BenQ 32-Inch IPS 4K Ultra High Definition LED Monitor (BL3201PH), 4K2K HD 3840x2160 Display

I operate an engineering business, designing chemical plants and equipment. I have six computers, and three printers, all high-end gear. In 2013 I purchased two HP ZR2740w monitors (27 inch IPS, 2560x1440, 1 Billion colors) for two new Intel i7 Windows based PC’s. After about a year, one of these monitors developed a vertical blue line through the screen. The monitor was replaced under warranty, and the replacement quickly developed screen blackout issues. Four additional replacements (all HP refurbished, not new) quickly had the same screen blackout failure issue. But, my other original ZR2740w worked and still works fine on both PC’s. To try to resolve the problem, working extensively with HP, I changed graphics cards, cables and software, without success.So, in February, 2015 I began a search for a replacement monitor. I decided to upgrade to the new 4K standard. After extensive research, upon reading dozens of user reviews, and three commercial reviews, I determined that the BenQ BL3201PH monitor had the best feature set, most closely matching my business needs, and was also widely acclaimed. The commercial reviews that I found for this monitor were:on digitaltrends, PCMag, and pcmonitors.info. I have omitted the detailed links, because most business retailers don’t accept them in reviews. Readers can easily find these reviews by entering the BenQ BL3201PH monitor in each of these website’s search field. These commercial reviews are basically very good, to excellent, and they really help potential buyers in raising their confidence in their purchase decision.My requirements for an upgrade monitor were very precise: new 4K resolution, (3840x2160 pixels, for me), 1 Billion color gamut, 32 inch screen (no smaller), no less than 350 Cd/m2 brightness, height, tilt, swivel, pivot stand adjustments. (Must have Pivot for landscape and portrait work in design software) The list is very short for all of the monitors that can meet all of these requirements. Most are VERY expensive. (Greater than $1500 USD, up to $5000 USD) I decided that the BenQ 3201PH was the best choice to fulfill all of my needs.How’s it doing?I’ve had the monitor just over a week. It worked fine, right out of the box. But, I ran datacolor calibration on the BenQ, and it made practically no correction to the original monitor calibration. The original colors are near perfect. The screen has no defective pixels. Uniformity in brightness and color, is not perfect, but it is very good. The human eye cannot readily perceive the small differences in all areas of the screen. I have no significant light bleeding.I’m working in native resolution for most uses, but I have found one need to change screen resolution. When watching DVD movies for entertainment outside of work, I find the native resolution display to be too pixilated. I have found the lower 2560x1440 pixel resolution to be smoother and clearer, to my eyes. Other’s may have different opinions.Regarding the build quality, it is absolutely First Class. The feature set is fabulous. The stand is very sturdy, in spite of what has been said in the commercial reviews.I have tested the commercial reviewer’s mentioned issue of BenQ monitor having difficulty rendering distinguishable dark shades of grey and black. (I tested this in CorelDraw software, rendering side-by-side rectangles filed with close, but very slightly different colors, and shades of grey, ultimately to pure black. I find that each of the fine changed colors to be reasonably distinguishable from each other.The OSD menu system is very friendly, and easy to learn to use. The “buttons” on the bezel to access the OSD are not really buttons, but touch sensitive LED’s. Their LED lights turn on when your finger is about half an inch from the bezel, and remain on briefly for the user to make a selection. The USB wired remote controller is also very friendly, and allows the user to program three shortcuts for their specific monitor needs. I have selected: Picture Mode (white balance adjustment), Brightness (level), and Input (monitor source) selection, among MANY other BenQ included choices.After a week of HEAVY use, I can say that I am extremely satisfied with this monitor purchase, and I can highly recommend the BenQ BL3201PH high end design-graphics monitor to all potential buyers having similar needs to mine. (Used with multiple PC’s in high-end applications) I have no hesitation in making this recommendation. I ONLY wish that the BenQ could display at 380 Cd/m2 brightness, like my other (still owned original purchased, trouble-free HP ZR2740w) monitor that I have remaining on my second Intel i7 PC. I have these monitors cross cabled, using new aftermarket (not in- the-box) HDMI 2.0 and DP and dp 1.2 long cables for use in screen pivoting, and being able to work with both monitors simultaneously from either PC, using XFX Double D Radeon R9 270X-CDFC video cards.I’m a very happy camper. I just miss the brightness for the BenQ that my HP monitor has. But, I can have that brightness when I need it, through my dual monitor arrangement.December 21, 2015 UpdateI've had problems with use and brands of the DP 1.2 cables. As I mentioned, above, I cross cabled two PC's, using mini DP to DP v1.2 and DP to DP cables. The BenQ monitor wasn't able to work with this arrangement of both DP and mini DP cables simultaneously connected. So, I had to settle for the mini DP to DP v1.2 cable from my main PC to the BenQ monitor and use an HDMI cable from the other PC. It is my feeling, although I am not sure about this that the DP signal is just one input into the BenQ monitor video architecture, and can be a either mini DP, or a DP cable, but not BOTH at the same time, from two different sources. The reason that I am not completely sure about this is that I had another problem. See below.I also needed to use long cables to be able to pivot the monitor in use to either landscape or portrait modes, and some excess cable is needed beyond the 6 foot OEM cable furnished by BenQ. So, I ordered a SYBA Model SY-CAB33016 9 ft mini DP to DP v1.2 and also a SYBA Model SY-CAB33024 9 ft DP to DP v1.2 cable for the purpose of long cables and monitor pivoting. (Other supplier than Amazon) This did not work, as mentioned above and the BenQ monitor would not detect either cable signal when both cables were connected to it and would not display a signal from either PC. So, I decided to just make the long cable swap from the factory cable, connected my one main PC with the new 9 ft. mini DP to DP v1.2 cable, without the second DP to DP cable connected to the monitor. This would not work either. So, I went back to the factory 6 ft mini DP to DP v1.2 cable (unmarked - can't tell brand), and searched for a new cable. I purchased this cable: Coboc D-MINID-MM-10-WH 3ft 32AWG Displayport1.2, a 10 ft. mini DP to DP v1.2 cable (from another supplier). I replaced the factory cable with this new longer Coboc cable, and all is well. The BenQ monitor now works with both PC's direct, or as extended work space monitors, with the cross cabling, as I intended.Some lessons hereNone of these new version cables have "V1.2" on them, although they are supposed to support the higher standard. The Coboc DP cables are certified to work with the version 1.2 standard for all applications. (The detailed specs are presented on newegg web page for the Coboc cable product) You may think you're getting a good cable that will work, stated to be v1.2, but this isn't just necessarily correct. Every cable that doesn't work is 10 Bucks down the drain. When you get a v1.2 cable that works as such, mark it so that you won’t get it mixed up with older v1.1 cables that won’t support 4K resolution at 60 Hz refresh rate.I will try a second Coboc mini DP to mini DP cross cabled to the BenQ monitor input port to see if it really will receive two signals from different sources, or not. Another 10 Bucks into the experiment.Overall, I have extremely high satisfaction with the BenQ BL3201PH monitor. It's quality is near perfect, and its specifications and features are truly unmatched by any competitor product in the same class. It's price point is very fair for what it delivers, and it's very attractive for many users, in business and graphics applications, and for gamers.I've not used the internal speakers. I use only high-end Altec Lansing speakers on my PC's. I've not used the Picture in Picture or Picture by Picture features. I don't really have need of those features with multiple monitors.

I had been primarily using a 2560x1600 Dell 3007WFP for photography, video, software and web development, and office apps. I've connected both a desktop PC with an nVidia760 and an HP ZBook 15 laptop with an nVidia K2100m via the HP 230W docking station to the BenQ.The GOOD:- The picture is gobsmackingly beautiful. Bright, sharp. I don't have color calibration equipment, but the factory default colors look great to my fairly sensitive eye... except for the non-uniform backlight issue below.- Build quality seems excellent. No bleed. No dead pixels. Relatively thin bezel with no unnecessary lights on it.- The Anti-Glare coating is well calibrated... effectively prevents glare, but not grainy. I can still easily see each pixel.- Unlike the first round of 32" 4K monitors, which used IGZO panels and required MST (Multi-stream Display Port), this new round uses IPS and only needs SST. I only know if 3 models currently: Samsung U32D970Q, Eizo EV3237, and this BenQ which is far less expensive than the other 2, and unless you need Adobe RGB I can't see that it gives up anything to those others. So it seems like quite a bargain.- With Windows 8.1 it was plug-n-play and spectacular right out of the box with both my machines. In fact when I tried to install the supplied drivers it said I was already using the latest.- I like the "Eye protect" feature, which adjusts the brightness of the display based on sensed ambient light. Seems to work well.- I like the ECO sensor, which detects my presence and puts the display in standby after I'm away for 40 sec. When I come back, by the time I've sat down the display is back on and ready to go.- A hockey-puck like remote control has customizable buttons for direct access to some settings, particularly picture modes.The BAD:- Biggest issue I'm seeing is non-uniform color across the display. This is most noticeable by making a blank white document take up the whole screen, the white looks warmer on the left and cooler on the right. See the attached pic. If I can get this 1 thing improved, I will give it 5 stars.- Since I tend to use 2 computers at the same time connected to the monitor, I need an efficient way to switch between them. A DisplayPort KVM switch would be ideal, but they tend not to support KVM resolutions, except for "secure" ones that run up around $800 and don't work with keyboards and docking stations that have usb hubs. So I was hoping the monitor would support efficient switching between its 2 display port inputs, but it doesn't. It would be so easy for BenQ to allow assigning inputs to the customizable buttons on the remote control, but they don't. They provide "Display Pilot" software which lets you choose settings, including, input selection from software, but weirdly it includes every input except the mini-DP!? So 3 button presses on the remote is about the best I can do.- The accompanying CD comes with Display Pilot 2.12, which allows you to adjust pretty much everything you can do through the OSD, but more easily. However, when I had it check and install updates, it downloaded version 2.22, which seems to have gotten rid of all the monitor controls and only gives the desktop partitioning controls that allows you to, for example, snap windows into quadrants. (This is a feature coming with Windows 10, and something I set up Autohotkey scripts to do on Win8)- When the ECO sensor is enabled, after 2 hours of non-presence it does a hard shut-off and you need to hit the power button to turn it back on. I wish this was optional. I may just use Windows to sleep the display with inactivity.Here are some Windows/App settings that work well for me:- I ultimately found nothing on the CD worth installing.- I like 125% scaling in Windows best... gives more resolution to features, while still giving more real estate than on my 2560x1600 display.- Also 125% scaling in IE and Chrome.- Lightroom font size to Medium.- I found the font for plain text emails in Outlook didn't scale well. To fix open MS Word: File->Options->Advanced->General->Web Options->Fonts. - Change the proportional and Fixed-width fonts to something that Windows can scale better. I picked Calibri Light and Consolas.- Turn the sharpness down to the 5-7 range for smoother looking fonts.

This thing is absolutely crystal clear. the tech specs are all over this page so i wont dive into it. This makes using any and all adobe suite applications a lot easier and much more precise. I use this side to side with my other graphics design monitor and its seriously night and day. the resolution itself is staggering, not to mention the great refresh rate and color projectionEDIT: This monitor stopped working after six months! The menus no longer respond on the touch screen bezel and the monitor will not produce an image. Please help me and I will revise my rating once more! I have already submitted a ticket through your official tech support site. I will also call again during normal business hours.

I'd consider myself just a regular desktop user. Not a graphics pro who can give you accurate technical data about the colour reproduction.Having said that, this monitor just revived an old HP PC from 2008. To be able to use this monitor I had to upgrade the video card to support the monitor and upgrade the PSU because the video card mfr recommended a higher wattage than the 350 I had previously. The video card I'm using is the Sapphire Radeon RX 460 which uses the AMD chipset and therefore supports AMD FreeSync which this monitor also utilizes.  Sapphire Radeon RX 460 OC 1210MHZ 2G GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI/DVI-D/DP OC (UEFI) Graphic Card FreeSync helps the GPU and the monitor work together to provide flicker free operation. So far so good.I don't use windows scaling but I do use 110% on Google Chrome to make web pages easier to read. At 32", you don't really need scaling and gives you THAT much more real estate to run multiple windows. That's the big win with this monitor.I haven't played with all of the settings yet, but the little puck that gives you quick access to the settings is pretty neat and blends in with the rest of the stuff on my desk.I think the best feature of this monitor (remember I'm coming from a 9 year old monitor) is that when you walk away from it, it turns off. When you come back and sit in front of it, it turns back on! Brilliant! This feature needs to be activated, it's not on by default.I was a little hesitant to replace my 24" HP monitor with a 32" behemoth. I was worried about it being too large. But I got used to it pretty quickly and honestly I don't think it looks too big at all. I should point out that I am not using the stand that comes with the monitor, I am using a VESA desktop mount that I was using with my old monitor. Actually I'm using this exact one:  Duramex (TM) LCD Monitor Mount Stand Fully Adjustable upto 27" (Single Monitor Desk Mount) If you are planning to VESA mount your monitor, you will be glad to hear that this monitor is shipped and packaged without being attached to the default stand. This makes it super simple to attach it to the mount of your choice without having to disassemble it first. Even the screws it comes with are black so it really rounds out the overall look. A small touch but just makes it better overall.If I had one wish, it is that the DP cable that it comes with is too short for my application. The pictures you see are using the cable that comes with it, but I'll need to run out and buy a longer one to properly route it so that it is neat and secured away.Overall I'm really happy with this monitor and the decision to move up to UHD from the HD monitor I had before. Sapphire Radeon RX 460 OC 1210MHZ 2G GDDR5 PCI-E HDMI/DVI-D/DP OC (UEFI) Graphic CardDuramex (TM) LCD Monitor Mount Stand Fully Adjustable upto 27" (Single Monitor Desk Mount)

Great monitor, love how adjustable it is; my household each likes to use it at a different height. Contrast is pretty good. Worth it. The only downside is that the display occasionally flickers, but it isn't often. It comes with a Display cable.

Only 4K monitor that had DualLink DVI included.Having it come with all the cables was pretty great and a nice surprise. Display scaler works well and doesn't look fuzzy or blury at non-optimal resolution. The controller puck is nice to have and a bit easier to use than the on-screen buttons. Wished the OSD was a bit higher resolution than is displayed. Ports on the side are very nice to manage multiple cables (I have a few machines I connect this too and swap between them or use the PIP feature to use).Price is a bit high but it is a fantastic monitor and works great on my MacBook Pro 4,1 (early 2008) at 4K 30hz via DualLink DVI-D and my Lenovo X220 at 4K 30hz via DisplayPort.

Overall it wasn't a horrible monitor. It had nice colour and brightness. There was definitely IPS glow from all angles because of its sheer size. Mine had a small bit of banding in the middle and a little back light bleed on the right top and bottom corners as well. I was debating whether i would live with the bleed when it completely died on me at about the 20 day mark. Not sure if it was related but it would do a flicker occasionally which i thought was it re-calibrating itself. One day it just shut down and never turned on again. Thankfully I am able to return it. I'm a little hesitant about ordering another one. I'll assume it dying on the 20th day is a fluke and give it 3 stars.

I ordered this monitor from amazon warehouse deals and received a big generic box (thinking it was the 32” 4k Benq) with a small silver acer monitor inside. Great. Luckily amazon has the best return service I’ve ever used so refunding was quick. I ended buying the monitor new in store somewhere and it’s amazing. Colours and clarity are phenomenal and lifelike. 32” is the sweet spot for 4k. Pixels ads barely visable from any viewing distance. This monitor also has a lot of adjustability in the on screen menus. Stand is also very adjustable. Nothing to complain about, awesome monitor!