Tough choice: Samsung 32D850D 32" vs BenQ BL3200PT 32"
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Solved by Starglider,
WINNER (for me) is the Samsung 32D850D AKA 32D850T!
This screen is Samsung 32D850D or as seen else where 32D850T (same thing).
Ordered from Overclockers UK on Friday, arrived today (Tuesday), boxes were undamaged (which makes a change - they usually turn up looking like someone has played football with them) and all contents were intact and working.
After a chat with a few people whom have had hands on with the BenQ 32" and this Samsung 32, 3/5 pushed me towards the Samsung, even the Overclockers guy I spoke to whom owns the BenQ said "I would get the Samsung if I were you".
First impressions:
1. It weighs a lot (I scraped my wooden table moving one into position)
2. I was concerned about the bevel, as it looks about 400ft thick in photos on the web however it's fine, more than fine, it actually looks pretty good, no reflections as someone complained about and having 2 side by side is fine.
3. Stand, solid as a rock, big square plate, doesn't budge when rotating the screen, could have done with a v leg stand or something wider instead of a square plate, but its good (got somewhere to put my router, hub and mobile phone now)
4. Setup was easy, supplied power cable is very short so had to use my own but HDMI, DVI, DP and USB 3 Hub cables were supplied, with backplate for vesa mounting
5. Menu system, simple and easy, no need for a manual unless your new to this kind of stuff
6. Screen colours and brightness on both screens are identical and with some colour tests and image viewing, I decided no calibration was necessary
7. Having down graded from 1080p 40" to 1440p 32", damn things are TINY! But at least I can read the text without using UI scaling, but it's close to my limits (I do have chrome defaulting websites to 125% now however)
Review after some use
Calibration and setup
After hooking them up and seating them where I wanted them I noticed I was at 1080p, so of to the screen resolution options I went in windows 7 and hmmmm 1080p was max resolution, this turned out to be the cable I was using (my old DP to HDMI cable for my 40" TVs, as soon as I used the ones that came with the screens, all was fine and auto detected).
As for setup and adjustment, I've still not felt the need to alter any settings in the menu on either screen, all looks fine. Whites are white, blacks are black and the colours are good.
Usage
Well it's going to take me a bit of getting used to but it's nice to see how sharp the images and text is on this screen compared to my 1080p 40" HD TV, the text is a bit on the small side for me but I'm getting used to it. I've noticed some delays in the kernel on task manager with the Adobe Creative suite but all appears to be fine after a few stutters here and there.
Programming using FlashBuilder, Ultraedit, Notepad++ etc are fine, fonts are readable and easily adjustable if needs be. Blanket reading of an A4 page of code is fine. I've finally got various debug outputs and code all in one screen without having to scroll outputs or deal with code wrapping.
Image work using Illustrator and Photoshop, all is fine, UI being scaled down more in 1440p is the limit for me, I couldn't imagine a 32" screen at 4K with the Adobe Creative Suite, it would be unusable for me. Colours are good, zoom and working to a grid is something I always do for pixel perfection, even more recommended now at this screen size
Visual appearance
It's got some interesting bevels, angled and in, very boxy, primitive 3D looking (something I didn't like the look of from all the pictures on the web), but I think they look good. I got the Black version of the screen and have one facing directly at me and another to my right angled at about 25 degrees, locked tight to the other one bevel to bevel, looks good, bevel size isn't bothering me in the slightest.
Gaming
Looks great on what games I do have, haven't noticed any tearing or ghosting during gameplay, so far I've tried it out with hitman absolution, civ 5 & 6, Starpoint gemini 2, Tombraider 2013, Torchlight 2, TrackMania Canyon, WoW, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Grid Autosport and Far Cry 3. I do miss the immersiveness of my older 40" 1080p screen but things do look a lot sharper, even though everything is a lot smaller.
Video & DVD
MKV playback High Quality file, looks awesome, no tearing or ghosting I can see.
DVD playback again, looks great, no signs of tearing or ghosting I can see.
Blue Ray playback (not tested - but I would expect the same, note lag and tearing on BR playback can be software and CPU based)
Conclusion
Screen: 9/10
Stand: 9/10
Bevels: 8/10
In built audio: Not tested (never will - not even sure if it has speakers, don't care, hope it doesn't)
Connectivity: 10/10 (HDMI, DVI, DP, USB 3 hub and headphones, what more could one need!?)
Gaming: 9/10
Colours: 9/10
Blacks: 9.5/10 (So much clearer than what I had from my dell 30" and the 1080p TV screens)
Whites: 8/10
Backlight bleed: 10/10 (None noticed - best monitor I've seen for this yet!)
Uniformity: 10/10
Awesome screen, I'm very happy with them, highly recommended. If I wasn't planning on sitting a 4K 40" Philips in the middle of them in the future (1 x portrait, 2 x landscape), I would have bought 3. For anyone whom is thinking 4K at this screen size or less must be crazy or have eyes a lot better than 20 20 vision or must be sitting about 2cm away from the panel.
Recommended.
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