[swebs]

I pulled the trigger on a F32TU87 since I found it on sale for about the price of the other VA options. I’m using it mostly for software development. So far I’m pretty happy with it! Some impressions after using it for a few hours, coming from an XG2402 (24″ 1080p 144hz TN that I plan to keep using for fast gaming):

• no dead/stuck pixels
• no noticeable VA glow
• black crush noticeable with test images, but not otherwise
• some left-to-right gamma shift, but not enough to bother me
• looks great when doubling as a TV from ~10ft away
• slightly wobbly stand, but I was planning to get an arm anyway
• I’ve got it placed slightly more than an arm’s length away, about 2 feet. It doesn’t feel too big when looking at the corners, though I may put it a bit farther back once it’s on a stand
• coming from 24″ 1080p, 32″ 4k feels great for programming work
• I’m using 150% scaling but will probably lower it once I get glasses
• the 144hz TN -> 60hz VA transition is noticeable in situations like fast-scrolling text in a console, but not too distracting

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing your impressions and I’m pleased to see they’re so positive overall! As a side note, the AOC U32E2N is listed in the US again, so I’ll keep an eye on availability. Depending on that and other reviews, I might be able to slot it in some time. 🙂

[kspmtrp]

Hello,

first of all, thank you for such a good work. This page and its forum are the most valuable source of monitor information and recommendations on the Internet.

I am a developer and due to the pandemic, I am working 9 hours a day at home in front of my 12 years old Dell Ultrasharp U2408WFP (it has a S-PVA panel). I have no complaints with the quality of this monitor. I do not appreciate light bleeding, colors are mostly uniform, good viewing angles and it has good reflection handling. But it has a big fault: it has PWM backlight. I am not particularly sensible to this, but in the end, I think my eyes are suffering more than necessary.

I’ve completely read this and other related posts and some of the reviews. It seems that the recommended monitor is the Philips 328E1CA or the Dell S3221QS that share the same panel. Or maybe BenQ EW3280U if I take the IPS route. But based on what I have seen (Amazon buyers reviews, specialized reviews, etc.) it seems all monitors (IPS or VA) have some kind of problem with backlight bleeding, IPS glow, VA glow, viewing angles… I do not appreciate any of these problems in my current monitor, even on the dark. Has the quality of the panels decreased over the years? Maybe S-PVA panels were better?

There are examples on Amazon reviews of the Philips 328E1CA. Sincerely, the bleeding/ghosting is awful. In your review does not seem to have this problem. I know photos exaggerate it, but I have found several reviews complaining about severe bleeding.

I would like to buy from Amazon because of its return policy. Currently both mentioned VA models are out of stock in my country.

Basically, I am searching for a monitor with similar (or better) quality to my current monitor:

• Easy on the eyes. This is the main reason I want to change. It must have no flicker backlight (PWM). With low blue light filter or any other technology helping the health of my eyes. Automatic brightness (if it works properly) would be a plus because of the changing lighting conditions of my room, but not mandatory.
• 32 inches 4K display because I want sharp text. I am a little nearsighted so I think I will need to use some scaling. Probably between 125% and 150%.
• Colors should be uniform to the naked eye. For example, if I have a maximized notepad (white background) I would like not to see some part of it yellowish or darker, or the taskbar with less saturation. The same if the background is black. For instance, in the review of Philips 328E1CA it seems there is some kind of saturation shift at the bottom of the screen that I don’t like, but maybe the camera exaggerates this effect.
• For the same reason, I would like to minimize the chances of backlight bleeding in the “panel lottery”.
• I will mostly use browser, office applications, console/terminal, text files… but I also look and/or edit pictures with Adobe Lightroom at a very amateur level.
• I always use the monitor with enough ambient light. During some minutes the sun hits the room, so I would like it to have good reflection handling.
• I rarely watch films on the monitor.
• I don’t care about gaming.
• Distance to the screen of about 60-70cm.
• I will use a VESA mount.
• Budget of about 500€ but I do not mind to spend 800€ if the monitor does not exhibit the problems or fills my requirements better.

Should I wait for availability of the VA recommended models? Should I go for the IPS recommendation? Are there any other, present or near future, alternatives?

NOTE: Sorry about the length of the post, I wanted to be as specific as possible. Also, sorry about any possible grammatic error because English is not my mother tongue.

[PCM2]

Hi kspmtrp,

Backlight bleed and associated issues such as clouding can affect units of any model. Certain aspects on modern monitors can make them more prone to it, including slimmer bezels and screens plus the fact they’re generally larger. It all makes them more prone to the pressures that can cause or exacerbate such uniformity issues. I’ve removed your link to the Amazon review because the photos were horrendously overexposed and give an extremely unrealistic representation of how the monitor would look to the eye. Our review sample of the 328E1CA was indeed quite good in that respect, some will be worse and some better. The way our photo is shot is far more representative of what you’ll actually see. View it in the same conditions that the photos were shot (i.e. a dark room) on a monitor that’s properly calibrated and it’s a decent representation. But it varies between individual units and depends on the brightness used as well. Furthermore, ‘VA glow’ is observed from a normal viewing position as described in the review – as explained, the photo does not show this as it’s designed to isolate backlight bleed and clouding. It’s best to set realistic expectations here, so expect somewhere in the middle of our sample and the ‘bad cases’. The fact you often have sensible lighting in the room and the tasks you use the monitor for really mean there’s little point in concerning yourself too much with possible backlight bleed or the representation of very dark shades in a dim room.

You’ve clearly researched this well, but just to focus things in a bit more. You don’t do anything beyond a bit of amateur photography and are mostly using the monitor for general purpose, so the Philips 328E1CA is really a key model to consider. It might be worth waiting for availability to improve. But the EW3280U is still worth considering given your budget and that you do a bit of photo editing, plus that you usually have the room well-lit. If contrast or the representation of darker content is a concern of yours, you need to factor in the inescapable ‘IPS glow’ plus the significantly lower static contrast compared to the Philips, but with the lighting conditions you describe I wouldn’t be overly concerned with that aspect. The perceived contrast should be just fine on the BenQ. And you stated that you prefer a more uniform viewing experience – uniformity varies between units, but with VA models you always have perceived colour temperature, gamma and saturation shifts from 60-70 cm regardless of how good backlight uniformity is. On the flipside, you need to consider the very light matte anti-glare screen surface, which can be relatively unforgiving in bright conditions. The same conditions would cause glare on any monitor, mind you, it would just be diffused across the screen (dulling the image) rather than giving somewhat sharper patches of glare. And really, a ‘reflection’ on such a screen surface would require strong light striking the screen directly, whilst you’re viewing darker content.

It’s still worth expanding your consideration to other models, though. The AOC U32E2N mentioned earlier in the thread should provide a similar experience to the Philips (and Dell S3221QS), without the curve. The lack of curve can make it somewhat less prone to clouding, but there are really no guarantees in that respect. I can’t go into any detail and outright recommend the monitor given I haven’t used it and have very little user feedback to share. But I’m confident it has enough in common with the aforementioned curved VA models that it’s worth some consideration. Especially given price and availability in your region. Given your preferences I still feel you may find the EW3280U better overall, though.

[kspmtrp]

Hello,

Thank you very much for your response. Finally, I got the Philips 328E1CA. I have used it for only one hour, but I would like to share my very first impressions:

• The unit I have received has not visible problems like stuck pixels, backlight bleeding, viewing angles, ghosting, glow, etc. I was very worried about these problems because photos found on the Internet seem to make these problems way more pronounced than they are.
• The curve it’s a bit awkward. Horizontal lines, like the upper and bottom borders of an app Window, are a bit curved. It can be a problem with people working with design programs where lines should be straight (Illustrator, CorelDraw, Autocad, Fusion 3D…). On the other side it helps a bit to view what is displayed on the left and right borders.
• Reflection handling seems quite good. It is less grainy than my old monitor.
• 4K resolution without scaling makes everything tiny. For me, the minimum scaling I would use is 125% or even 150% to be more confortable (I am a little shortshighted).
• I have only worked with productivity applications, but I am worried about the very poor color contrast. For instance, in Microsoft Teams, the white boxes of every conversation on the right have the same white color than the background (that is supposed to be gray).
• In the Lagom Contrast Test 1, 2 and 30, 31, 32 are the same color. In the Lagom Black Test from 1 to 14 are all undistinguishable from the background. And in Lagom White Test from 247 to 254 are all undistinguishable from the white background. No mater what contrast/brightness/gamma I choose in the monitor menu.

I am testing with my laptop HDMI output, at 4K resolution and 30Hz. (sadly it seems that it does not have HDMI 2.0). My laptop screen or even my old Dell monitor plugged to the same laptop do not have all the mentioned problems (everything is distinguishable).

Reading the “Lagom contrast tests” section of your review it seems that there is some problem with my unit, or maybe with the drivers or the output of my laptop? Should I use some ICC profile? (I do not have a colorimeter). Any ideas?

For me, these problems are far more worrying than some tiny backlight bleeding. I am thinking on asking for a replacement or going for an IPS.

[PCM2]

It sounds like you’re using a Limited Range RGB signal. Refer to this article, but note that correcting this with some laptop GPUs isn’t always straightforward. What you’re observing certainly isn’t normal for the 328E1CA and I doubt it’s a hardware issue with the monitor, either. Remember that this isn’t a free technical support service, so I won’t be discussing this aspect further. But I hope it’s an easy fix for you, I appreciate the impressions you’ve shared. And when you’ve got the monitor connected up with a proper signal I welcome further impressions as well. 🙂

You’ll also find the curve will take longer than 1 hour to adapt to. It will hopefully become more natural in time, but I do note in the review that designers and others who require geometric perfection might want to avoid curved models.

[matjmau]

Hi PCM. I just read your article about correcting color issues with HDMI. Is it correct to say that there is no such issue if I choose a resolution like 1366×768 or choose 59Hz instead of 60Hz? 1366×768 is one of the resolutions normally available but it is not standard for a TV so I presume that if a resolution like this were selected, the GPU would not treat it like a TV at all and would provide the full range by default.

Also, one of my laptops uses the DP port with a DP-HDMI active adapter at the moment, so Quantization Range is not available in the Intel Graphics Control Panel. Is there another way to get to the option? Both my laptop and PC have intel graphics.

[PCM2]

Hi matjmau,

In theory that’s correct, but I’m not sure exactly how Intel chips handle this or whether any corrective action needs to be taken in this case. All of my own systems use dedicated GPUs. Perhaps you could try this and compare observations using Lagom etc. and work out if the correct signal is used based on what you can see there? 🙂 Or observe differences between 3840 x 2160 @60Hz and 59Hz (for example), if there are any. In the article CRU is recommended as an alternative method for creating a custom resolution, too. It might be that the correct signal is being used, anyway, so none of this is necessary for you. But that’s why experimenting with different resolutions, refresh rates or utilities and observing Lagom and suchlike could be useful. It will help pinpoint any signal issues.

[kspmtrp]

Hi PCM,

you were right about the Limited Range RGB signal. I changed the setting in the two computers connected (with nVidia and Intel graphics card), and everything is much better now. Thanks for the tip in the right direction.

I want to share my impressions after some days using the Philips 328E1CA:
* Some backlight bleed has appeared after more use, mainly on the bottom right. It is mainly visible with a black background and low/mid ambient light.
* I am almost adapted to the curve. When you use the monitor for several hours you “forget” about the curve. In the end, I think its a nice feature.
* At first, coming from a 24 inches 1920×1200 screen, it seems giant. But after some minutes you realize the screen size is perfect. Even with 150% scaling there is plenty of room to have two apps side by side. Software like Adobe Lightroom maximized to the full 32 inches is much more enjoyable.
* If you have more than one computer connected and running, and the one being visible is restarted or powered off, the monitor automatically switches to the other computer. This is a little annoying; it should stay in the selected source or wait more time to automatically switch sources.
* Lacks color uniformity with colors like pink that becomes purple on the corners, even watching it from a centered position. I suppose that is normal in screens with VA panel and this size. It was much better in my previous monitor with a 24 inches S-PVA panel. I can live with it, but can be a problem for designers or serious photographers.
* For me is not important, but the audio quality of the integrated speakers is mediocre.
* My previous monitor dissipated a lot of heat, from the back and even from the panel. In summer it was uncomfortable. The Philips does not seem to have this problem; it stays cold even after using it for long time.
* Previously I had the monitor with a screen on my back. Reflection handling in this situation is worst than the Dell, I think that mainly due to the curve. I have been forced to change the location to have the window on one side. Now it is much much better.

Long story short, for the relatively low price and for my needs, it is a very good choice. It is a big step up from my old Dell Ultrasharp U2408WFP.

Again, I want to thank you very much for your impressive reviews, your recommendations, and all the good information in your web and forum.

[PCM2]

Thanks for enriching the forum by sharing your continued experience with the 328E1CA. I’m glad they’ve been positive, overall, and that you find the positive aspects of the experience overpower the negatives. I’m also glad the colour signal correction did the trick to fix those initial issues you were having. Because monitors are so subjective and everyone will have their own thoughts and experiences, it’s nice to have this sort of feedback shared here for others to benefit from. 🙂

[Netrunner]

I am currently looking for a new 32″ 4K monitor to replace the one I currently have which is a Dell U3219Q. Reason for replacing it is my kids played with their Nerf guns around my monitor and one I imagine one dart hit the top of the display as I now have a few diagonal lines on the left corner, and vertical and horizontal line on the left side, and top side of the display. Dell says they cannot repair the screen and that I need to buy a new one… A little pissed since I have only had the monitor for about 2 weeks. The U3219Q, is quite expensive at about $1569CDN (but currently on sale for $1169) , and using it with the new Mac mini with the M1 processor, has given me a few headaches as I have it connected through USB-C. I am using it as a dual purpose monitor; in the day, it’s connected to my work laptop, and connected to my Mac mini when not working. The KVM feature is nice, and hence why I need to connect the Mac through the USB-C port so I can share my Webcam and mouse between computers. However, having it connected through the USB-C port running Bug Sur means I have a lot issues when the Mac wakes up from sleep mode…USB accessories not working, wrong display size…I am no longer sure this is the best approach.
So, I am now trying to decide if I will purchase a new Dell U3219Q , or other monitors that I was previously considering.

BenQ PD3220U (expensive at $1579 CDN)
BenQ PD3200U ($850 CDN)
LG 32UN880-B ($950CDN)

When on my Mac, I mostly use it for photo editing and may sometimes edit a few videos as well a browsing and watching Youtube. I don’t play games. I also have a set of good speakers that I am using, therefore have no need for integrated speakers. I have seen that you recommend the BenQ EW3280 (on-sale at $900 CDN) but am not yet sold on it…

[PCM2]

The EW3280U is my recommendation, I feel it’s justified well in this thread and perhaps in a more comprehensive and colour-oriented way here. That isn’t to say you wouldn’t find the BenQ PD3200U hits the spot for you as well and the superior ergonomic freedom could be attractive. One consideration there might be how you found the colour output of the Dell U3219Q using its full native gamut. If you enjoyed the vibrant colour output or made use of this for photo editing purposes, that isn’t something the PD3200U would offer but is something the EW3280U would offer. If on the other hand you prefer a ‘rich and natural’ look with less saturation and vibrancy or set your Dell up in that way anyway, perhaps the PD3200U would be more attractive. Although that’s debatable. For photo editing, the sRGB emulation setting on the ‘EW’ is superior to the native gamut of the PD3200U as well due to over-coverage and no emulation setting on the latter. If you own a colorimeter that won’t matter, however.

[shake]

I’d like to share my experience with the Dell S3221QS because I couldn’t find a review that highlights what I perceive as shortcomings I wasn’t prepared for.

Ordinarily I choose monitors for general use and gaming but this purchase was an attempt to meet an additional use: working from home (lots of text editing, browser use, terminal use). I alternate between Windows 10, macOS, and linux depending on what I’m doing. I chose this particular monitor because it seemed to meet all my needs at least adequately, based on the reviews I could find. After two weeks of use, I can say it works well for multi-window management even at 150% scaling and the size is great because I can set the monitor back about 2 feet and maintain clarity. The contrast, quality of black and near-black shades, and richness of color is great. It’s worth noting that I’m coming from a QHD 144hz G-Sync TN monitor (Dell S2716DGR) that can’t display black at all and has awful blurry text. I don’t think I’ll willingly use a TN again.

The HDR on this monitor is a joke. I wish that other reviews (excluding pcmonitors.info posts) would give more qualitative assessments because this came as a shock to me. I wasn’t expecting even good quality here, but it’s actually unusable. When I first set up the monitor, I immediately tried testing it with HDR content from Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. This turned out to be impossible because they will not recognize the system (in this case, Windows 10 with the monitor connected via DisplayPort) as capable of supporting HDR content. I checked using both MS Edge and the desktop apps and using DisplayPort and HDMI cables. I further verified with Netflix by checking the video stream/player info overlay, which indicated HDR not supported. Windows 10 has a toggle in “Windows HD Colors settings” for “Stream HDR video” that allows “On” but will immediately revert to “Off”, so I guess something at the OS level is preventing HDR streaming with this monitor. I wasn’t planning on watching any video on my PC, let alone HDR content, but it’s not even an option! As for games, the ones support HDR cannot be configured with a low enough max brightness and paper white level to meet the paltry brightness of the monitor in HDR mode.

I’ll preface the next section with where I’m coming from and what my expectations were for the monitor regarding motion and gaming, things that people seem to have a broad range of expectations and boundaries for, if they care about them at all.

I read that the refresh rate was disappointing for “competitive gamers” and shrugged that off because when I play games with lots rapid motion online, I don’t care enough to need every possible reduction in latency or responsiveness or whatever. Image quality is more important to me. I believed I knew what I was in for with this 60hz monitor, even after years of using the aforementioned 144hz display, because I still regularly use a 2017 MacBook Pro (built-in display is capped at 60hz) and motion blur or ghosting has never been an issue with the MacBook. The S3221QS’s adaptive sync can be used with Nvidia G-Sync through the Nvidia Control Panel when connected via DisplayPort. So, I thought I knew everything I needed to know. The requirements I had for gaming were met.

I guess I was quite naïve about the importance of responsiveness (response rate?) and just how bad an experience poor responsiveness can be. This monitor has pretty atrocious motion blur, both with text ghosting and with motion in games. Again, some reviews elsewhere mentioned the refresh rate as a potential issue for FPS players. Even strategy games, where motion consists of just moving a 3d map around, have very apparent blurring and jumping. It’s much worse in games with a 3rd person perspective where camera shifts produce an immense amount of motion. What really confirmed to me that it wasn’t subjective was connecting my old 144hz monitor, setting both monitors to QHD with a max framerate of 56 and playing a game on one then the other. The difference in motion smoothness is night and day. I’ve attempted factory resets, trying different DisplayPort cables, capping framerate to 4 frames less than the max refresh rate, turning off G-Sync. Only the factory reset made an improvement and the blur was still bad. I will note on the positive side that I haven’t experienced screen tearing with G-Sync on, so it clearly works with the S3221QS’s adaptive sync.

If you never, ever care about motion then this monitor is great. I really cannot emphasize enough how nice it is to use a monitor with such great contrast and color. But the motion blurring–man is it bad.

I’ll be attempting to return the monitor due to the motion blur issues. I guess I’ll be searching for an IPS monitor because I’m unaware of any other 4k 32in VA monitors with higher refresh rates or response times.

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing your experiences with the S3221QS, shake. I completely understand how frustrating it can be to like most things about a monitor, but have one absolute deal-breaker. In this case, the pixel response time weaknesses. This is very subjective and some people are far more tolerant of such weaknesses. I certainly agree that you should look for an IPS-type alternative with this sensitivity in mind. Unfortunately, if you wish to stick with ~32″ at least, they come at a significant price premium. It’s one of the reasons many users end up opting for VA models like the Dell or Philips 328E1CA.

The Dell and the Philips both have weaknesses in pixel responsiveness which you’d want to avoid if you find such aspects annoying. The Philips is somewhat stronger, actually, and it’s better than average for a 60Hz VA model using its optimal response time setting (‘Faster’). That’s not really saying much, though, and it still has weaknesses which will annoy some users. With the Dell you’re forced to use the ‘Normal’ setting which isn’t as well-tuned as it could be. The ‘Fast’ and ‘Extreme’ setting simply introduces moderate to extreme overshoot – not an attractive alternative.

[shake]

Thanks, I appreciate the info.

It’s good to know that I can’t deal with poor response time, but this is definitely the worst way to find out. I now know how great it is to use a 4k 32″ display that has real contrast, sharpness, and color accuracy (when compared to a TN, at least).

I’m not quite ready to spend the premium required for a low response time, high refresh rate 32″ monitor. Most of them are double the cost of my 55″ OLED TV, which, by the way, doesn’t have any of these blur issues when playing something crazy like Red Dead Redemption 2 @ HDR 4k @60hz! I’ll have to start looking at 27″ monitors, and then there’s the whole perceived pixel density vs viewing-distance to think about for smaller 4k monitors.

This probably isn’t the best place for this but based on my experience, what would be 27″ 4k monitor with strong pixel response time? How much of difference does response time make versus refresh rate if you’re keen on motion smoothness? Through testing have you found an ideal distance for 27″ 4k? I understand a lot of this is down to preference, environment, and eyesight. There are so many variables that it’s hard for me to keep straight all the different metrics I have to learn and what means what.

[PCM2]

27″ options are covered in this more general thread – our recommendation is clear and that’s the Philips 276E8VJSB or similar 278E1A which includes 100 x 100mm VESA holes and integrated speakers. Our reviews of ‘4K’ models always talk about our experience and my own preferred viewing distance is mentioned there (example from review of our recommended model). It is far too subjective and down to preferences, including for text size, and eyesight. My own preferences won’t apply to you, given that I’d happily use a ~32″ ‘4K’ model without scaling, usually from a distance of ~70cm (give or take a bit depending on seat position and posture).

You’ve used a 144Hz model with good pixel responses yourself, the Dell S2716DG(F), which you ran at 56fps alongside your S3221QS. So that should give you a good feel for the impact of refresh rate and pixel responsiveness. Running your Dell at 60fps will give you a good idea of what you can expect from a 60Hz model with stronger pixel responses than the ‘4K’ Dell model you tried. If that isn’t sufficient and you feel you want more or really miss 144Hz when you’re not using it, that’s the experience you’d need to seek. But at the ‘4K’ resolution it takes significant graphical horsepower to make good use of such a monitor, more so than at 2560 x 1440 (WQHD). So bear that in mind.

[shake]

I appreciate the response. I’ll be looking through the recommendations and threads over the weekend. I have to say, your writing on the site and the posters in the forums have provided a lot of clarity regarding the many aspects to consider when browsing for and evaluating monitors–clarity I’ve found lacking in many online publications and totally absent from Amazon reviews, Reddit, etc.

As you suggested, I ran the S2716DGF at 60fps to experience the faster pixel response with a lower framerate. I also had the S3221QS running as a second monitor with mirrored output and got my partner to weigh in on the difference. As someone who never games and works with footage all day, she has a different perspective and preference for video and she found the S3221QS experience unbearable. I found that I much prefer pixel responsiveness to anything else. The blur from poor responsiveness on the S3221QS distorts what in all other respects is a superior image.

For what it’s worth, I’m running an i7-9700K, Geforce RTX 3080, and 16GB RAM. The game I’ve been testing most heavily is Red Read Redemption 2 with most settings maxed. When I uncap the framerate, I never have fps below 60 so I’m not super worried about not being able to make use of 75Hz+ refresh rates on 4k monitors.

[DCSaddict]

@ PCM2

Regarding the S3221QS.

Hello.

In December I was upgrading my PC for running DigitalCombatSimulator in 4k and lucky enough I was able to obtain a 6800XT.

I also picked up a used LG 38″ 21:9 Display but at the same time ordered a Philips 328E1CA. Because I was not sure which will offer the better Screen ratio.

In combination with TrackIR which is best kept at 60 or 120 Hz exactly and this simulator being to demanding to run 120fps stable even at 2k all that matters is response time at 60Hz.

I ended up returning the Philips 32″ Curved because it had 4 dead pixel in very close proximity but otherwise the display itself was very good and perfectly matched my needs other then having to buy a vesa mount to compensate for the poor ergonomics. And the lack of USB ports.

I also sold the 38″ Ultrawide because I enjoyed the sharp cockpit instruments on the 4k a lot and felt on the ultrawide I would render to stripes left and right out of focus and mostly using the center which will automatically pan with the Track IR It seemed kind of a waste. In addition to that running the 38 Ultrawide at 3840 x 1600 with enough AA to make up for the lower resolution would eventually cost more performance then running the 4k.

Long story short after sending the Philips back I discovered the Dell S3221QS and since then I am waiting for it to be in stock again.

But reading about it here made me wonder if compared to the Philips it is really so much worse in terms of response time / ghosting.

Also I wonder if there will be a full review on PC Monitors for the Dell S3221QS since I enjoyed the Philips review a lot which was very well done.

Thank you in advance for your time.

[PCM2]

Hi DCSaddict,

I’m glad the 31.5″ curved ‘4K’ experience is working so well for your flight sims. 🙂

Dead pixels can and will affect models of any unit. The Philips 328E1CA is no more prone to them than other models, including the Dell S3221QS. Unfortunately when there are >8.29 million pixels and >24 million subpixels, some of them being defective is not all that uncommon. Both Dell and Philips would consider 4 dead subpixels acceptable and so would others in the industry, regardless of on screen position. It might be an idea to simply go for another 328E1CA rather than swapping to the Dell, but as I always say sensitivity to motion performance is very subjective and you might be just fine with that aspect of the Dell anyway.

We have no plans to review the S3221QS. It isn’t a model I’d find myself recommending above the Philips and price and availability in the US is relatively poor. The last bit’s important as the vast majority of our users who support the website come from the US. So this is absolutely pivotal in dictating the products I’ll dedicate 3 weeks of my life reviewing. I can only average 1 review per month and there are plenty of models I’d rather take a look at that are more distinct to other products we’ve already reviewed and offer better price and availability stateside.

P.S. Nothing personal, this is common due to how some manufacturers also market things. But please try to avoid using the term ‘2K’ on this forum.

[DCSaddict]

@ PCM2 Thank you for your quick reply.
It seems to be a logical thing what you suggest about the Philips 328E1CA.
With the 4 dead pixel all in one spot I just had bad luck If they would have been spread out all over the screen I probably never discovered them and neither returned the product. And I am sure If I order a new one chances are there will be none.

Thank you also for the information about ‘2K’. Something learned I will use 1440p or 2560×1440 from now on.

Maybe a few more Questions:
When it comes to the expression Input lag. Does that include the response time? or will the response time add to this?

Rise / Fall vs. Total response time. It looks like most Manufactures use Rise / Fall for the “Response time” specification where as total response time is often 10ms longer… isn’t that misleading or 10 – 90 % (Rise / Fall) is all I would notice anyway?

[Author]

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