BenQ BL3201PT 4K monitor

No, it's a gradual shift in uniformity as you approach the edges, but is much worse on the left side. To illustrate, I divided the screen into a 3x3 grid and took 9 readings with a colorimeter and recorded the results below.

The charts on the left are at the brightness level I personally use, and the ones on the right are at roughly 120 cd/m² in the center of the screen.



The 1-200k color temp shift on the right is pretty minor and doesn't bother me, but the 4-500k shift on the left is large and very noticeable. The left, particularly the lower left, appears yellowed and faded.

One of the reviewers on Amazon did the same thing and said this: “When calibrated centrally to 6500K white balance (measured 6527K), I obtain readings from 6168K (- 6.1%, left lower corner) to 6944K (+ 5.6%, right upper corner). That is over 11% difference across the screen and shows a visibly noticeable warming of colors from right to left, especially on a full screen solid white background.”

I went ahead and cross-shipped a 2nd monitor yesterday. Hopefully the new one will be better. Truth be told, I'm tempted to keep the best of the two, even with the problems, as I'm desperate for a new display right now. It's still much better overall than the Samsung 40JU7100 I purchased a couple weeks ago and returned.
 
I went ahead and cross-shipped a 2nd monitor yesterday. Hopefully the new one will be better. Truth be told, I'm tempted to keep the best of the two, even with the problems, as I'm desperate for a new display right now. It's still much better overall than the Samsung 40JU7100 I purchased a couple weeks ago and returned.

In terms of uniformity, or otherwise? Just curious as I've had 3 of the Samsungs and have had zero complaints about them. The BenQ was on my radar a few months ago, so just wondering how you would compare it with the 40JU7100.
 
I recently purchased this monitor and it has very obvious color uniformity problems with the left side of the screen being a good 500k lower in color temp than the right. Is there anyone here who has one of these that doesn't have this problem? If so, what is the manufacture date? Mine is December 2014.

I'm trying to decide whether to just return it for a refund or exchange it for another. If this is a widespread problem though, I'll probably just get a refund as I really don't want to be shipping monitors back and forth for the next month and a half trying to find that needle-in-the-haystack panel that doesn't suck. Any information would be helpful. Thanks.

My monitor displays colors great, no uniformity problem that I'm aware. Just know that I don't think you could find an almost all-purpose 32" 4K monitor better than the 3201PH.
 
Well, I got my 2nd display yesterday and I am happy to say that this unit doesn't have whatever aberration the first did that caused the screen to have that strange color temperature gradient across the screen. The manufacture date is March 2015.

Here are the color temp readings of the new panel:



As you can see, color temp uniformity is massively improved. In fact, 8 of the 9 zones are within ~1% of each other. As such, this panel looks significantly better than the previous. Text is much clearer on the left side of the screen because whites backgrounds actually look white like they're supposed to.

Sadly, as nice as it looks, it isn't without a flaw. There is a bruise-like blemish at the bottom center edge of the screen. The first panel had this problem in the exact same spot, though it was a bit less noticeable. Even more sad, the Samsung 40JU7100 I previously purchased had a really bad blemish of the same type in the middle of the right side of the screen. That's three $1000+ displays purchased in roughly two weeks that all had the same problem.

I also haven't mentioned the stuck blue pixel on the first BenQ and the massive, roughly 7x1.5mm piece of dirt stuck under the screen on the Samsung and its broken remote. I'm beginning to think that if you asked the people running display companies nowadays what Six Sigma was, they'd think it was a college fraternity or something.

Anyway, I'm very tempted to just deal with the blemish as the rest of the panel is very nice and I'm not sure I want to risk another exchange. In fact, if I had my taskbar at the bottom of the screen like most people, I wouldn't even see it. That said, it's still disappointing.

My personal bad luck aside, I would definitely recommend this panel if you can get your hands on a good one. Pretty much everything looks amazing on it.
 
In terms of uniformity, or otherwise? Just curious as I've had 3 of the Samsungs and have had zero complaints about them. The BenQ was on my radar a few months ago, so just wondering how you would compare it with the 40JU7100.

The BenQ has higher resolution, lower input lag, better motion clarity, no PWM, better viewing angles, better color accuracy, a better stand and costs less.

The Samsung's pros are basically just that it's bigger and if you sit far enough away to avoid the VA glow/crush (I don't) then it has slightly better contrast. That's basically it.

I really did want to like the Samsung as my gaming and movie preferences lean strongly towards horror where IPS glow is a definite problem that I was hoping to get away from, but the bluish blacks at close viewing distances on the Samsung were every bit as annoying to me. It's a lateral move at best in that regard, and the Samsung is worse in just about every other metric.
 
Posted this in the affordable 32" class thread so i'll post it here as well as this is the monitores official thread.

Is anyone else getting weird glitches with the BenQ BL3201PT? I can be in a game or just browsing online and i get weird horizontal glitches flashing across the screen occasionally. The weird thing is sometimes they limit themselves to one half of the screen as if its 2 dp streams being stitched together to form one image.

A few nights ago the screen went black a couple of times for 2 or 3 seconds at a time, not done that since. Connections are secure, and i've noticed on the ocuk forum people seeing similar issues with both nvidia and amd cards.

Sent an email to benq uk on sunday and still nothing back, tried calling them tuesday and wednesday and all i got was an answering machine saying lines are currently closed.
 
The BenQ has higher resolution, lower input lag, better motion clarity, no PWM, better viewing angles, better color accuracy, a better stand and costs less.

The Samsung's pros are basically just that it's bigger and if you sit far enough away to avoid the VA glow/crush (I don't) then it has slightly better contrast. That's basically it.

I really did want to like the Samsung as my gaming and movie preferences lean strongly towards horror where IPS glow is a definite problem that I was hoping to get away from, but the bluish blacks at close viewing distances on the Samsung were every bit as annoying to me. It's a lateral move at best in that regard, and the Samsung is worse in just about every other metric.

Higher resolution? :confused: They are both 4K panels. Do you mean pixel density?

BenQ costs less than the 40JU7100 - I would hope so considering it's smaller and has zero 3D or TV features (not that that's a bad thing; I'm just stating the obvious). But actually, the 40" JU6500 and JU6700 actually cost less than the BenQ and double as pretty killer 4K TVs. :cool: For use as a monitor, they provide a very similar experience to the 7 series overall. The 7 series is better in a few aspects, but not overwhelmingly so.

I don't notice the VA glow/crush, but it has to be better than IPS glow (I too lean towards the horror genre). Can't argue with you regarding the PWM or the stand, but you can have excellent motion clarity by enabling the Auto Motion Plus feature for frame interpolation. :)

As with anything else, no display is perfect and you have to choose a display that does more of the things you like and less of the things that you don't. If I was in the market for a 32"-class 4K monitor, the BenQ would be my #1 choice. But after having the 40" and 48" Samsungs, I don't think that I'd ever want to go back to a smaller display and I've been far more thrilled with them than it sounds like you were. I'm kind of surprised that you didn't try the Philips BDM4065UC or the new Crossover flicker free 40", as it sound like you're as much of a sucker for VA panels as I am. ;)

Just saying, there are some metrics that can define "better" but so much of this stuff with monitors is subjective and comes down to personal preference. I wish people would start saying "Product X was better or worse for me" vs. stating it like a fact. You prefer the BenQ because it ticks more boxes for you, and there's nothing wrong with that. Between 4K and 34" ultrawides and G-Sync and 144Hz and TVs that finally do 4:4:4/60 with decent input lag, I'm just glad that we have so many awesome displays available now; seems like just yesterday we were using 20"-24" monitors without any of these awesome features, and that seemed perfectly fine at the time, lol.
 
I don't notice the VA glow/crush, but it has to be better than IPS glow (I too lean towards the horror genre).

Not really. The pictures from NCX's review also indicate that the BL3201 has very little glow. I'd also likely comment on this myself, but it appears my BL3201 is currently in shipping limbo (was supposed to arrive yesterday.)
 
Not really. The pictures from NCX's review also indicate that the BL3201 has very little glow. I'd also likely comment on this myself, but it appears my BL3201 is currently in shipping limbo (was supposed to arrive yesterday.)

Well, that's good. I hope so for everyone's sake. I've owned many an IPS panel, and this would be the first one that didn't glow like a candle.
 
Not that it matters, but I thought I should mention that I wound up returning the 2nd BenQ for a refund. I simply couldn't accept that bruise-like blemish given the price I paid for the monitor. One of the reasons I didn't just exchange it for another is that even though the IPS glow is better than most, it is still very apparent and annoying to me. I think I'm just done with IPS. I simply can't fork out that much cash to be annoyed like that when I play horror games or view dark content. As both displays had the same level of glow, I find it unlikely that a third display would be any better.

Don't get me wrong, if you like IPS monitors, this BenQ is a great one if you can get one without defects, but it just isn't for me. I took this farewell shot of the display before packing it up:



It does look pretty awesome with bright pictures like that on it...
 
Is anyone else getting weird glitches with the BenQ BL3201PT? I can be in a game or just browsing online and i get weird horizontal glitches flashing across the screen occasionally. The weird thing is sometimes they limit themselves to one half of the screen as if its 2 dp streams being stitched together to form one image.

Both of my displays did this. I assumed it was just the cheap cable that came with it. I didn't get a chance to try a better one though so who knows.
 
Not that it matters, but I thought I should mention that I wound up returning the 2nd BenQ for a refund. I simply couldn't accept that bruise-like blemish given the price I paid for the monitor. One of the reasons I didn't just exchange it for another is that even though the IPS glow is better than most, it is still very apparent and annoying to me. I think I'm just done with IPS. I simply can't fork out that much cash to be annoyed like that when I play horror games or view dark content. As both displays had the same level of glow, I find it unlikely that a third display would be any better.

Don't get me wrong, if you like IPS monitors, this BenQ is a great one if you can get one without defects, but it just isn't for me. I took this farewell shot of the display before packing it up:



It does look pretty awesome with bright pictures like that on it...

So where will you go from here? Sounds like you are firmly a VA type of person (I, too, tired of IPS glow in horror games and movies).

Philips BDM4065UC?
 
I'll probably just continue to be miserable using my current display as there are no VA panels that I'm aware of in the size range I'm interested in (31-40” 16:9) that don't have rather serious flaws like PWM. That said, my current monitor is on death's door and I may be forced to buy something soon anyway. I guess if I absolutely had to buy this instant I might try the Phillips, but it would probably be better to just buy some really cheap monitor to hold me off until something I actually want comes out in 6 months to a year or whatever. I have a lot to think about.

One thing is for certain though, my hatred of LCD technology is as strong as ever and I don't think that a single objectively good display will ever be made with it. Every panel type utterly sucks at something, either due to its inherent design flaws or outright sabotage by the manufacturers themselves in order to save a few pennies.
 
I'll probably just continue to be miserable using my current display as there are no VA panels that I'm aware of in the size range I'm interested in (31-40” 16:9) that don't have rather serious flaws like PWM. That said, my current monitor is on death's door and I may be forced to buy something soon anyway. I guess if I absolutely had to buy this instant I might try the Phillips, but it would probably be better to just buy some really cheap monitor to hold me off until something I actually want comes out in 6 months to a year or whatever. I have a lot to think about.

One thing is for certain though, my hatred of LCD technology is as strong as ever and I don't think that a single objectively good display will ever be made with it. Every panel type utterly sucks at something, either due to its inherent design flaws or outright sabotage by the manufacturers themselves in order to save a few pennies.

Sounds a bit crazy but how about trying of those LG 4K OLEDs? :eek:
 
OLED is pretty much our last hope it seems. VA crush, IPS/PLS glow.

I'm also curious what Bastich will look to get next.
 
I'm posting here to avoid cluttering the forum with a new thread. I'm in the market myself - like a lot of folks, I do engineering work from a home office, using an eclectic collection of old monitors. My primary is a 27" 1920x1200. I do occasionally watch a movie or game when I'm taking a break, but work is 60% of the load.

I think I need a new monitor, on an ergonomic arm so I can get the position just right. 4k is a thing, and I've read in a few places that it is nice to have the enormous desktop space that 4k gives you on a single screen instead of spread out among 3 or 4 monitors like I have now.

Resolution scaling is annoying - I run windows 7 but I've heard that 8 adds blurriness when you zoom in.

Anyways, my personal checklist :

1. 4k
2. As large as possible - that 40" Phillips sounds about right
3. sRGB calibrated out of the box
4. NO flicker. A lot of my development tools use white backgrounds, and I'm often turned sideways checking oscilloscopes, so flicker is unacceptable. So long, Phillips 40".
5. Reasonable input lag (it doesn't have to be G-sync, but less lag makes mousing around easier)
6. Doesn't break the bank unless it is perfect

Anyways, the $4500 LG 4k 55" OLED TV has an input lag of 49 ms. Way too high. Also, the screen is sensitive to burn in. The Phillips has some kind of bug where pixels have incorrect colors just because other objects on the screen are there, which is unusable. Also, the Phillips flickers at non-eye searing backlight power levels.

This one is the only thing that comes close to meeting my list. 32 inches is small, I think 36 inches or so is probably what I'd want, but I guess I can install windows 10 and use the zoom features for legacy apps.

Are there any other displays I should consider, or is this one the only viable answer?
 
When I turn sideways on my Philips, I see no flicker. It depends on your personal sensitivity to PWM. I suggest you try it, for now there's no real alternative that has no PWM but offers the same PQ as the Philips, unfortunately.
 
When I turn sideways on my Philips, I see no flicker. It depends on your personal sensitivity to PWM. I suggest you try it, for now there's no real alternative that has no PWM but offers the same PQ as the Philips, unfortunately.

Doesn't the BenQ offer a superior picture quality? And, less input lag as well? Or, there's the Crossover 404k - I'd wait for a real review on it but it is supposed to have the same panel as the Phillips and a flicker free backlight.
 
Doesn't the BenQ offer a superior picture quality? And, less input lag as well? Or, there's the Crossover 404k - I'd wait for a real review on it but it is supposed to have the same panel as the Phillips and a flicker free backlight.

i'm seeing the 404k for 699-750 on ebay and amazon. what's the deal with this display? no reviews at all yet people are selling them? someones gotta have one set up by now. i'm interested.
 
I just got this monitor and used NCX settings, all looks good but what setting are we supposed to have the contrast at? Seems like the default 50 for contrast is too low....
 
I received my unit this morning. It does suffer from a 200-300K varience from left to right but that is not a major issue for me. This would have been the perfect monitor for me were it not for the fact that it flickers (gray) at random intervals. Each flicker is only about one frame in duration.

If I disconnect and reconnect it to my GPU, it will sync and then flicker twice at an interval of about 3 seconds. The dispcalGUI log reports "A change in the display device configuration has been detected" every time a flicker occurs. It seems to happen once every hour or so.

Given that a previous poster stated that both of his BL3201PTs exhibited this issue, I can only conclude that every unit does.

Surely there must be at least one large 4K IPS monitor which doesn't suffer from absurd issues like this.
 
I just got this monitor and used NCX settings, all looks good but what setting are we supposed to have the contrast at? Seems like the default 50 for contrast is too low....

Is there a red tint on yours?

The one here has far too much red. It looks washed out compared to my glossy.
I tried tweaking it to get the colours more accurate:
Red - 95
Contrast - 50
Brightness - 30
Hue - 48
Saturation - 50
Gamma - 3
Sharpness - 5
 
Is there a red tint on yours?

The one here has far too much red. It looks washed out compared to my glossy.
I tried tweaking it to get the colours more accurate:
Red - 95
Contrast - 50
Brightness - 30
Hue - 48
Saturation - 50
Gamma - 3
Sharpness - 5

I dont have red tinting.

Also I removed the matte film on the monitor yesterday. Of the 12 monitors I have de-matted, this was the easiest, no glue residue or anything, just 6 and half hrs of damp paper towels with distilled water and then peel it off. It had no grip to the panel! Very easy!

The picture is 100 times better without the AG Film. I took a ton of pics and will put them up soon. The viewing angle is alot better too!
 
I dont have red tinting.

Also I removed the matte film on the monitor yesterday. Of the 12 monitors I have de-matted, this was the easiest, no glue residue or anything, just 6 and half hrs of damp paper towels with distilled water and then peel it off. It had no grip to the panel! Very easy!

The picture is 100 times better without the AG Film. I took a ton of pics and will put them up soon. The viewing angle is alot better too!

sounds great. Could you explain the process in a bit more detail, marking out any 'gotcha's' the sort of things you shouldn’t do.

Also you do experience the grey flicker people talked about a few posts back ?
 
Are there any owners of this monitor who can say with certainty that their unit has never flickered? I am considering a replacement but if every unit suffers from this problem, it would be a waste of time.
 
Mine never flickered and I don't know if the DP cable I used is certified as 1.2 compatible or not.
 
How long did you use the monitor for? I generally see about two flickers per day.
 
I used it for a few hours almost every day for a month.
 
Also I removed the matte film on the monitor yesterday. Of the 12 monitors I have de-matted, this was the easiest, no glue residue or anything, just 6 and half hrs of damp paper towels with distilled water and then peel it off. It had no grip to the panel! Very easy!
The picture is 100 times better without the AG Film. I took a ton of pics and will put them up soon. The viewing angle is alot better too!

But this is antireflexive film, if you remove it has mirror surface, no??? Without reflections I have a feeling Benq is massaging my eyes.
 
But this is antireflexive film, if you remove it has mirror surface, no??? Without reflections I have a feeling Benq is massaging my eyes.

It is unclear whether glossy screens have a clear film layer instead of the AG film in which case removing the AG film would make the surface very vulnerable to damage.

He must have damaged the polariser layer else there'd be photos by now. :(
 
I believe the HP Spectre 32 uses the same AHVA panel and it comes with a "Low Haze" ~2.3% Haze coating.
Its not a full glossy option but certainly closer to it than the light matte of the other 32'' 4k monitors.
There are no tests though, so bad surprises in terms of input lag, response/overdrive, gamma and color difference (ΔE) are theoretically possible (the BenQ passed all)
 
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It is unclear whether glossy screens have a clear film layer instead of the AG film in which case removing the AG film would make the surface very vulnerable to damage.

He must have damaged the polariser layer else there'd be photos by now. :(

But this is antireflexive film, if you remove it has mirror surface, no??? Without reflections I have a feeling Benq is massaging my eyes.

I used it for a few hours almost every day for a month.

LOL...

NCX, now with the AG film off it ticks almost all of the boxes for you, ya??

Pics below gentlemen, easiest de-matte I have done of the dozen or so monitors and it looks 100 times better :)







Nasty AG film off:


Straight view with AG film off, 1080p content upscaled to 4k:


Off angle shots below, the off angle on this improved dramatically as does the blacks with the AG film off:









Monitor is setup with NCX settings in his review. :)
 
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NCX, now with the AG film off it ticks almost all of the boxes for you, ya??

Needs G-Sync, but it's close. You should paint the front bezel a lighter colour or shade (matte grey or silver) to further improve the perceived black depth.
 
Needs G-Sync, but it's close. You should paint the front bezel a lighter colour or shade (matte grey or silver) to further improve the perceived black depth.

Already a step ahead of you mate, getting that metal bezel powder coated gunmetal grey ;)

The bezel is about half the thickness without the plastic, looks alot nicer for sure!

It looks good right?
 
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Already a step ahead of you mate, getting that metal bezel powder coated gunmetal grey ;)

The bezel is about half the thickness without the plastic, looks alot nicer for sure!

It looks good right?

How did you remove the panel casing?

If you put the plastic back on would BenQ notice the AG missing?
 
Already a step ahead of you mate, getting that metal bezel powder coated gunmetal grey ;)

It looks kind of weird without the front bezel, which is the piece I would paint, especially if it covers the inner black bezel the metal frames usually leave exposed.
 
How delicate is the polarizer after removing the matte? It's quite grainy IMO but sit far enough away and it's not as noticeable.

BTW I am able to OC the DVI input to 3840x2160@60hz off my 980Ti. Any higher and it'd go all weird.
 
I received my replacement earlier today. This unit has no dead pixels or color shift across the panel but it still flickers.

I'm not sure what to do. Could this be a driver issue? That seems unlikely to me, as I have heard of it happening with both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs and the Philips BDM4065UC did not exhibit the issue.
 
@Otaku+ are you using the included displayport cable?

Also re: colour shift, could it be due to curing glue for the anti-glare film? I'm thinking of gently warming it up with a hair dryer to see if it helps. The screen runs so cool to the touch even on max brightness, only the bottom of the screen seems to get slightly warm.
 
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