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However, this isn’t just a monitor for media consumption. It’s a monitor for media creation. In that regard, it holds its own against more expensive competitors, but it’s not the most impressive professional monitor we’ve seen. Overall, then, there was plenty to like about the PD3200U. We would say that the tighter factory calibration and inclusion of HDMI 2.0 were nice additions and a lot of what we liked about the older model was retained. We still don’t understand the change of screen surface texture to a grainier one, given the haze value and hence glare-handling characteristics seem very similar. But then, we still feel many users would find the new screen surface agreeable. This is perhaps a moot point given that the older model is discontinued in most regions, but certainly something that BenQ should reconsider for future models. It isn’t a cheap monitor, but the overall build quality and image quality is solid as is the feature-set. The solid aluminum upright supports a full range of movements including 45° swivel, 5” height, and 25° tilt. You also get an impressive portrait mode. We can imagine the ease of editing orchestral scores or working on poster-sized graphics when the panel is rotated. Looking at contrast and color gamut, you can see this monitor scores well, but doesn’t quite compete with the top contenders in this arena. The HP Dreamcolor z32xfeatures a wider color gamut, hitting 98 percent of the sRGB space, and 92 percent of the AdobeRGB color space. Even the LG 27UD88-W beat out our BenQ PD3200U, hitting 77 percent of the AdobeRGB space, to the BenQ’s 75 percent.
The 10-bit IPS panel has a maximum resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 and covers 100 percent of the sRGB and REC.709 color gamut. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio, a 1,000:1 native contrast ratio, a 4-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response, and a 350 cd/m 2 peak brightness. The embedded 5-watt speakers are loud and offer a smattering of bass, but they can't stand up to the 9-watt speakers that come with the Dell U3417W. The monitor also put in a good contrast performance, much in line with its predecessor. The static contrast was close to what was specified, perhaps just a touch lower than the predecessor but within expected inter-sample variation anyway. Plus, the tighter factory calibration may come into play in that respect. There was certainly noticeable ‘AHVA glow’, but as with the older model this was somewhat subdued compared to what you might expect from an IPS-type model of this size. It was definitely still there and still a ‘feature’, though, eating away at some of the detail for dark shades in the affected regions. Particularly near the bottom corners of the screen. Responsiveness was also similar if not slightly improved over the older model, with low input lag and a convincing 60Hz performance. Pixel responsiveness was good enough to provide a pretty much optimal 60Hz experience, without obvious overshoot or trailing adding significantly to perceived blur. There were light traces of each here and there, but added a small fraction to the moderate perceived blur that exists on any 60Hz sample and hold LCD. You get a good selection of settings with the PD3200U. In addition to Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, and Color Temperature settings, you can choose one of eight Picture Modes, including REC. 709, sRGB, CAD/CAM, Animation, Standard, Low Blue Light, Darkroom, and User Defined. There's also a DualView feature that lets you view two windows side by side using two different picture modes. As with the BenQ PV3200PT, the PD3200U contains an Ergonomic menu with an Eye Protect setting that uses an embedded sensor to detect ambient light levels and adjust screen brightness. It also has a light meter and a timer that reminds you to rest your eyes, as well as a presence sensor that puts the monitor into sleep mode when you're not there. This monitor doesn't have the individual six-color Hue and Saturation settings that you get with the BenQ PV3200PT and the Dell U3417W, but it does have two sliders for increasing or decreasing overall Hue and Saturation levels. Hardware, particularly gaming hardware, hasn’t quite caught up to the demands 4K places on modern desktop computers, but it’s gaining steam fast, which means 4K content is going to become more and more common and much more accessible.But what about performance for non-professional applications? We hooked it up to a gaming rig with a mighty Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, which does a pretty decent job of pushing games at 4K resolution, and they really did look superb. In Standard mode, the PD3200U consumed 44 watts of power (it does not offer a power-saving ECO mode). That's more efficient than the same-size BenQ PV3200PT (57 watts), the BenQ BL3201PH (56 watts), and the 34-inch Dell U3417W (56 watts). Conclusion
Monitors like the BenQ PD3200U give us hope for a 4K future. It performs brilliantly, and the large screen size really gives you an insight into how a large 4K monitor can improve your productivity. Moving on to color accuracy, the BenQ managed to steal victory from the jaws of defeat with a near-perfect score. With an average color error of 1.23, to the HP Dreamcolor’s 1.68, and the LG 27UD88-W’s 3.97, the BenQ wins by a significant margin. will limit the appeal to some users and there were slight traces of trailing and overshoot here and there The greyscale gradient was very smooth overall without obvious banding. There was a small amount of banding at the low end. Some temporal dithering was also evident, although well-masked and not obvious. It is known that the monitor uses a dithering stage (8-bit + FRC) so this wasn’t surprising.The monitor also handily comes with a KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch, which lets you plug in a second PC and switch between the two while using a single monitor, keyboard and mouse. It’s a great productivity tool to have, and it means that if you use multiple machines you can potentially clear up your desk by using the BenQ PD3200U and getting rid of any secondary monitors, keyboards or mice.
Overall, this is a standard array of ports for a professional monitor, but the layout is convenient and thoughtful. Controls We also made some observations when viewing our Blu-ray movie test titles. Here, there were no noticeable weaknesses attributable to either slower than optimal pixel responses or overly aggressive pixel overdrive. The pace of action here is limited by the 24fps or so at which the content runs – which limits fluidity and also reduces the pixel responsiveness requirements. We also observed some higher frame rate movie content (60fps), which as you’d expect highlighted exactly the same sort of behaviour that our game testing did. There were again no obvious weaknesses, just a whiff of faint powdery trailing or overshoot here and there. Certainly nothing we found distracting and nothing that should bother even sensitive users. If it does, they’d likely be unhappy with any 60Hz sample and hold monitor.
A large 4K screen for your desk
So, if you’re looking for an excellent high-resolution monitor with accurate color reproduction, which can also do a good job of displaying films and games in your downtime, the BenQ PD3200U is a great choice. Final verdict While the Dreamcolor features a wider color gamut, both displays feature near-perfect color accuracy, rich, high-contrast displays, and simple, professional designs. The BenQ PD3200U is missing that “looking out a window” quality the Dreamcolor possesses, but it’s much more affordable. The Lagom text appeared a blended grey throughout with a very slight green hue to the striping on the text. There were no obvious flashes or orange or red even with a moderate degree of head movement. This indicates a low viewing angle dependency to the gamma curve of the monitor, as you’d hope for from an IPS-type panel such as this. The following image gives a rough idea of how things looked in the Lagom text test.
Design-wise the BenQ PD3200U looks simple yet elegant. It’s clear this is a monitor made with work and productivity in mind, and there are none of the garish design flourishes you'll find on some gaming displays. BenQ describes it as a ‘simple, functional design for increased efficiency’, which we’d broadly agree with. To be fair, that’s the kind of improvement we saw from the HP Dreamcolor z32x also, which improved on its initials core of 1.68 by hitting .84. It’s important to point out that even though the Dreamcolor’s overall color error is lower than the BenQ’s, once you get under 1.0, the variances are rather minor. The LG 27UD88-W also improved, going from 3.97 to 2.34, but that’s still a little outside what you’d want from a professional monitor.Images and video files also looked excellent on the BenQ PD3200U. This is where the factory calibration really comes into its own, as we’ve often had monitors in for review on which we’ve had to fiddle around with some of the settings to get the optimum image quality. That wasn't necessary with the BenQ PD3200U, as it looked fantastic straight out of the box. Finally, we assessed the contrast performance of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This film contains many scenes where strong contrast is called upon, with bright lightsabers and explosions lighting up much darker surroundings. The monitor again put in a decent performance. It didn’t capture the atmosphere in the way that a model with significantly stronger contrast might (such as a VA model), but it didn’t appear washed out in a reasonably well-lit room either. The BenQ PD3200U is part of BenQ’s Designer Monitor range, which means it has been individually factory-calibrated before being shipped. It also comes with a range of modes for professionals, such as CAD/CAM mode, which ups the contrast for lines and shapes in technical illustrations when using CAD programs.
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