Corsair Xeneon 315QHD165 and 32QHD165 - same monitor or not?

[Angilion]

I'm considering the 315QHD165. When I look for reviews of it, I find positive reviews of the 32QHD165, e.g.

Corsair Xeneon 32QHD165 review

A cracker of a gaming panel

www.techradar.com

Corsair Xeneon 32QHD165 32-inch QHD 165 Hz Gaming Monitor Review: Color For Days

Big screen, huge color gamut.

www.tomshardware.com

On the one hand, I'm thinking that it's probably the same monitor. 32 inch and 31.5 inches are the same thing for monitor sizing, so that could explain the difference in model name.

On the other hand, different monitors with very similar names are definitely a thing. So maybe they're different monitors.

Corsair's website isn't conclusive. There's no mention of a 32QHD165 at all.

 

[Angilion]

I've got the 32" 4K Xeneon and it's fantastic.

I don't want to move up to 4K. If I did, I'd also want a new motherboard, CPU, memory and probably another new graphics card. I don't think it's worth the cost.

 

[Angilion]

Well, I did some more digging and found a page on Corsair's site for the Xeneon 32QHD165:

CORSAIR XENEON 32QHD165 32-Inch IPS QHD (2560 x1440), 165Hz Refresh Rate, HDR400 Gaming Monitor

The CORSAIR XENEON brings your games and media to life on a vibrant, ultra-slim 32-inch IPS QHD (2560 x1440) display with a blazing fast refresh rate up to 165Hz and 1ms response time.

www.corsair.com

But it's not mentioned on the monitor section of the product page:

Gaming Monitors & Displays | CORSAIR

The View is Spectacular – Premium Monitors by CORSAIR. High-refresh rate gaming monitors capture every moment and give you the competitive edge you need. Experience high refresh rates on a spacious screen like the CORSAIR XENEON. Otherwise switch between game and work mode with CORSAIR XENEON...

www.corsair.com

That has the Xeneon 315QHD165 instead, the one that is available to buy:

CORSAIR XENEON 315QHD165 32-Inch IPS Gaming Monitor, QHD (2560 x 1440), 165Hz, 1ms, HDR-ready, 1.07 Billion Colors

The CORSAIR XENEON 315QHD165 brings your games and media to life on a vibrant, ultra-slim 32-inch IPS QHD (2560 x 1440) display with a blazing fast refresh rate up to 165Hz and 1ms response time.

www.corsair.com

I think there should be more transparency in the monitor market. There's nothing to stop a company releasing one monitor, getting good reviews for it and then replacing it with a different monitor given almost the same name. Maybe that's what Corsair has done here. Maybe not.

 

[Angilion]

they have different sku's

315QHD165 - CM-9020007

32QHD165 - CM-9020001

Display Specs.
Not able to check right now, but this might help.

https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/db8c287b

https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/a0793781

I think that answers my question. Thanks to both of you for the information.

Different SKUs. Different specs. Different panels. Different monitors.

Bring out an excellent monitor, get great reviews, quietly drop it and replace it with an inferior monitor with almost the same name. I wish I was surprised by that deception, but sadly I'm not. It's obviously worked for Corsair - anyone looking for reviews of the Xeneon 315QHD165 will be shown reviews of the Xeneon 32QHD165 (a different and better monitor) and at least some of them will be misled by that.

My first choice was a Gigabyte M32Q. That no longer exists, replaced by the M32QC (which is a completely different monitor). My second choice was a Corsair Xeneon 32QHD165. That no longer exists, replaced by the Corsair Xeneon 315QHD165. Also a completely different monitor. But a lot more deceptive as the specs initially appear to be the same. Same size, same res, same refresh rate, same general panel type. Also, anyone looking for reviews for the 315QHD165 will be directed to reviews of the 32QHD165. If there are any reviews of the 315QHD165, I can't find them.

I'm reluctant for a third go-round. I was also looking at one of the dozens of very similarly named (but different) iiyama monitors, but that went straight from pre-order with no known arrival date to out of stock to no longer listed.

EDIT: No, scratch that last bit. It was an LG monitor I was looking at (32GP850-B), which does explain why I didn't find it listed with iiyama monitors . But the LG monitor went from pre-order to out of stock. Unless I want to chance some random supplier on an online marketplace. Which I don't.

 

[Angilion]

The plot thickens...

So I'm on to my third choice, the LG 32GP850-B. Which turns out to be two different monitors. Different SKUs, different entries on LG's support website, etc. There's the LG 32GP850-B.AEK and the LG 32GP850-B.BEK. The latter is unavailable, the former is available. I looked through the detailed specifications parts of the two manuals on LG's website and they're identical. But the monitors clearly aren't, as they're different SKUs showing as different monitors on LG's website. I can't find any information on the differences.

This is really rather silly. I didn't expect buying a new monitor to require picking my way through such a degree of obfuscation and product substitution.

 

[Angilion]

I would guess this might be a revision change rather than two separate monitors. Maybe a slightly updated firmware or something like that

That would be my guess too, but having seen the amount of obfuscation and product substitution in monitors I don't fancy betting £350 on my guess. Particularly since in this case the manufacturer of the monitors lists them as two different monitors.

 

[Angilion]

Check whether the two LGs are just different coloured frames/stands. With their TV models, they have different final 3 characters to denote region, production centre and stand/chassis colour. Might just be that... Might not.

That's a good idea, but I gave up on the whole thing. I had looked and found no explanation for it. I could look more and see if I can find anything, but I decided to keep my money in my pocket. The lack of honesty and transparency in the market irritated me enough to walk away.

On the plus side, I tracked down the cause of the flickering at the edges of my monitor that initially moved me from idling considering an upgrade to seriously considering an upgrade in case this monitor was failing. It turned out to be a software issue, a problem resulting from an update to my web browser and an update to my graphics drivers. The new version of the browser enabled hardware acceleration as default and the new version of the graphics drivers did not play well with hardware acceleration in the web browser. I was getting the flickering in games as well, so I didn't initially consider the web browser...until I realised that it was happening when I had the web browser open too and not when I didn't. I have a web browser open in the background so often that it didn't initially occur to me. Out of sight, out of mind.