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The BenQ PD3200U is part of BenQ’s Designer Monitor range, which means it has been individually factory-calibrated before being shipped. It also comes with a range of modes for professionals, such as CAD/CAM mode, which ups the contrast for lines and shapes in technical illustrations when using CAD programs.
The various modes bring some enhancements, although ones such as CAD/CAM mode will only be of use to a small market of professionals. If you’re buying this as a business monitor for your work you'll be pretty impressed with its performance, especially considering its price.You get a good selection of settings with the PD3200U. In addition to Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, and Color Temperature settings, you can choose one of eight Picture Modes, including REC. 709, sRGB, CAD/CAM, Animation, Standard, Low Blue Light, Darkroom, and User Defined. There's also a DualView feature that lets you view two windows side by side using two different picture modes. As with the BenQ PV3200PT, the PD3200U contains an Ergonomic menu with an Eye Protect setting that uses an embedded sensor to detect ambient light levels and adjust screen brightness. It also has a light meter and a timer that reminds you to rest your eyes, as well as a presence sensor that puts the monitor into sleep mode when you're not there. This monitor doesn't have the individual six-color Hue and Saturation settings that you get with the BenQ PV3200PT and the Dell U3417W, but it does have two sliders for increasing or decreasing overall Hue and Saturation levels. The 32-inch screen size (which amounts to a 708.4mm x 398.5mm display area), means that, despite the high resolution, text, icons and other visual elements aren’t too small, with the PPI (pixels per inch) count coming in at a comfortable (yet still great-looking) 137.68. The average static contrast on the BenQ PD3200U with only brightness adjusted was 972:1, which is quite good and in line with expectation based on the specifications. Under our ‘Test Settings’ we recorded 959:1, which is quite pleasing. The contrast dropped somewhat following the application of the ‘Low Blue Light settings’, to 637:1 – 719:1 depending on the setting used. This is more pronounced than the drop we measured on the BL3201PT/PH (981:1 minimum) but quite acceptable given that these modes serve their purpose well regardless of the contrast dropping a bit. The maximum luminance recorded on the table was 299 cd/m², whilst the minimum white luminance was 54 cd/m². This gives a luminance adjustment range of 245 cd/m² with plenty of usable values to choose from for a range of lighting conditions and preferences. But what about performance for non-professional applications? We hooked it up to a gaming rig with a mighty Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, which does a pretty decent job of pushing games at 4K resolution, and they really did look superb.
The following images show pursuit photographs taken using the UFO Motion Test for ghosting, with the test running at its default speed of 960 pixels per second. This is a good practical speed for taking such photographs and one which represents both elements of perceived blur nicely. The monitor was set to its various ‘AMA’ (Advanced Motion Acceleration) pixel overdrive settings, with all rows of the test shown to demonstrate a range of different pixel transitions. The final column shows a reference screen, specifically a Dell S2417DG, showing how this test should look where eye (camera) movement is the only significant contributor to perceived blur. Note that this test runs at a frame rate matching the monitor’s refresh rate (i.e 60fps), with the UFO moving from left to right across the screen. The BenQ PD3200U is an excellent choice if you're a professional who works with CAD/CAM, graphics design, or other applications that require fine detail and accurate colors. Its 32-inch UHD panel delivered accurate colors and superb grayscale performance in our tests, and the display is equipped with plenty of features, including a built-in KVM switch, a fully adjustable stand, an SD card reader, and a USB hub. While the Dreamcolor features a wider color gamut, both displays feature near-perfect color accuracy, rich, high-contrast displays, and simple, professional designs. The BenQ PD3200U is missing that “looking out a window” quality the Dreamcolor possesses, but it’s much more affordable. As per factory defaults, but the gamma target has been raised. This gives many shades a deeper than intended look, that’s quite striking and may be appropriate for some users (hence this is an option rather than an enforcement). Low input lag and well-optimised pixel overdrive allowed the monitor to put in a convincing 60Hz performanceWe also observed the monitor on Dirt Rally, where the contrast performance was again decent overall. The level of detail in dark areas was respectable on the whole, with even relatively subtle details such as car tyre tread patterns visible. There was some detail lost towards the edges of the screen, in particularly near the bottom corners, due to ‘AHVA glow’. This was by no means extreme and again a bit subdued compared to some screens of this size. Lighter elements such as car headlights appeared with a light graininess to them rather than an obvious ‘layering’ from the screen surface, helping them ‘pop’ quite nicely in some respects and stand out well against darker surroundings. A sensitive camera and a small tool called SMTT 2.0 was used to measure input lag for the PD3200U. The monitor was compared to various screens of known latency, taking over 30 repeat readings to maximise accuracy. Using this method, we calculated 7.05ms (under 1/2 a frame) of input lag. This value is influenced both by the signal delay (element you ‘feel’) and pixel responsiveness (element you ‘see’). It indicates a low signal delay, which will come as welcome news to users sensitive to this sort of thing.
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