Funai 32” Curved Gaming Monitor (FGM-32C545) Review

Verdict

The Funai 32” Curved Gaming Monitor (FGM-32C545) delivers crisp colors, deep blacks and ultra-fast, responsive 1ms MPRT to bring your gaming to the next level. The full HD curved screen design is great for long gaming sessions, providing a wider, more natural field of view with less eye strain. We experienced smooth, precise movement without blurring or lag during our gameplay tests and highly recommend this monitor for serious and casual gamers alike.

Stepping strongly into the gaming monitor scene, Funai Corporation, Inc. recently unveiled a new series of high-performance 240Hz LED HDR gaming monitors.

“After 60 years of partnering with leading display technology brands, Funai is excited to make its debut in the gaming realm with its new line of gaming monitors,” said Angela Ho, Product Marketing Specialist, Funai Corporation, Inc. “Funai’s extensive pedigree in display technology shines through the monitors’ outstanding performance and serves as a testament to the brand’s commitment to technological innovation.”

TWICE was able to test out the Funai 32” Curved Gaming Monitor (FGM-32C545) for a few months, and we’re impressed with what we experienced. Available in 27” and 32” flat or curved models, Funai’s gaming monitors combine vivid and vibrant HDR (High Dynamic Range) displays with high-speed refresh and lag-free response.

Design

The Funai 32” is a full HD gaming monitor that includes a 1920x1080p Full HD curved screen that utilizes a 240Hz refresh rate and boasts an ultra-fast 1ms MPRT (Moving Picture Response Time), displaying smoother images with less streaking, blurring, and ghosting. This ultra-fast response speed is ideal for games with intense graphics and provides excellent image quality when watching programs with fast movements such as sports and action movies.

Additionally, Funai implemented HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology with this monitor to provide a high contrast display that delivers brilliant vivid colors, deeper blacks, and brighter whites. Funai says their monitors cover 90% of DCI-P3, the standard color gamut for digital cinema, which allows users to capture the “true” spectrum of human color perception.

The FGM-32C545 uses a screen with a curvature of 1500R which is more similar to the natural curve of the human eye, expanding the user’s field of view and making it possible to more naturally immerse themselves into their games. The curve of the display keeps all points equidistant from the user’s eyes, combined with a built-in blue-light filter, reduces fatigue even during long game play.

Additional Features

• 6 Preset Modes: With six unique preset modes, you can switch instantly during gameplay according to the genre and usage of the game. Equipped with FPS1 (normal setting), FPS2 (better for dark scenes), RTS, Standard, Movie, and Photo modes – each is optimized for the best color, brightness, and effect for its use case. Save up to 3 uniquely customized settings that best fit your needs.
• Game Training: Improve your skills and dominate your rivals with our Game Training feature. This function was jointly developed based on the opinions of professional gamers – providing useful features such as crosshairs, timer, and an FPS counter to train your skills to dominate.

• Do Everything with a Single Button: In addition to turning the power on and off, you can switch between preset modes, turn on GamePlus mode, and more even during gameplay with this joystick button, with no interference to the game.
• Flicker-Free: Flickering occurs when the LED backlight of the LCD display blinks at an invisible speed in order to adjust the brightness. Although invisible to the eye, the flicker is believed to cause fatigue and strain to the eyes. We use a DC (Direct Current) method to control the LED backlight to prevent flickering.
• Black Equalizer: Visibility is a factor that can determine the outcome of a game in a dark scene. Our monitors are equipped with a black equalizer function, which helps improve visibility by clearly projecting dark areas. During gameplay, you can quickly find enemies in dark areas or lurking in the distance.
• Blue Light Reduction: Game longer with our Blue Light Reduction feature reducing blue light emissions which helps lessen the effects of eye strain, headaches, and muscle stiffness that come with prolonged gameplay.

Ports

Each model in Funai’s gaming monitor series features four output interfaces: HDMI 1.4, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2, and USB 2.0; an earphone output for headphone connection. While this is plenty of ports for the regular user, we were hoping for at least one more HDMI port so we could connect all of our systems to the Funai 32” without having to unplug one. Fortunately, this tiny complaint can be solved with an HDMI switch.

The Funai series of gaming monitors are also AMD FreeSync compatible. This feature synchronizes the refresh rate of the display with the framerate of FreeSync compatible graphics cards. This helps reduce or eliminate input latency, screen tearing, and stuttering during gaming and video playback.

Testing Experience

The Funai 32” Curved Gaming Monitor is easy to set up, with minimal assembly of the stand required. We like how easily the height, tilt and rotation is to adjust with the FGM-32C545, which made it easy to find the perfect comfort settings within a minute or so. The screen angle can be adjusted with a tilt (up: 20°/bottom: 5°) and swivel (left/right: 30°).

Slim workstation owners, beware! One dimension we didn’t think much about until it was set up was the depth. Curved monitors generally take more room depthwise as they have to have sturdy bases to support them, and the Funai 32” base is no exception, sporting a length of 11.5” from the back foot to the tip of the front foot. There was a problem to comfortably fit our keyboard and the monitor on our narrower 20” work desk, but there was plenty of room when we tested on our standard sized desk with our gaming systems.

In addition to using the Funai 32” Gaming Monitor for our daily online editorial work and Adobe graphic programs, we hooked up a Nintendo Switch (SW), PS4 and our gaming PC – equipped with an Nvidia 1660 Ti – to test out the refresh rate and responsiveness. We played some of our favorite games from across all genres to see if we would experience any stuttering or lag with the monitor. Games used in testing included: Super Smash Bros Ultimate (SW), Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4), Guild Wars 2 (PC), Monster Hunter Rise (SW), Borderlands 3 (PC), Fortnite (PC), and of course, our favorite and heavily modded Skyrim Anniversary Edition (PS4, PC).

We were a bit skeptical that the 1ms MPRT would make that big of a difference in our gaming experience, but compared to our other gaming – and regular – monitor experiences the Funai 32” ran so much smoother, even when the screen was filled with players and graphics going wild while we got our butts handed to us in Smash Bros. and Fortnite. Additionally, our victorious competition playing on the Funai 32” Gaming Monitor during our testing commented on how they noticed more in their field of vision because of the curved screen and how smooth the graphics stayed during intense gameplay moments.

During less competitive moments in other graphic intense games, such as exploring the wilds of our heavily modded Skyrim adventure or wandering around the sometimes heavily populated main cities of Guild Wars 2, the HDR capabilities of the FGM-32C545 really made the game shine. The colors, whites and darks presented by the Funai 32” Gaming Monitor helped immerse us into the game even more than with a regular monitor, and our other testers remarked on the “amazing colors” they experienced.

We also appreciated the thin top and side bezels on the monitor, which can provide a nearly seamless view when used in a multiple monitor setup with identical models. The benefits of the curved monitor weren’t limited to gaming, and we found that our eyes were less strained during the workday, thanks to the panel’s 1500R curvature being more like the natural curve of the human eye.

Verdict

Whether you are looking to up your competitive play, or want a more vivid and versatile monitor to work, watch and play on, the Funai 32” Curved Gaming Monitor’s ultra-fast response and refresh rates and exceptional color make it a great choice for your next gaming monitor.

Funai’s flat and curved 32” flat and curved monitors retail for $499.99, while the 27” gaming monitors retail for $399.99. Monitors can be purchased directly through Funai’s online shop, or at online retailers Amazon, GameStop, HSN, Newegg, and Walmart, or Walmart Canada.

For more information on Funai North America, visit https://www.funaiamerica.com/

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