[ruimarto]

Hi,

I’m a happy owner of a Benq PD3200U, but I’m looking to upgrade a bit. I want a monitor with higher contrast and better coverage for Adobe RGB and P3.
Right now I’m looking at the Asus PA32UCR-K but I’m reading terrible reviews on it’s construction quality and calibration reliability. I’ve seen the recommended model, ASUS PA32UCG-K, the BenQ SW321C and Dell U3224kb but they’re over my budget or not available around here.

Any recommendations around 1000€ in Europe?

[PCM2]

Hi ruimarto,

I do have a few recommendations but they might not be what you expected:

1) I’d challenge you to notice any difference whatsoever between a ‘true 10-bit’ and ‘8-bit+ FRC’ display, even in a side by side comparison. The dithering is very finely handled in pretty much all cases and occurs minimally rather than being more widespread as it would be for ‘6-bit+ FRC’.

2) With your budget you shouldn’t really be overly concerned with factory calibration. Sure it’s nice to have a good one, but you should have your own colorimeter or alternative calibration device budgeted for. Even if a factory calibration happens to be perfect (which is rare), things drift over time and re-calibration is recommended to obtain strongest accuracy.

With this in mind perhaps it’s worth expanding your options even to something like the BenQ EX3210U or MSI MPG321UR-QD, which are diverse monitors including for photo and video editing. Availability can be quite hit and miss, especially around this time of year, though pricing when available can be quite competitive. Perhaps leaving room in the budget for a colorimeter if you don’t already have one. Otherwise, with sales around this time of year it might be the case of keeping your eye out on the models currently above your budget you listed and see if they slip closer to your budget. The SW321C is a model I’ve certainly received some very positive feedback for (even relying on factory calibration – but be aware of what I said with point 2 above) and it’s undeniably a very solidly built monitor.

[ruimarto]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and recommendations. About the calibration I do own a colorimeter and calibrate frequently. My main concern with non certified monitors is not the factory calibration but the assurance of color accuracy. I know factory claims can be wild, but if there’s no claim from them I also can’t get replace/refund if it doesn’t fulfill. I’ve had that experience with an Ultrasharp fulfilling 99% sRGB and every color under dE 2%, but then some tones going over 6%.
I’ve looked into them and neither is easily available around here (actually, none of them is aside from some ProArt and lower range BenQ on Amazon).

[Weissrolf]

The ASUS ProArt PA329C does not include the colorimeter, but offers hardware calibration with 14-bit LUT and profiles can be saved on the monitor. Unfortunately it just jumped up in price by 100 EUR this week, but maybe it will go down again in a few days.

[PCM2]

Yes I can appreciate that. Were those errors ‘out of the box’ or did they persist after calibration? Either way, it’s best to minimise the amount of ‘correction’ needed when profiling the monitor, particularly with a regular software calibration. Hardware calibration can yield superior results if significant errors need to be corrected and the PA329C Weissrolf mentioned is certainly worth considering with that plus the overall value proposition in mind. I was disappointed to see the PA329CRV doesn’t share the strong Adobe RGB coverage of the ‘C’ or indeed the PA279CRV, but fortunately ASUS didn’t discontinue the regular ‘C’ model.

[ruimarto]

It was persistent… Initially I thought it was some issue with DataColor software but displayCal, even with much better results, was having the same issue with same tones.

It looks like the “R” versions are slightly downgraded models from the previous year. I didn’t mention it but I actually had the PA329C on my list from a few years ago.
So I guess it’s either that or the downgraded 32UCR-K model (with X-Rite), they’re 300€ 100€ apart here.

Sidenote: Replacing my SpyderX with X-Rite calibrator could be useful, since the latter is directly compatible with my raw processing software. But I think ASUS monitors allow for both, so not an issue if it’s not bundled.

[kaneda]

I was like you for very long time, I was about to get the asus pa32ucr-k until I watch the video reviews, blooming is terrible for the price, then I want the pa329crv but is only 300 nits, I love hdr.
I got the Innocn 32M2V and is very good, I got me a calibrate display plus hl and this thing is a best on budget.

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