Benq BL3200PT (32" 1440p)

Well, I apologize but my setup wouldn't allow me to get a side by side shot of the 2 monitors (New BenQ & Korean 30")

Overall the impression is nice. The contrast ratio is better and the blacks are deeper, but those are things I definitely expected just based upon specs and panel type.
I also VERY much appreciate the power brick being built in. I really wish more monitors had this. It's not overly heavy and so nice not to have the HUGE external brick that so many screens come with.

The only real drawback to this BenQ, to me, is that the pixels are larger due to taking 2560x1440 and stretching it across a 32" 16:9 screen.

I noticed the TFT central review made mention of this and called this "perhaps the ideal pixel density" for easy viewing. I agree that things are a *touch* larger and thus all is a bit easier on the eyes with no scaling the UI issues, etc.

But... Since I use Retina iPad/iPhone's all day (or same deal if you have nice Android screens), it really makes it even *more* obvious how "non-retina / hi-ppi" this screen is.

For me personally, this will be a nice stop-gap before higher quality @ lower cost 4k panels come around and I go that direction, but, rightly so, this panel really feels like a highly optimized and fully evolved piece of older technology -- Simply because we've all started to get used to and take for granted the hi pixel per inch numbers of lots of our devices.

I feel about this screen how I do when I go to an Apple Store and switch between a 15" Retina MacBook Pro and then pop over to the non-retina 13" MacBook Air. That's the best way I can describe it.

It's very nice on it's own, but falls down a bit when you compare it to higher pixel densities - A thought that will keep nagging at you a bit when you're on the BenQ vs those other displays.
 
Last edited:
And then a final thought on the PPI thing on this BenQ.

The text is where you notice this the most (perhaps obvious).

Images and graphics and games all look beautiful.
I guess Hi-PPI is really about text readability (for the most part anyhow)
 
the bigger pixels are actually one of the selling points for me. i have a 24" 1920x1200 screen as secondary and a 29" 2560x1080 primary and i must say i like the ppi on the 24" and would just like to have it bigger. will find out soon enough, it should be here tomorrow.
 
You guys will probably think I'm crazy, but I'm sending it back.

I just find the text on it to look "ugh". I'm going to keep milking time off the 'ol Korean until I decide what 4K direction to go.

@skuko - Sounds like you'll enjoy the monitor. It was just an instantaneous "downgrade" (even if slight) for me and not worth it to keep.

It all depends upon what you're coming from and have been used to I guess.
 
I think the nice thing for me is that I finally know what I want.

After trying the new LG 34UM95 and now this - It's clear that I like the 30-32" size (max) but I'm also ready for higher pixels per inch in that form factor.

Especially since I primarily use the Mac side of things and the way they do UI scaling works very nicely. Must be all the time they've had dealing with the hi-dpi screens on laptops.
 
turbineseaplane said:
You guys will probably think I'm crazy, but I'm sending it back.

I just find the text on it to look "ugh". I'm going to keep milking time off the 'ol Korean until I decide what 4K direction to go.

@skuko - Sounds like you'll enjoy the monitor. It was just an instantaneous "downgrade" (even if slight) for me and not worth it to keep.

It all depends upon what you're coming from and have been used to I guess.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight. I really appreciate it.

Did you do any gaming with the BenQ and did you notice any blurring or motion issues compared with your IPS monitor?
 
Darn...was about to order off Amazon but they increased the price by $30...(and it's OOS atm).
 
Bloodflowerz said:
Thanks for the insight. I really appreciate it.

Did you do any gaming with the BenQ and did you notice any blurring or motion issues compared with your IPS monitor?
Click to expand...

Seemed fine to me and performed just like my IPS.

That said, I'm probably the wrong person to ask, as the only "gaming" I do is Flight Simulator (X-Plane)
 
skuko said:
the bigger pixels are actually one of the selling points for me. i have a 24" 1920x1200 screen as secondary and a 29" 2560x1080 primary and i must say i like the ppi on the 24" and would just like to have it bigger. will find out soon enough, it should be here tomorrow.
Click to expand...

+1 here
My Dell 2407WFP-HC has served me well these last 7 years and I've wanted to get a bigger panel for over a year, this looks to me to cover all the bases I need covering at a price similar to what I paid for my Dell. Unfortunately I won't be in a position to buy it until November so with any luck it will be cheaper then.
 
drich said:
+1 here
My Dell 2407WFP-HC has served me well these last 7 years and I've wanted to get a bigger panel for over a year, this looks to me to cover all the bases I need covering at a price similar to what I paid for my Dell. Unfortunately I won't be in a position to buy it until November so with any luck it will be cheaper then.
Click to expand...

Hopefully you guys like it more than I did.

Going from 24" Dell you mentioned will also be getting lower pixels per inch with this panel, albeit not a huge drop, so hopefully it works out for you.

For me it was definitely a move in the wrong direction.
 
Just to be clear, this monitor has identical PPI to a 24 inch 1080p monitor (that means a nearly imperceptible drop in PPI from Dell 24 inch 16:10 monitor... Couple with the fact that you will be sitting farther away it is a clear upgrade from that).

As a pc gamer I have zero interest in 4k because of the insane hardware needed to even reach a bare minimum 30 fps in modern games.

I will probably be putting in an order as soon as it dips to 700 on Amazon (mainly due to their customer service).
 
druelt said:
Just to be clear, this monitor has identical PPI to a 24 inch 1080p monitor (that means a nearly imperceptible drop in PPI from Dell 24 inch 16:10 monitor... Couple with the fact that you will be sitting farther away it is a clear upgrade from that).

As a pc gamer I have zero interest in 4k because of the insane hardware needed to even reach a bare minimum 30 fps in modern games.

I will probably be putting in an order as soon as it dips to 700 on Amazon (mainly due to their customer service).
Click to expand...

Like I said. Hope the imperceptible drop from 24" 16:10 works for you.

Was absolutely a perceptible change from my 30" 16:10.

Just a few PPI difference but it was definitely in the wrong direction for me personally.
 
I also think the reason this was more an issue for me is I mainly do work, coding, photo stuff, etc on my monitors.

And the only game I even play is flight simulator....

Probably the main reason 4k is more up my alley. Other than gaming, lots of reasons for me personally to go that direction.
 
Should also mention that the little usb controller is nice.

All the cables were a touch shorter than I would have liked, but that's because I wall mount.

I also didn't like how recessed the actual screen surface is from the bezel. Not a big deal, but it made a shadow I didn't care for in my arrangement.
 
Re: BlueSun concerns.

Monitor seemed easy on the eyes, but really no different than my Korean for me personally. Perhaps I'm not impacted by the backlight differences much, etc?

I get the feeling I got a really good Korean version compared to some of the stories I've heard around here.
 
Bluesun311 said:
Hard to guess, you still haven't told us which Korean 30" you have, afaik. They pretty much all have negatives that 27" monitors don't, but they are bigger so... can't really argue with that. CCFL isn't hard on the eyes it's power hungry and gets hot. They all have big time input delay, too. But going to a 32" isn't going to give anything to really compare to there. You said it had better contrast and deeper blacks. Kinda to be expected. Not surprised you're returning it, actually. If you ever bought one. I'm suspicious since you have offered no pictures.
Click to expand...

My goodness.
I can't believe I'm even reading this from you.

I've just been trying to offer thoughts about the monitor since you asked.

Incredible. Almost offensive that you are accusing me of just "making things up".
Unbelievable.

Screen%20Shot%202014-05-13%20at%208.43.52%20PM.png

Screen%20Shot%202014-05-13%20at%208.44.22%20PM.png
 
Last edited:
I have a Crossover 3020mdp.

If you had searched my posts you'd see I have mentioned it before.

The CCFL is a non-issue and doesn't get particularly warm on my display.
Input delay I could care less about.

I seriously don't get you BlueSun.
You go from excited and praise to negative and attacking in seemingly a flash.

I had the monitor here, didn't like even grainier text and sent it back.
No big mystery here.

The BenQ is fine. Just a downgrade for my personal preference and usages and in comparison to what I already have sitting here.


...And just a thought, but maybe you should tone down your negative opinion of the Korean 30" monitors since you've admitted to never having even *seen* one in person!?
 
Last edited:
turbineseaplane said:
I also think the reason this was more an issue for me is I mainly do work, coding, photo stuff, etc on my monitors.

And the only game I even play is flight simulator....

Probably the main reason 4k is more up my alley. Other than gaming, lots of reasons for me personally to go that direction.
Click to expand...

The problem there is we are at least 3 years (clearly a guess...but I am probably being generous) from having cost effective 30" 4K monitors. Those TN panels don't count at all as they are crap for color accuracy and viewing angles.

Since your goals are different, stick with your 30" until you feel comfortable purchasing a real 4K. For me, this 32 inch 1440p is exactly what I looking for when it comes to gaming.

For photos and things I will continue to use my Apple Cinema Display 27" which has a 109 PPI (I believe), which is as high as you can get right now without going 4K.

Currently, I only have the ACD and a single desktop. My plan is to split this and use a Macbook Pro with the ACD for all "productivity" activites and use this BenQ with my desktop purely for gaming. As soon as Apple refreshes the retina MBP I will put my plan into action.
 
druelt said:
The problem there is we are at least 3 years (clearly a guess...but I am probably being generous) from having cost effective 30" 4K monitors. Those TN panels don't count at all as they are crap for color accuracy and viewing angles.

Since your goals are different, stick with your 30" until you feel comfortable purchasing a real 4K. For me, this 32 inch 1440p is exactly what I looking for when it comes to gaming.

For photos and things I will continue to use my Apple Cinema Display 27" which has a 109 PPI (I believe), which is as high as you can get right now without going 4K.

Currently, I only have the ACD and a single desktop. My plan is to split this and use a Macbook Pro with the ACD for all "productivity" activites and use this BenQ with my desktop purely for gaming. As soon as Apple refreshes the retina MBP I will put my plan into action.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
Good thoughts.

Will be sticking with the Korean for a while.
 
turbineseaplane said:
I have a Crossover 3020mdp.

If you had searched my posts you'd see I have mentioned it before.

The CCFL is a non-issue and doesn't get particularly warm on my display.
Input delay I could care less about.

I seriously don't get you BlueSun.
You go from excited and praise to negative and attacking in seemingly a flash.

I had the monitor here, didn't like even grainier text and sent it back.
No big mystery here.

The BenQ is fine. Just a downgrade for my personal preference and usages and in comparison to what I already have sitting here.


...And just a thought, but maybe you should tone down your negative opinion of the Korean 30" monitors since you've admitted to never having even *seen* one in person!?
Click to expand...

dude, it's the internet, what would you expect? :D
thanks for your insights, i will hopefully post mine later on today when/if i get the screen.
 
turbineseaplane said:
...And just a thought, but maybe you should tone down your negative opinion of the Korean 30" monitors since you've admitted to never having even *seen* one in person!?
Click to expand...
Nah, I won't until someone shows me a review on one that doesn't look like a snuff film. There isn't a single good pro review on any of them.

Second, you had the monitor for less than a day, but you had Amazon overnight it to you? What a pointless review you've given us. You've been dancing around the question of what 30" you have for a couple days. I finally come out and ask and I should have searched your posts? lol. Your Crossover is CCFL with a grainy coating and probably peaks out at about 500:1 contrast ratio. But you sent back the BL3200PT because it makes text look funny and wasn't any better as far as you could tell than your IPS? Mk. Did you try to fix the text issue at all? Different input, different settings? Don't see that you could have spent enough time with the display to really give it any chance. You were pretty obviously going to send it back from the start. Thanks for the proof you bought it, though. A picture of the display would have been a lot more useful.
 
skuko said:
dude, it's the internet, what would you expect? :D
thanks for your insights, i will hopefully post mine later on today when/if i get the screen.
Click to expand...

You're right.
I should have expected it. Haha. :)

Seriously, it's a very nice monitor.

As I have said time and again, it's SO much about what you're looking for, what display you're coming from and what you will use it for.
 
Bluesun311 said:
Nah, I won't until someone shows me a review on one that doesn't look like a snuff film. There isn't a single good pro review on any of them.

Second, you had the monitor for less than a day, but you had Amazon overnight it to you? What a pointless review you've given us. You've been dancing around the question of what 30" you have for a couple days. I finally come out and ask and I should have searched your posts? lol. Your Crossover is CCFL with a grainy coating and probably peaks out at about 500:1 contrast ratio. But you sent back the BL3200PT because it makes text look funny and wasn't any better as far as you could tell than your IPS? Mk. Did you try to fix the text issue at all? Different input, different settings? Don't see that you could have spent enough time with the display to really give it any chance. You were pretty obviously going to send it back from the start. Thanks for the proof you bought it, though. A picture of the display would have been a lot more useful.
Click to expand...

Wow.

I'm just done with you.

No disrespect but I can't handle even trying to communicate with your level of argumentative.

If you think I'm so uninformed and have such poor taste and quality standards to be using a Korean monitor in the first place, I'm not sure why you wanted my opinion anyways?

My Korean 30" works and looks just fine for me. You've never even seen one.

Enjoy whatever you end you end up with.
 
Last edited:
druelt said:
The problem there is we are at least 3 years (clearly a guess...but I am probably being generous) from having cost effective 30" 4K monitors. Those TN panels don't count at all as they are crap for color accuracy and viewing angles.

Since your goals are different, stick with your 30" until you feel comfortable purchasing a real 4K. For me, this 32 inch 1440p is exactly what I looking for when it comes to gaming.

For photos and things I will continue to use my Apple Cinema Display 27" which has a 109 PPI (I believe), which is as high as you can get right now without going 4K.

Currently, I only have the ACD and a single desktop. My plan is to split this and use a Macbook Pro with the ACD for all "productivity" activites and use this BenQ with my desktop purely for gaming. As soon as Apple refreshes the retina MBP I will put my plan into action.
Click to expand...

Samsung's new 4K TVs are already down to $2199 MSRP at 50", and those use a high quality VA panel. IMO by next year we should see 4K trickle down to the mid-range on the TV front, which should lead to more panels bring produced at even smaller sizes. So I think we'll see a <=$1500 30" 4K monitor sometime next year.

4K needs to be pushed hard at cheap prices so it really gets adoption going. That's the only way app developers are going to be convinced to fix DPI scaling issues on the Windows front.
 
turbineseaplane said:
If you think I'm so uninformed and have such poor taste and quality standards to be using a Korean monitor in the first place, I'm not sure why you wanted my opinion anyways?
Click to expand...
I didn't I was trying to be polite. The fact you own and like your Korean 30" Wide-gamut CCFL display is already evidence enough that you don't know what to look for in monitors and were trying to save a buck and get as big a monitor as you could.

Then when you address my "concerns" and claim that the BL3200PT is "no better" than your Crossover 3020MDP I call bullshit.

You can scurry on away if it makes you less frustrated, or stay and "learn something" as you were talking about the other day, but I don't really care either way.
 
Bluesun311 said:
I didn't I was trying to be polite. The fact you own and like your Korean 30" Wide-gamut CCFL display is already evidence enough that you don't know what to look for in monitors.

Then when you address my "concerns" and claim that the BL3200PT is "no better" than your Crossover 3020MDP I call bullshit.

You can scurry on away if it makes you less frustrated, or stay and "learn something" as you were talking about the other day, but I don't really care either way.
Click to expand...

What part of this has shown you as being polite?
Your attitude is basically that of a bully.

You are totally disrespectful in your tone on here.
Honestly, you should re-read some of what you write out loud and listen to how you sound.

No thank you.
No scurrying away, I simply have enough self esteem to know that my eyes are just fine and my monitor works wonderfully for my needs.

No validation needed from someone like you.
 
Bluesun311 said:
K now you're starting to get into the personal attack arena. So you might wanna go read the rules.

Like I said, welcome to [H], pal.

If you don't want to hear that your monitor isn't the right gamut for your video card that's fine. But it doesn't change the facts. If that's a bully to you, well... you should go back to grade school. Those kids just spit on you instead of informing you about your hardware.
Click to expand...

I have nothing more to say to you.
You're not polite and simply not worth interacting with based upon how it's gone in this thread.
 
Last edited:
I guess for coders and other software suites that rely on heavy text usage a smaller/1440p screen or a higher resolution monitor (4K) at 30/32" is more suitable. Since turbineseaplane mentioned he/she spends alot of time coding and working on photos I can see why the lower dpi can become an issue. Different requirements for different folks.

My Brother is has been using a 32" Sony TV as a monitor for nearly 2 years. He mostly games and watches movies. I had always thought it looked great but could never get passed the 1080p res. Since I've been using 1440p I could never go back to 1080p. I always wanted a 32" (at least 1440p) so I get the best of both worlds without sacrificing the res. Yes, the DPI is a little lower however for us who predominately game and browse the net and watch media the lower dpi should not be an issue.

108.79 PPI, 0.2335mm dot pitch (27" 1440p)

91.79 PPI, 0.2767mm dot pitch (32" 1440p)

Thanks turbineseaplane for your feedback though. It has been helpful. One question I have; what are your thoughts on the LG 34UM95 in relation to the BenQ? Did you also return the LG too?
 
Bloodflowerz said:
I guess for coders and other software suites that rely on heavy text usage a smaller/1440p screen or a higher resolution monitor (4K) at 30/32" is more suitable. Since turbineseaplane mentioned he/she spends alot of time coding and working on photos I can see why the lower dpi can become an issue. Different requirements for different folks.

My Brother is has been using a 32" Sony TV as a monitor for nearly 2 years. He mostly games and watches movies. I had always thought it looked great but could never get passed the 1080p res. Since I've been using 1440p I could never go back to 1080p. I always wanted a 32" (at least 1440p) so I get the best of both worlds without sacrificing the res. Yes, the DPI is a little lower however for us who predominately game and browse the net and watch media the lower dpi should not be an issue.
Click to expand...

After seeing this week what a glossy coating does for my perceived DPI at 1440p on 27" screens, I suspect grainy matte 30" 1600p pixels don't look that much smaller than the pixels on a 32" semi-gloss 1440p. It didn't occur to me that gamut makes little difference if you aren't actually looking at colors, but that is certainly true. My main argument against 30" monitors is that they are pretty much all wide gamut and it goes out the window if you aren't looking at anything but numbers and text. I really just wanted to see a lot of pictures of what this thing can do so if anyone could be so kind before they send their BL3200PT back take a shot or two of it on a black screen and put on a Disney movie or something for all of us poor salivating enthusiasts.
 
Bluesun311 said:
After seeing this week what a glossy coating does for my perceived DPI at 1440p on 27" screens, I suspect grainy matte 30" 1600p pixels don't look that much smaller than the pixels on a 32" semi-gloss 1440p. It didn't occur to me that gamut makes little difference if you aren't actually looking at colors, but that is certainly true. My main argument against 30" monitors is that they are pretty much all wide gamut and it goes out the window if you aren't looking at anything but numbers and text. I really just wanted to see a lot of pictures of what this thing can do so if anyone could be so kind before they send their BL3200PT back take a shot or two of it on a black screen and put on a Disney movie or something for all of us poor salivating enthusiasts.
Click to expand...

Hopefully, skuko can help out once the monitor arrives.

Looking to your experience with the BenQ, skuko. :)
 
accroding to the shop, it's not there yet, but it's expected to be in today. that message may change though, not holding my breath :)
 
Bloodflowerz said:
I guess for coders and other software suites that rely on heavy text usage a smaller/1440p screen or a higher resolution monitor (4K) at 30/32" is more suitable. Since turbineseaplane mentioned he/she spends alot of time coding and working on photos I can see why the lower dpi can become an issue. Different requirements for different folks.

My Brother is has been using a 32" Sony TV as a monitor for nearly 2 years. He mostly games and watches movies. I had always thought it looked great but could never get passed the 1080p res. Since I've been using 1440p I could never go back to 1080p. I always wanted a 32" (at least 1440p) so I get the best of both worlds without sacrificing the res. Yes, the DPI is a little lower however for us who predominately game and browse the net and watch media the lower dpi should not be an issue.

108.79 PPI, 0.2335mm dot pitch (27" 1440p)

91.79 PPI, 0.2767mm dot pitch (32" 1440p)

Thanks turbineseaplane for your feedback though. It has been helpful. One question I have; what are your thoughts on the LG 34UM95 in relation to the BenQ? Did you also return the LG too?
Click to expand...

The LG was a gorgeous screen. It was noticeably nice right out of the box.

Hardly any bezel and what was there wasn't very deep or thick.

Super viewing angles, very bright and things just jumped off the screen.

The issue for me on the LG34, and why I sent it back, is that it was simply too physically wide. I use window managers and I stand up at my desk, but I was actually having to move my head side to side laterally and/or shift actual body position to get a good look at the far right and left of the screen.

I know lots who are mainly gamers like the immersion, but at the same time those gamers have plenty of not so fun remarks about the IPS screen too.

Also, for wall mounting in my setup it was no good as the bottom of the screen had a protruding metal piece used for the desk stand that couldn't be removed. It didn't allow me to use my flush wall mount setup.

All that said, gorgeous screen.
I am on record openly wondering whether an LG 31-31" 4k will be right up my alley.
 
I've received my LG 34UM95 just 3 days ago and I've just decided that I'm not happy with it...
I like it better than my previous Samsung S27B970D, that had beautiful colors and picture quality but wasn't big enough (...coming from an HP ZR30w) and too glossy.
The 21:9 feature is really cool in some games like TESO or Tomb Rider, but looks horrible in CoD Ghost and BF4.
I love the screen coating, the colors, the black and the contrast, but at the end of the day I'm still looking at an IPS 27" with wings, still not big enough.
Construction quality and aesthetic are great but the stand is useless (immediately replaced with a Vesa Ergotron).
As many others already said it before me: not enough juice for 1.000$ + taxes and shipping.
So, I've decided that I'll send it back to Newegg and I will buy a Benq BL3200PT from Tiger Direct. I will eventually keep the LG until the Benq arrives in order to compare them side by side and post my impressions.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Going from 24" Dell you mentioned will also be getting lower pixels per inch with this panel, albeit not a huge drop, so hopefully it works out for you.
Click to expand...

by my maths mine is currently 93(ish) PPI while the Benq comes in at just shy of 92 which lets be honest is pretty damn close ;)

To say I am "chomping at the bit" to change it is an understatement and it is only my shambolic finances that prevent me from pulling the trigger (praying for a lotto win lol)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top