Tough choice: Samsung 32D850D 32" vs BenQ BL3200PT 32"

[Starglider]

Hi all, I'm in a monitor battle standoff.....

 

In the left corner at 32" is the Samsung 32D850D aka 32D850T!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-205-SA

 

and in the right corner also at 32" is the BenQ BL3200PT!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-099-BQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't find many reviews on the Samsung one but I've watched linus vid on the BenQ.

 

By day it shall be used for: Programming, Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop, Web browsing and office work

By night it shall be used for: Gaming, Movie watching and Web browsing

 

I'm thinking 3 of these for a nice uniform monitor setup, but I have got quite used to 2 large and a smaller one to the side. I wont be using them for surround gaming. I did think about a single 3440x1440 screen and 1 smaller one (the 34" from LG and the new one coming from AOC) but they are way way WAY! too short in height it's what I envision a cylon or Jordy looks through.

 

 

 

 

Ok here are the stats....   What would you go for?

 

 

 

Samsung 32D850D

Specification:-
- Screen Size: 32"
- Panel Type: VA
- Backlight: LED
- Brightness: 300cd/m
- Contrast Ratio: 10,000,000:1
- Resolution: 2560x1440
- Pixel Pitch (HxV): 0.27675mmx0.27675mm
- Response Time: 4ms
- Viewing Angles: 178/178
- Colour Support: 1.07b
- Connectivity: Dual Link DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI, USB Hub
- Speakers: No
- Stand Type: Height Adjustable (130mm), Tilt, Swivel & Pivot
- VESA: 100x100
- Set Dimension with Stand (WxHxD): MAX:741.3×630×280, MIN:741.3×500×280mm
- Set Dimension without Stand (WxHxD): 741.3×441×68.5mm
- Review: http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-s32d850t-review-image-quality-uniformity-input-page-2
- Warranty: 3yr

 

 

BenQ BL3200PT

Specification:-
- Screen Size: 32"W, VA LED
- Resolution (max.): 2560 x 1440
- Pixel Pitch: 0.276 mm
- Brightness: 300 cd/m2
- Contrast Ratio: 3000:1
- DCR: 20M:1
- Response Time: 4 ms GTG
- Display Color: 1.07 billion
- Viewing Angle (L/R;U/D) (CR>=10): 178 / 178
- Terminals: D-sub / DVI-D / HDMI / DisplayPort
- Flicker FREE technology
- VA (AMVA+) LED Technology
- Senseye® Human Vision Technology (plus Senseye 3)
- Advanced Motion Accelerator (AMA)
- HDCP Support
- Speaker: 5W x2
- USB Hub: Yes
- Dimensions(HxWxD mm) HIGH: 640.16*740.28*232.48mm
- VESA Wall Mounting (mm): 100 x 100 mm
- Warranty: 2yr

 

 

 

What would you go for? And why? Vote here:

http://strawpoll.me/2882291

 

 

 

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.

[Enderman]

The samsung one because it looks like the stand is 4x smaller.

 

But really you should look at customer reviews and get the one with least issues, because stuff like backlight bleed or ghosting cannot be known by looking at the specs

[dizmo]

BenQ for the vastly superior stand. Plus USB?

Seems like a no brainer.

[dizmo]

The samsung one because it looks like the stand is 4x smaller.

Haha, opposite reasons to mine.

Honestly though, with the weight of a 32" panel wouldn't you want a really stable base?

[Enderman]

Haha, opposite reasons to mine.

Honestly though, with the weight of a 32" panel wouldn't you want a really stable base?

Its not like I punch my monitor or anything...why would it fall over?

[Starglider]

BenQ for the vastly superior stand. Plus USB?

Seems like a no brainer.

 

I wont be using the USB ports on the monitors, more than enough on the hub mounted on my desk and on my machine, they will be pure visual only.

[CCap]

Personally if I had to choose between the two monitors then I'd go with the BenQ, it gives you a static Contrast ratio rather than some marketing-BS dynamic contrast ratio. (10,000,000:1?, c'mon samsung...) With the BenQ you're getting a static contrast ratio of 3000:1 which is excellent as far as monitors go. Three times the contrast ratio of many common high-end monitors.

 

Also, I prefer the stand of the BenQ, but maybe that's just me.

[Starglider]

BenQ for the vastly superior stand. Plus USB?

Seems like a no brainer.

 

As for the stand, they both appear to have very solid stands, both very good height and both have rotation. The image doesn't do it justice but if you check the links out you will have multiple views of the monitor to check out.

[Starglider]

I've created a strawpoll to see which one everyone would go for...

 

http://strawpoll.me/2882291

[skline00]

Starglider, my BenQ 3200PT was just delivered yesterday (incredible promo on Newegg till 11/13) and it is simply STUNNING.

 

Quality and craftsmanship abounds.

 

The stand is incredible and the ability to turn it to Portrait is really nice.

 

I am not a hrd core game but it really performs well.

[eLucid]

-snip-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They use the same panel and suffer from terrible color banding and uniformity issues. A 27" 1440p monitor would be a much better choice. Read the last five pages of this thread - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1803982&page=54

[eLucid]

Personally if I had to choose between the two monitors then I'd go with the BenQ, it gives you a static Contrast ratio rather than some marketing-BS dynamic contrast ratio. (10,000,000:1?, c'mon samsung...) With the BenQ you're getting a static contrast ratio of 3000:1 which is excellent as far as monitors go. Three times the contrast ratio of many common high-end monitors.

 

Also, I prefer the stand of the BenQ, but maybe that's just me.

 

 

THEY USE THE SAME PANEL! Stop giving him misinformation.

[WestcoastPCBuilder]

Static Contrast is 3000:1 on both, that's a VA feature. That's the spectrum of darks to whites. This is the advantage of the VA panel. VA is not good for gaming, especially these 2, G2G might say 4ms, but that's optimistic ... input lag isn't all that great either. Anything but gaming, they should be fine. VA panel's in the last year have fixed their viewing angles to compete with IPS.

 

Here's the BenQ ...

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/benq_bl3200pt.htm

 

Sammy ...

http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-s32d850t-review#tr-review-summary

 

These monitors are the same, they both use 32"WS AU Optronics AMVA (M320DVN01.0) panels.

[Starglider]

Well.... I'm still stuck...

 

Trying to find a monitor that is 32" or larger that is good for work and gaming. I don't want to go back to small screens or have to sit really close so that I can blanket read an A4 page of code.

 

To drop £1000 on 2 of these is a lot of money to risk on something that isn't very good :\

 

Maybe I should wait another year or so.

[Titosfuneral]

a. benq has faster response times

b. benq has eye protection (blue light) worth it to a programmer like me

c. benq controls better

d. samsung - better rgb coverage

 

And before you listen to people who say the panel is the same - be aware that the hardware supporting the panel is very different.

 

2 other things.

 

1. The samsungs cost £380 today on oc'ers

2. Protect your eyes. I've been programming for many many years and my eyes have been royally ****** recently (last 10 years) by poor choices of lcd monitors. Pay the extra £50 to get the benq on scan

 

[Starglider]

a. benq has faster response times

b. benq has eye protection (blue light) worth it to a programmer like me

c. benq controls better

d. samsung - better rgb coverage

 

And before you listen to people who say the panel is the same - be aware that the hardware supporting the panel is very different.

 

2 other things.

 

1. The samsungs cost £380 today on oc'ers

2. Protect your eyes. I've been programming for many many years and my eyes have been royally ****** recently (last 10 years) by poor choices of lcd monitors. Pay the extra £50 to get the benq on scan

 

Same, I've been working as a programmer since 1999.

 

But the irony is I just purchased the Samsung (from ocuk) for this 1 reason, apparently there is some weird vertical tearing on the benq which is on ALL (supposedly) batches with varying degrees of noticeability.

 

Now to see if OCUK send me good screens or not, I have gotten some pretty beat up products form them recently. I think DPD play football with all their goods before delivery.

 

But if all goes to plan, I will have this samsung to sit along side my main driver the Philips 4K 40" when it comes out (for me that is a perfect size for a 4K monitor, no more scaling code / ui reading issues)

 

I will give a review of it when i get it.

[ImBleu]

Well.... I'm still stuck...

 

Trying to find a monitor that is 32" or larger that is good for work and gaming. I don't want to go back to small screens or have to sit really close so that I can blanket read an A4 page of code.

 

To drop £1000 on 2 of these is a lot of money to risk on something that isn't very good :\

 

Maybe I should wait another year or so.

 

Consider Samsung, LG or Dell's 21:9 monitors maybe? Linus is inlove with his 35'' 21:9 curved monitor.

[Starglider]

Consider Samsung, LG or Dell's 21:9 monitors maybe? Linus is inlove with his 35'' 21:9 curved monitor.

 

Na, if you scroll up to the 1st post on this article, you will see what I think of them letter box screens.... Way way way way too short.

[-iSynthesis]

Id go for the Benq. I can speak from experience, they make very high quality products and the stands are awesomeness.

[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.

[skline00]

Have the BenQ BL3200PT and LOVE it.!

[Geekazoid]

Congrats on your new monitor mate. Correct me if I'm wrong though, you may have mentioned it in your OP, but I believe that both the Samsung and the BenQ use VA displays, if so, how're you liking it? They tend to have a much higher contrast ratio of around 3,000 - 5,000:1 that is not artificially inflated like dynamic contrast ratios which reach into the ridiculous millions. I never get how manufacturers get those ridiculous numbers. :rolleyes:

@Starglider

[Starglider]

I went with the Samsung as the BenQ has a common issue which I don't think is resolved yet, it's like tearing but horizontally on fast moving scenes / colour changes.

 

As for the VA brightness / contrast, it looks great on both of the screens, I've not had to change a single setting on either.

[ELSknutson]

I just got the BenQ for under $400 and I cant wait for it to get here