31.5” monitor recommendation – help me decide

Hi pgeddon,

The Samsung U32J590 is based on an Innolux VA panel (M315DJJ-K31) which as covered in this post and a few others I don’t rate particularly highly. The Philips 328E1CA which we feature as a productivity recommendation offers superior gamma and colour consistency, a nicer (less grainy) screen surface and better pixel response handling. It has a wide gamut, so things appear oversaturated in general. To add insult to injury, so to speak, the Samsung usually has quite wonky gamma handling which can further affect image accuracy. I can understand if you are restricted by budget, but I’d strongly advise looking at the models we recommend there. The Philips is curved, but as covered in the review that is something you naturally get used to and shouldn’t shy away from based on photos and videos which greatly exaggerate the feature. Some people really warm to the curve, particularly in a multi-display setup where the ‘wrap around’ benefits are perhaps more keenly felt. I have received feedback of this nature from various curved models including from a designer who uses the Philips. You know your workflow better than anyone else of course, so a flat screen may be your strong preference and that’s fair enough.

The AOC Q32E2N’s resolution is of course significantly lower, which hampers pixel density and therefore text and fine-edge clarity and how detailed high resolution image content will appear. It also reduces ‘desktop real-estate’ significantly, but could still be sufficient for your needs. Recommended reading. It is a decent monitor with that restriction in mind and I feel its IPS-type panel would be superior for your uses if you consider colour accuracy important. There’s also a ‘4K’ UHD version, the U32E2N, though that adopts a VA panel with the usual VA caveats – but it’s a flat version of the panel the Philips uses so is superior to that used in the Samsung UJ590, at least. Dell also has their own version of this, the SE3223Q and this is a model I’ve been receiving some good positive feedback for. Not detailed technical feedback I’m afraid, but those providing the feedback have been enjoying it for mixed use including desktop work and play (YouTube, web browsing, word processing and suchlike) as well as casual gaming.

Yes, we’ve reviewed the BenQ EL2870U. It’s an option if you are on a very tight budget and get it for an agreeable price. Aside from that, it’s hampered by the use of a TN panel. Even worse colour consistency than the VA options you’ve considered. And the specified 1ms response time is utter rubbish – ignore specified response times. You need to do the same with the VA options – refer to the 328E1CA’s responsiveness section for information on how a reasonable 60Hz VA model actually performs. And remember than the Samsung U32J590 is worse than that! If you were to measure them, you’d find some pixel responses on that are closer to 40ms than 4ms. The IPS options are significantly faster and I’d recommend sticking with the Philips 288E2UAE if you’re willing to try a 28″ option. Or the Dell SE3223Q I recommended in my previous post if you’d prefer a flat ~32″ VA option. I probably should update the productivity recommendations to include that one as an option, actually. It’s fair enough if you’ve given curved monitors a shot but still feel they aren’t for you. 🙂

With respect to running a monitor at a non-native resolution, they use an interpolation (scaling) process for that which is unique to each model. Although it’s something that varies between models, generally running at the QHD resolution looks a touch softer than running on a native QHD model of the same size. And for the Full HD resolution this extra softening tends to be more noticeable and edges of objects and even texture details can look a bit odd. You can counteract this softening to an extent if the monitor offers a sharpness control – refer to the relevant section of the 288E2E review for example. The Dell SE3223Q also features a sharpness control, whilst AOC models such as the Q32E2N and U32E2N don’t.

Sorry, yes – the SE3223Q is a VA option, a flat alternative to the Philips as my initial post suggested (now corrected in 2nd post). The IPS options are covered in the recommendations section(s) and would include the LG 32UN650 as a budget option and the BenQ EW3280U as a more expensive option with a superior panel. There are various threads on the forum covering such options (example 1, example 2). They’d both deliver superior colour performance and responsiveness to the VA options. As for the downsides to IPS panels, that’s covered in detail in our reviews where we describe exactly what you can expect from such a monitor – well worth setting some time aside to read those and also watch some of our video reviews. If not, simply look through our panel types article I’ve already linked to which covers IPS-type panels and other LCD technologies. The weaknesses relate to contrast.

You also need to make sure you correct the colour signal on the system side, not just the monitor. That can apply to DP as well as HDMI. Per the article, once the system is corrected to Full Range RGB if it isn’t already using that: “If the monitor has an ‘HDMI Black Level’, ‘HDMI RGB PC Range’ or similar option make sure this is set to ‘Normal’, ‘High’, ‘Full’ or ‘RGB (0~255)’ rather than ‘Low’, ‘Limited’ or ‘RGB (16~235).”

I appreciate you wanting to support the site. Donations or buying via links on pages including the recommendations section is certainly appreciated, either is a great way to support the site. Some good questions there so I’ll address them for you:

– The weaker contrast of IPS affects the depth of blacks and (to a lesser degree) other shades beyond that. If the monitor is properly calibrated, shades are still appropriately distinct so it isn’t like you see bleached together whites and dark shades that are a bit brighter than black don’t become invisible either. You also get ‘IPS glow’ which can drown out some of the dark detail peripherally, but to make things complex VA models have issues with ‘black crush’ which can mask detail and gamma inconsistencies which also affects the dark detail levels. These sort of things are explored a bit more in the panel types article. There’s a nice summary of contrast performance would affect the image in this article as well. Nothing beats seeing the screens in person, though – you’ve already seen the VA options and it sounds like you weren’t really as impressed as you could’ve been with the image overall.

– The best way to observe differences in pixel responsiveness in an objective way would be the UFO Motion Test for Ghosting which we use for the pursuit photographs in our reviews. Not only can you visually compare screens you have, you can compare how they look with screens we’ve reviewed. So it’s a very useful tool indeed – there are various other tests on the ‘Test UFO’ as well, it’s worth spending a little bit of time trying some out. But the main ghosting test linked to is particularly useful.

– There are some ‘cheap’ high refresh rate WQHD VA options, but they aren’t at all impressive in terms of pixel responsiveness so they don’t really make full use of their high refresh rate at all. For WQHD IPS options you can consider something like the Gigabyte M32Q or for UHD options the M32U – both of which we recommend. As you can see, the high refresh rate ‘4K’ UHD options do come at a premium. The 28″ ‘4K UHD option (M28U), which we also recommend for its all-round performance and value, is a fair bit cheaper in some markets compared to the larger model but only marginally cheaper in the UK. The Samsung Odyssey G7 4K model (S28AG70) sometimes goes on sale and would be the one I’d buy instead when it does as it is really rather similar to the Gigabyte in terms of performance (relevant thread).

– Some models have proprietary brackets which may be sold specific to that model, but they can be tricky to get hold of. Things are easier if VESA holes are included!

– The remote sensor is unfortunately integrated into the monitor so you can’t remove it. That plus the speaker grille of a bottom bezel will certainly add extra height to that model, yes.

I appreciate your donation and various ways you intend to support the site and the content. 🙂

I’m glad you enjoyed the M32U when you saw it in person. And I agree it’s a shame it comes at such a premium and also that the M28U isn’t significantly cheaper here in the UK. There is a negligible difference between 27″ and 28″, so that’s why there’s no reason to separate them out in the recommendations section and they’re simply referred to as ~27″. The panel size used just depends on what the panel manufacturer goes for, but the inch either way really doesn’t affect the experience in a noticeable way.

The M27Q (not to be confused with the rather different M27Q X) isn’t featured in the recommendations section currently, although it is a model I’ve recommended in the past and it did gain a recommended badge when I reviewed it. Price and availability will affect what is featured in the recommendations section, with some weighting towards the US as that’s where most of the supporting traffic to the site originates. The current price and availability plus the performance and feature set – and confusion based on the whole ‘Rev 2.0’ thing – makes the MSI MAG274QRF-QD an attractive alternative in my view. Although there’s again a UK rip-off tax going on with that model, so perhaps the slightly cut down G273QF would be a better fit. I’ve made a few comments on it an shared some positive feedback I’ve received in this thread. If you click on a link for a monitor that isn’t available then you’ll either be directed to a general Amazon search or a product listing where the product used to be available but no longer is.

Hi again pgeddon,

Entirely understandable you’d be very thorough with your research, given you’ll hopefully be using your chosen screens a lot and holding onto them for a while. It isn’t easy to definitively answer some of your questions because it’s ultimately too subjective, but I’ll share some thoughts anyway:

– The ‘4K’ UHD resolution is certainly beneficial in terms of clarity, detail and desktop real-estate. The latter element does depend on the level of scaling you use, if any. This is explored generally in the linked article and reinforced in our reviews (M32U for example) with the ~32″ screen size in mind. I would also point towards this thread. Whether it’s worth it is really a very individual and subjective question. I would say that with 2 x WQHD monitors you get a very nice amount of desktop real-estate anyway and the pixel density is by no means poor for a ~32″ model with the resolution – it’s similar to a 24″ Full HD monitor in terms of pixel density.

– I recently ran a poll and many people who voted do consider the extra refresh rate to be “a must for everything” (which would include productivity). I’d agree it’s a very nice bonus and personally much prefer having a high refresh rate even on the desktop, but it’s not something everyone would find essential in my view and should be viewed as a nice bonus instead. Which is why plenty of lower refresh rate models still feature in the productivity recommendations section.

– The M32Q performs very similarly to the M32U we’ve reviewed in terms of pixel responsiveness. They’re both fast IPS models that most people would be very happy with and I don’t see the point in splitting hairs trying to compare them in finer detail. The LG 32UN650 doesn’t have as much solid data on and very few people will provide pursuit photos at 60Hz like we do, because it’s difficult and time-consuming to capture due to the camera settings you need to use. You end up with a lot of discarded photos and few you can actually use. From what I understand it is similar to something like the 288E2UAE (288E2E) we’ve reviewed when it comes to pixel responsiveness. So it’s a bit weaker than the M32U and M32Q when they’re set to 60Hz and all using the optimal overdrive settings but not bad – and it may not be a difference you’d notice.

– You’d have to make significant changes to graphics settings to drive well into triple digit frame rates with a 2070 Super. It’s easier to gain a nice look on the game that clearly benefits from the resolution without heavily compromised performance if the game happens to have a good DLSS implementation, but I do feel with a 2070 Super it would be heavily dependent on the title you’re playing. And even if you make reasonable compromises to graphics settings it would be difficult to consistently get frame rates well above 60fps. I have to make some compromises and spend a bit of time setting things up on my RTX 3090, but can usually get a nice balance and definitely enjoy the benefits of 144Hz ‘4K’ UHD – but that’s a lot more powerful.

– Given all of this, I do see the attraction of the M32Q in your situation. 🙂

1) As pointed out in the ‘4K’ UHD experience article and review resources linked to, you still benefit from the high pixel density even if scaling is used.

2) I’d not recommend running the M32U at the WQHD resolution next to a native WQHD model. The interpolation provides too much softening. As mentioned earlier and in the review this can be counteracted with the sharpness control. For gaming this works pretty well. But on the desktop and when observing text and even image content, you’ll start noticing annoying inconsistencies and imperfections compared to a native WQHD experience. And with a side by side comparison that could be very obvious.

3) The AORUS models use the same panel and offer similar tuning. They offer a few extra features such as an integrated microphone which is used for ANC (‘Active Noise Cancelling’). I’m not convinced the QC is any better on these particular models, but the stand is more solidly constructed with coated metal elements used for the base rather than a somewhat hollow-feeling plastic and a heavier neck. You’re not going to be using the included stand anyway, so unless the AORUS option is a similar price or only very slightly more expensive than the ‘M’ variant, I’d recommend sticking with the ‘M’ model.

We haven’t reviewed the M27Q X, which is why there’s no recommendation badge associated with it. But it’s still a model we currently recommend for gaming and other uses such as photo editing, based on user and reviewer feedback and its all-round performance, colour gamut coverage and pricing. The whole ‘revision’ thing only applies to the ‘base’ M27Q, not the M27Q X. 🙂