What's the best 4k 32" monitor I can get for $500 or less?

[Spikery]

I'm looking for a 4k 32" monitor to view 4k content on. just 4k videos & high resolution pictures. I just want to see what all the hype is about. so what can you recommend I get for a great viewing experience? can a 4k gaming monitor give me what I'm looking for? I'm not looking for a good visual gaming experience, but am looking for a good 4k video visual experience. hope I explained myself well enough. although I'll appreciate anything anyone can recommend me, I'm looking for someone with 4k monitor experiences. - but still, don't be afraid to recommend me something anyway.

Oh, and the reason I want it to be 32" is because I heard that anything less would not be a great experience. is this true?

 

[Ors]

Oh, and the reason I want it to be 32" is because I heard that anything less would not be a great experience. is this true?

Depends very much on your use case. And if you consider 4k a hype, it's most likely not for you. 4k is for detail, I would get it for 24" as well, but for 32" is a must for me. It makes text clear and non pixelated, so easier on the eyes, but you do need to understand that high PPI is meant to give you this and not extra screen estate. For people who spend all day in front of a monitor for work, high PPI is not a hype, but a necessity. People who say you need 32" and above for 4k usually miss the point of high PPI screens. My perfect monitor would actually be a 5k 32" IPS or OLED screen that can push 120hz in 1440p (at least) to be used in 5k on the desktop to get clear text and in 1440p in games to get high refresh. You won't (or at least you shouldn't) use high PPI screens to view 96 PPI content on them, or in layman terms natively on windows 10 without adjusting dpi scaling. New applications will work as expected with high PPI screens, older ones might not, this is where that "anything less than 32" would not be a great experience" comes from. Personally I don't agree with this, since you don't get a high PPI screen to view 96PPI content on it, if you still need that you go double PPI (so 4k 24", 5k 32", etc.), this is what Apple is doing, to have old applications "work" on high PPI. I used 4k the last 2 years and have very few (to none) applications that I use that don't work correctly on high PPI screens, so I would happily use 27" 4k as well if I wouldn't find that screen size lacking screen estate considering that I only use 1 screen and don't like multi monitor setups.

Regarding what specific monitor to buy is harder to answer. There are a lot of 4k 32" 60hz VA screens on the market now which are affordable, but vary very much in quality regarding panel response time peaks (you will see this as smearing (ghosting) when moving content on the screen, mostly with gray/dark transitions). So read up on reviews where they measure these and look for monitors with as low as possible difference between min and max response times in pixel transitions. IPS screens are better in this regard and offer better viewing angle stability as well, but cost much more (and come with other downsides: more pronounced ips glow and worse contrast). So read reviews to shorten the list and buy from shops with easy returns. Here are the ones I would check out: https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/philips-328e1ca/ https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/philips-326m6vjrmb/ https://pcmonitors.info/dell/dell-s3221qs-with-curved-4k-va-panel/ https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1559232-REG/lg_32un650_w_32_uhd_led_monitor.html

 

[DarkSideA8]

Pcmonitors.info has great reviews - you might also want to look at RTNGS.

Nothing 4k and 32 is above 60hz at the moment. Q1 2021 is rumored to have a Viewsonic, and maybe the Asus - but holding your breath is not recommended. Also expect 'booking a seat on SpaceX' pricing