extra cost as it’s not proper HDR support without an OLED panel or FALD anyway.

If you want a flat-screen 32″ 1440p 240Hz VA monitor, there’s only one model – the AOC AG325QZN, and it’s not available in the US. So, you might want to consider an IPS version instead, though these are more expensive (~$500), such as the Gigabyte Aorus FI32Q-X.

For more options and information, check out our best gaming monitor, best monitors under $300 and best monitors under $400 buyer’s guides.

Conclusion

All in all, the KTC H32S25E is an excellent gaming monitor for the money.

You get a big curved screen with reasonably sharp details, deep blacks and vibrant colors, resulting in an immersive viewing experience.

Next, the high 240Hz refresh rate ensures smooth motion clarity. The pixel response time performance is very good for a VA panel, but minor ghosting in dark scenes can be observed, though we find that most gamers won’t mind it or even notice it.

Finally, the icing on the cake is the price as the KTC H32S25E with 240Hz costs basically the same as the slower 144Hz – 180Hz 32″ 1440p VA curved models!

Specifications

Screen Size	31.5-inch
Screen Curvature	1000R
Resolution	2560×1440 (WQHD)
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	240Hz
Response Time (GtG)	Not specified
Motion Blur Reduction	1ms (MPRT)
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync Premium (48-240Hz)
Ports	2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0
Other Ports	Headphone Jack, USB 2.0 (firmware updates only)
Brightness	350 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	4000:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC) 90% DCI-P3
HDR	HDR10
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)