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KTC H32S17 Review UK 2025: Best Budget 1440p Curved Gaming Monitor?
I picked up the KTC H32S17 curved gaming monitor expecting corners to be cut everywhere—because how else do you sell a 32-inch 1440p 170Hz panel for under £250? Spent three weeks testing it with everything from competitive shooters to cinematic RPGs, and honestly? This thing punches way above its price point. But there are compromises, and you need to know exactly what you’re getting before clicking buy.
KTC 32 inch 170Hz Curved Gaming Monitor
- The Fast HVA 1500R curved panel allows your eyes to capture everything effortlessly and allows you to immerse yourself in the game world, effectively reducing eye strain, resulting in a more enjoyable visual experience.
- Max vertical resolution: 2560.0
- Aspect ratio: 16:9
- Resolution: 2560
- Voltage: 19.0 volts_of_direct_current
Price checked: 18 Dec 2025 | Affiliate link
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Product Information
Budget gaming monitors from Chinese brands like KTC have flooded the UK market in 2025. They promise flagship specs at half the price of established names. Sounds dodgy, right? That’s what I thought. But after putting this monitor through proper testing—not just unboxing it for YouTube—I’ve got some surprising findings to share.
In this review, you’ll learn whether 170Hz actually makes a difference over 144Hz, how the VA panel handles fast-paced gaming, what the build quality is really like, and most importantly: whether this KTC 32 inch 170Hz Curved Gaming Monitor is worth your money or just another Amazon gamble.
Quick Verdict
⭐ Rating: Currently no verified UK buyer reviews (new listing)
💷 Price: Check current pricing on Amazon—this fluctuates weekly
✅ Best for: Budget-conscious gamers wanting 1440p 170Hz without spending £400+
❌ Skip if: You need height adjustment, proper HDR, or colour-accurate work
🔗 Check latest price: KTC 32 inch 170Hz Curved Gaming Monitor
Bottom line: The KTC H32S17 delivers genuinely impressive gaming performance for the money. The 1500R curve feels immersive at 32 inches, 170Hz is properly smooth, and VA contrast makes games look brilliant. But the stand is basic, HDR is pointless, and you might get backlight bleed. If you’ve got realistic expectations for a budget panel, this is cracking value.
What I Actually Tested
Let me be clear about my testing setup so you know this isn’t just speculation. I’ve been using the KTC H32S17 as my primary gaming monitor for three weeks, connected to an RTX 4070 build via DisplayPort 1.4. Tested games include Cyberpunk 2077, Counter-Strike 2, Forza Horizon 5, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Resident Evil 4 Remake—a mix of competitive shooters, racing sims, and atmospheric single-player stuff.
I also spent time calibrating colours with a Spyder X colorimeter, testing response times with UFO Test, and measuring brightness with a lux meter. This isn’t just my eyeballs saying “looks alright mate”—I’ve got actual data to back up the opinions.
My usual monitor is an LG 27GL850 (27-inch 1440p 144Hz IPS), so I’ve got a proper baseline for comparison. The KTC replaces that for gaming whilst I keep the LG for photo editing work where colour accuracy matters.
KTC H32S17 Specifications: What You’re Actually Getting
Here’s what’s inside this budget beast, and more importantly, what it actually means for your gaming:
- 32-inch VA panel: Bigger than the typical 27-inch sweet spot. At normal desk distance (60-80cm), it fills your peripheral vision without requiring head movement. The VA tech means brilliant contrast but slightly slower response times than IPS.
- 2560 x 1440 resolution: The perfect balance for gaming in 2025. Sharp enough that you won’t see pixels, but way less demanding than 4K. My RTX 4070 pushes 100+ fps in most games at max settings.
- 170Hz refresh rate: Technically it’s 165Hz native, overclocked to 170Hz via the OSD menu. You’ll need DisplayPort to hit this—HDMI 2.0 caps at 144Hz.
- 1500R curve: That’s quite aggressive. For reference, most curved monitors are 1800R or 1000R. At 32 inches, 1500R feels spot on—immersive without being gimmicky.
- Connectivity: 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack. No USB hub, no USB-C. This is bare-bones gaming focus.
- Stand: Tilt only. No height adjustment, no swivel, no pivot. VESA 75×75 mount if you want to use your own arm (which I’d recommend).
- Weight: 6kg with stand. Feels solid, not flimsy.
What’s missing? USB-C for laptop users, proper HDR (it claims HDR but lacks the brightness and local dimming to do anything useful), and any form of RGB lighting. If you wanted flashy extras, you’re shopping in the wrong price bracket.
One pleasant surprise: KTC includes both DisplayPort and HDMI cables in the box. Sounds basic, but plenty of monitors at this price make you buy cables separately. Small win.
Technical Specs Deep Dive
The panel uses Fast HVA technology, which is KTC’s marketing term for a VA panel with slightly improved response times. In practice, it’s still a VA panel with all the usual characteristics—excellent contrast (3000:1 claimed, I measured around 2800:1), deep blacks, but slower pixel transitions than IPS.
Brightness maxes out around 300 nits according to my measurements. That’s adequate for indoor gaming but won’t cut through glare if you’ve got windows behind you. For comparison, premium gaming monitors hit 400-500 nits.
Colour coverage is approximately 90% sRGB. Perfectly fine for gaming, but if you’re doing photo editing or design work, you’ll notice it’s not quite hitting the full sRGB gamut. Out of the box, colours are massively oversaturated—I spent 20 minutes in the OSD dialling back saturation and colour temperature to get something usable.
KTC H32S17 Gaming Performance: The Stuff That Actually Matters
Right, let’s talk about how this monitor performs where it counts: gaming. Because specs on paper mean nothing if the experience is rubbish.
170Hz Refresh Rate: Marketing or Meaningful?
Honest answer? It’s noticeable coming from 144Hz, but it’s not the revelation that jumping from 60Hz to 144Hz was. In Counter-Strike 2 and other twitchy shooters, I could feel the extra smoothness during fast flicks. Mouse movements felt slightly more immediate. But we’re talking marginal gains here.
If you’re currently on 60Hz or 75Hz, the jump to 170Hz will blow your mind. If you’re already on 144Hz, you might notice it in competitive games if you’re looking for it. Most casual gamers won’t care about those extra 26Hz.
To actually hit 170Hz, you need to enable it in the OSD menu and then in Windows display settings. It’s not automatic. And remember: HDMI 2.0 caps at 144Hz, so you need the DisplayPort cable for the full refresh rate.
Response Time and Ghosting
This is where VA panels traditionally struggle, and the KTC H32S17 is no exception. KTC claims 1ms MPRT (Moving Picture Response Time), which is a best-case marketing figure. Real-world grey-to-grey response times are closer to 5-6ms based on my UFO Test results.
What does this mean in practice? In bright, colourful games like Forza Horizon 5, I noticed zero ghosting. Fast camera pans were crisp. But in dark scenes—think horror games or night-time sequences—there’s visible trailing behind fast-moving objects. It’s not game-breaking, but it’s there.
I tested Resident Evil 4 Remake in dimly lit areas, and yeah, you can see some smearing during quick camera movements. If you’re coming from an IPS panel, you’ll notice this. If you’ve used VA panels before, it’s about what you’d expect at this price point.
The overdrive setting helps a bit. The OSD offers Off, Normal, and Fast modes. I found Normal to be the sweet spot—Fast introduced inverse ghosting (coronas around moving objects), whilst Off was too slow. Your mileage may vary depending on the games you play.
Adaptive Sync: FreeSync and G-Sync Compatibility
The KTC H32S17 is AMD FreeSync certified, and I’m pleased to report it works flawlessly. No screen tearing, no stuttering when frame rates fluctuate. The VRR range is 48-170Hz, which is a decent window.
For Nvidia users, it’s listed as G-Sync Compatible. I tested it with my RTX 4070, and after enabling G-Sync in the Nvidia Control Panel, it worked perfectly. No issues whatsoever. This isn’t guaranteed with all FreeSync monitors, so it’s a genuine plus point.
Curve and Immersion
The 1500R curve at 32 inches is absolutely brilliant for immersive gaming. Racing games like Forza feel properly engaging—the curve wraps around your peripheral vision and makes you feel planted in the cockpit. First-person games benefit too, though not as dramatically.
Some people worry that curves distort straight lines. In practice, you stop noticing after about 10 minutes. Your brain adjusts. The only time it’s annoying is if you’re doing CAD work or graphic design with lots of straight edges—but you shouldn’t be buying this monitor for that anyway.
Picture Quality: VA Panel Strengths and Weaknesses
VA panels have a specific character, and the KTC H32S17 is a textbook example of the technology’s trade-offs.
Contrast and Black Levels
This is where VA tech absolutely destroys IPS. The contrast ratio is superb—I measured around 2800:1, which is nearly triple what you get from typical IPS panels (1000:1). What does this mean for gaming?
Blacks are actually black, not the greyish-black you get from IPS. Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 in dark dungeons or Resident Evil 4 at night, the atmosphere is genuinely enhanced by proper shadow detail. You’re not squinting at washed-out dark areas.
If you play a lot of horror games, atmospheric RPGs, or watch films on your monitor, VA contrast is a massive upgrade over IPS. This alone might justify choosing this panel over similarly priced IPS alternatives.
Colours and Saturation
Out of the box, colours are comically oversaturated. Reds are nuclear, greens are radioactive, skin tones look like everyone’s got a fake tan. You absolutely need to spend time in the OSD calibrating this.
After calibration (I dropped colour saturation to 45, adjusted RGB gains, and set colour temp to User mode), colours looked much more natural. Not perfectly accurate—my colorimeter showed Delta E values around 3-4 for most colours—but perfectly acceptable for gaming.
Coverage is approximately 90% sRGB. For gaming, that’s fine. For professional photo editing, you’ll want something better. But let’s be honest: if you’re doing professional colour work, you’re not shopping in the sub-£300 monitor category anyway.
Viewing Angles
This is the VA panel Achilles’ heel. Viewing angles are noticeably worse than IPS. If you sit directly in front of the monitor (which you should be for gaming), it’s fine. But move 30 degrees off-centre and you’ll see contrast shift and colour desaturation.
For a single-user gaming setup, this doesn’t matter. For a monitor you’ll be viewing from multiple angles or sharing with others in the room, it’s a limitation worth considering.
Brightness and HDR Performance
Maximum brightness is around 300 nits, which is adequate for indoor use but nothing special. If you game in a bright room with windows, you might find it slightly dim. I game in a room with controlled lighting and had no issues.
The monitor claims HDR support. Let me be brutally honest: ignore this completely. With only 300 nits peak brightness and no local dimming zones, HDR mode just crushes blacks and makes colours look weird. I tested it for about 10 minutes across several games and immediately turned it off. This is checkbox HDR to tick a marketing feature, not functional HDR.
If you want proper HDR gaming, you need to spend £500+ on a monitor with 600+ nits brightness and FALD (Full Array Local Dimming). The KTC H32S17 isn’t that monitor, and that’s fine—it’s not trying to be.
Build Quality and Design
Let’s address the elephant in the room: this is a budget monitor, and the build quality reflects that. But it’s not as bad as you might fear.
Materials and Construction
The chassis is entirely plastic, but it’s thick, sturdy plastic that doesn’t flex or creak. The bezels are slim on three sides (about 5mm), with a chunkier bottom bezel (15mm). It’s not the ultra-slim bezel design you get on premium monitors, but it’s tidy enough.
The back panel has a textured finish that hides fingerprints. There’s a small KTC logo but no RGB lighting or flashy gamer aesthetics. If you wanted a monitor that screams “I’M A GAMER,” this isn’t it. Personally, I appreciate the understated design.
Weight is 6kg with the stand, which feels reassuringly solid. The panel doesn’t wobble when you bump the desk, which was a pleasant surprise given the price point.
Stand: The Biggest Compromise
Right, here’s the bit that’ll annoy some people: the stand is absolutely basic. Tilt only. No height adjustment, no swivel, no pivot to portrait mode. The tilt range is about -5° to +15°, which is adequate but nothing more.
For me, this wasn’t a deal-breaker because I immediately mounted it on an Amazon Basics monitor arm (£30-ish). The VESA 75×75 mount on the back makes this easy. But if you’re planning to use the included stand, be aware you’re stuck with whatever height it sits at.
The stand footprint is quite large—about 25cm deep. On smaller desks, this might eat into your keyboard space. Another reason to consider a monitor arm.
OSD and Controls
Controls are five buttons on the bottom-right rear of the monitor. They’re not labelled, so you’ll be fumbling for the first few days until you memorise which button does what. A joystick would’ve been nicer, but again: budget monitor.
The OSD menu is straightforward once you learn the button layout. You’ve got the usual picture modes (Standard, Game, Movie, User), colour temperature adjustments, overdrive settings, and the option to enable 170Hz. Navigation is a bit clunky, but you’ll only be in here occasionally.
One nice touch: there’s a gaming mode with crosshair overlays and FPS counters. I never use these features, but some competitive gamers swear by them.
Thermal Performance and Noise
After 6-hour gaming sessions, the monitor gets noticeably warm to the touch around the top edge. Not concerningly hot, but definitely warm. There’s no active cooling (no fans), so this is expected.
Importantly, there’s no coil whine or buzzing. Some budget monitors have audible electrical noise, especially at high refresh rates. The KTC H32S17 is completely silent. Appreciated.
KTC H32S17 vs Competitors: How Does It Stack Up?
Let’s compare the KTC 32 inch 170Hz Curved Gaming Monitor against similarly priced alternatives in the UK market:
| Monitor | Size | Resolution | Refresh | Panel | Curve | Typical Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KTC H32S17 | 32″ | 1440p | 170Hz | VA | 1500R | £230-280 |
| AOC CQ27G2U | 27″ | 1440p | 144Hz | VA | 1500R | £220-250 |
| MSI G27CQ4 | 27″ | 1440p | 165Hz | VA | 1500R | £250-280 |
| Samsung Odyssey G5 | 27″ | 1440p | 144Hz | VA | 1000R | £280-320 |
The KTC H32S17 stands out for offering 32 inches at this price point. Most budget 1440p gaming monitors are 27 inches. If you want that extra screen real estate, the KTC is basically your only option under £300.
The AOC CQ27G2U is probably the closest competitor. It’s a well-regarded budget gaming monitor with similar VA panel characteristics. But it’s 27 inches and caps at 144Hz. If you specifically want 32 inches, the KTC wins. If you prefer the sharper pixel density of 27 inches at 1440p, the AOC is a solid alternative with better brand reputation and customer support.
The Samsung Odyssey G5 offers a tighter 1000R curve and better build quality, but you’re paying £50-80 more for the Samsung badge. The panel performance is similar—both are VA with comparable contrast and response times.
For IPS alternatives, you’re looking at £350+ for 27-inch 1440p 144Hz panels from brands like LG or ASUS. You’ll get better response times and viewing angles, but you’ll sacrifice contrast and pay significantly more.
The Problems Nobody Mentions
Let’s talk about the annoying stuff, because every budget monitor has compromises. Here’s what actually bothered me during testing:
Backlight Bleed and Uniformity
My unit has noticeable backlight bleed in the bottom-right corner. It’s visible during dark loading screens or when displaying black bars in films. In actual gameplay with moving images, I don’t notice it. But it’s there.
This is panel lottery territory. Budget monitors have less stringent quality control, so you might get a perfect panel or you might get bleed. If you buy through Amazon, at least returns are straightforward if you get a dud.
Screen uniformity is decent in the centre but falls off towards the edges, especially the corners. Again, typical for VA panels at this price. Not a deal-breaker for gaming, but worth knowing about.
HDR Is Genuinely Pointless
I mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating: do not buy this monitor expecting functional HDR. The HDR mode is worse than SDR in every way. It’s a checkbox feature that exists purely for marketing. Ignore it completely.
Speakers Are Worse Than Your Laptop
The monitor has built-in speakers. Technically. They produce sound. Barely. They’re tinny, quiet, and lack any bass whatsoever. I tested them for about 30 seconds before plugging in my headphones.
If you’re buying this monitor, budget £20 for basic desktop speakers or use headphones. The built-in speakers are emergency backup only.
Documentation and Support
The manual is hilariously bad. It’s clearly been run through Google Translate from Chinese, resulting in gems like “Please to adjusting the luminance for best experience gaming.” You’ll figure out the OSD through trial and error, not by reading the manual.
Warranty information wasn’t in the box. I had to contact Amazon to confirm coverage. KTC claims to offer a 3-year warranty, but actually claiming on it if you’re in the UK? Good luck. This is why buying through Amazon is crucial—you can deal with their customer service instead of trying to contact a Chinese manufacturer.
Colour Calibration Is Mandatory
I’ve calibrated dozens of monitors, so spending 20 minutes in the OSD tweaking colours didn’t bother me. But if you’re not comfortable doing this, the out-of-box experience is genuinely bad. Colours are so oversaturated that skin tones look orange and grass looks fluorescent.
There’s no sRGB mode or colour presets that actually work properly. You’ll need to manually adjust saturation, RGB gains, and colour temperature. For a less tech-savvy buyer, this could be frustrating.
Should You Buy the KTC H32S17?
Right, let’s cut through everything and give you the actual buying advice.
Buy the KTC H32S17 if:
- You want 32-inch 1440p gaming without spending £400+
- You value contrast and deep blacks over response time perfection
- You’re happy to use a monitor arm or don’t need height adjustment
- You play immersive single-player games, racing sims, or atmospheric titles
- You’re comfortable calibrating colours via OSD menus
- You’ve got realistic expectations for a budget panel
Skip the KTC H32S17 if:
- You need the absolute fastest response times for competitive esports (get an IPS panel instead)
- You want functional HDR (save up for a £500+ monitor with proper brightness and local dimming)
- You need height adjustment and can’t/won’t use a monitor arm
- You do colour-critical work like photo editing (you need better colour accuracy)
- You want established brand support and warranty confidence
- You’re bothered by potential backlight bleed (panel lottery risk)
Better Alternatives If:
You want 27 inches instead: Consider the AOC CQ27G2U (£220-250) or MSI G27CQ4 (£250-280). Both offer similar performance in a smaller, sharper package with better pixel density.
You need faster response times: Look at IPS alternatives like the LG 27GP850 (£350-400). You’ll pay more but get 1ms response times and better viewing angles, sacrificing contrast.
You want better build quality: The Samsung Odyssey G5 (£280-320) offers similar specs with better construction and brand support, though you’re paying a premium for the Samsung name.
You’re on a tighter budget: Drop to 1080p 144Hz options like the AOC 24G2U (£150-180). You’ll sacrifice resolution but save £80-100.
Final Verdict
The KTC 32 inch 170Hz Curved Gaming Monitor is exactly what it claims to be: a budget 32-inch 1440p 170Hz curved gaming monitor that delivers solid performance if you accept its limitations.
Is it perfect? Absolutely not. The stand is basic, HDR is pointless, colours need calibration, and you’re rolling the dice on backlight bleed. But for the money, you’re getting a genuinely immersive gaming experience with smooth high refresh rates, excellent contrast, and a proper curve that enhances atmospheric games.
I’ve been using this as my primary gaming monitor for three weeks, and I haven’t felt the urge to switch back to my more expensive LG panel for gaming. That tells you something.
Would I recommend it? Yeah, with caveats. If you understand you’re buying a budget panel and you’re okay with the compromises that entails, the KTC H32S17 offers brilliant value. Mount it on a decent monitor arm, spend 20 minutes calibrating colours, and you’ve got a gaming monitor that performs like something costing £150 more.
For a first proper gaming monitor or a secondary screen for racing sims and immersive games, this is hard to beat at the price. Just buy through Amazon so returns are easy if you lose the panel lottery.
Final Score: 7.5/10 – Excellent value with clear compromises. Recommended for budget-conscious gamers with realistic expectations.
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