BenQ PD3205U 4K 32” Monitor for Designer, IPS, AQCOLOR, 99% sRGB, 99% Rec. 709, Delta E ≤ 3, Factory Calibrated, Uniformity, 90W USB-C, HDMI, DP, KVM, Compatible with MacBook

My 8 year old 27" iMac could no longer handle my 50mp RAW files on Lightroom and as Apple discontinued the 27" iMac I was forced to buy a Mac Mini Pro which doesn't come with a display. I looked at Apple Studio display which cost £1500 but it was out of stock everywhere so I bought this as I know a lot of photographers use this monitor. It was so easy to set up as it comes with all the leads (thunderbolt 3) you need to connect to the current Mac minis and Macbook pros. The stand was easy to assemble and is made of sturdy aluminium. The little puck which comes with the monitor is really useful and makes it so easy to change any of the display settings, trust me there are tonnes of settings you can adjust to suit your needs. A lot of people go on about scaling issues as this is a 4k monitor and current Apple Macs are set up for 5k. Trust me, this is not an issue. You can go into the display settings on your Mac and adjust the resolution to suit your eyes. Depending on your eyesight, you might find 4k is too small to read text and prefer a ratio closer to 3k (like I have), but either way you will see much more display, especially useful when editing photos when you can view the whole picture on screen without needing to scroll. You can even switch the display to the same resolution as your old non retina 27" iMac, but once you try 3k or 4k you won't go back. I was also concerned that this has a matte (non gloss like iMacs) finish, but when the monitor is on I don't even notice it's not glossy. The colours are vivid and bright, contrasts have rich tones and the display is sharp and virtually identical to Apple's colour profile, you won't need to calibrate but you can tailor the display to suit you own needs or choose from many preset settings. The only downside are the built in speakers, they sound a bit tinny (no bass) but that didn't bother me as I only use my Mac for surfing the net and editing pictures. If you need HQ surround sound then you could buy a set of external speakers or spend nearly another £700 for the Mac Studio. I reckon if you bought the 32" version of this monitor it might make using the full 4k easier as the display will be larger than on 27", but I didn't want such a big screen plus the 32" is claimed to be less sharp. When you view your old pictures which filled the whole screen on your old iMac, they won't fill the whole screen on this monitor and will appear much smaller. That's because the old non retina 27" iMac was around 2k and this screen is 4k, so this has double the resolution ie a picture that was 2000 pixels wide on a 2k screen will appear half that width on this screen as the pixels are half the size on this screen - so you fit more on screen and it looks fantastic. I'm glad I bought this screen as it's the best display I have ever used and really makes editing photographs much easier and more enjoyable. It really stands out way above my old non retina 2k iMac display which I always thought looked amazing until I bough the Benq.

I bought it during Black Friday sale and the price was really good. I'm very satisfied with this monitor - my first 4k monitor! The quality is brilliant and it has Macbook mode, which is perfect for my Macbook laptops - to maximise the best colour performance. It came with HDMI, USB-C and Displayport cables. I only used USB-C and HDMI mainly. Noting that I have the second monitor in my set-up, I can conveniently use either HDMI or USB-C, i.e. the HDMI cable is connected to the dock station for two extended displays but sometimes, I want to use a single monitor that can be done via USB-C whilst not using the dock. The BenQ monitor has button to quickly switch between HDMI and USB-C input - quite convenient for my use. Plus, USB-C can charge my laptops well at good charging speed. The monitor has three ports on the side (USB-C, USB-A [both downstream] and headphone jack) - so convenient to reach to for charging a couple of my devices. There are more USB-A ports at the back of monitor, which I don't use but useful if I need more ports to connect with. Also, it has dual view meaning I can connect bot of my Macbook laptops (Intel 2019 and M1 2020) via USB-C and HDMI simultaneously as well as setting monitor to dual view mode. I can confirm that it worked well but it is not useful for my case - mayble, this is a good option for someoneone who wants this mode in a single monitor. Overall, I'm loving this monitor so far! I would recommend this for Macbook users due to being Mac-compatible.

This is great monitor and works really well with my MacBook Air. As a graphic designer colour accuracy was really important to me and on this you can always trust BenQ to deliver. Coming from a 27 inch monitor to this 32 inch makes a significant difference if you work with multiple applications at the same time and need a bit of extra screen real estate. Yes, it’s not retina level in terms of pixels per inch so won’t be as razor sharp as Apple’s displays but it’s still a very clear, crisp image and - crucially, colour accurate. The adjustable stand is also very sturdy and enables you to rotate the screen into portrait mode which is great for web design and/or coding. The only, quite frustrating, issue I have with this monitor is its brightness - or lack of. This monitor really isn’t very bright at all in its standard mode at just 250 nits - a far cry from the 500-600 nits you’d typically find in Apple displays. I didn’t think it would be a problem but I constantly find myself trying to turn the brightness up when it’s at maximum. I can live with it (for now) but if you work in a reasonably bright room you might struggle with this monitor. Other than that, it’s a great monitor.

I have recently started editing photos and videos on my laptop and found it difficult because of the small screen and limited colours. I did quite a bit of research and decided to stretch my relatively small budget to this monitor and I'm very happy with it. Now, I'm no professional and I understand that if you want the best in sharpness and colour space then there are better monitors out there. However they come with a far heftier price tag that far outweighs my needs. For a little over £200, I have been extremely impressed with this monitor. At this size, I feel that the 2k resolution is more than enough. It's bright and the colours seem to accurately represent what I saw when I was taking the images. It's quick and easy to set up, with the usb c connection to my laptop allowing me to leave a keyboard and mouse plugged into the monitor's usb ports so as to act as a docking hub. It has a hdmi input into which I ha a fire tv stick so that I can enjoy watching tv. There's plenty of adjustment in the height and angles to allow comfortable viewing, and also has the ability to rotate to portrait orientation which is brilliant for editing photos and viewing them full screen. As with most monitors, the speakers are underwhelming but I am able to simply plug some external speakers into the monitor via the headphone jack. Overall I'm very happy with this monitor and would recommend it to anyone looking to buy a good, well made monitor in this price bracket who doesn't need lightning fast refresh rates for gaming.

I've bought an m4pro mac mini and felt that the apple studio display was as good as my 27" iMac which was excellent. But £1500? For a monitor? It goes up to 600 nits but I never go that bright. When my iMac died I got the m1 iMac. Its been......OK but the screen is pinched. So I took a deep breath and orders a 3225U. Connecting it up to the iMac to check out (the mini arrives tomorrow) it connected instantly. Swapping between the colour options I clicked on m-book and was astounded. Loads and loads of room on it. The colours are gorgeous. Contrast and brightness fine, running well below maximum. Text is very crisp but a bit big on default - I'm sure I'll get used to it. The Mac mini arrived today and instantly saw and connected to the Benq. The big text has resolved itself because I was able to get the text size right. I found the overall picture a tad blue on the Mac mini so ran an x-rite profiler which corrected it. I'm very very pleased and can thoroughly recommend it - but glad I was able to create my own profile. After 1 month Still delighted and impressed - printing was quite hit and miss with both iMacs but with the Benq what I see is what I get. With a recent print job of 11 different images on A3 Marrutt paper I saved a lot of time, paper and ink. And money. Oh and stress. I have no issues at all with text. I sit around 2 feet away from the monitor and text is crisp and sharp. I have downloaded the excellent BetterDisplay app which gives me the exact text size I want. But it is the size and quality of images that still blow me away. I set up my wallpaper in Lightroom to 3849 x 2160 with resolution at 163 ppi. Truly stunning. I don't think I can't go back to 27" for my main display now. After 2 months Always in the back of my mind was the nagging feeling that I might be better with an Apple Studio display to go with my Mini M4pro. So, I bit the bullet and ordered a Studio display and set them up side by side. I ran a calibration using a SpyderPro which lays a software profile on the top of the default display. I used Lightroom to set up wallpaper at 3840 x 2160, 163 ppi for the Benq and a separate folder for the Apple at 5120 x 2880 at 218 ppi. The results were, well, almost indistinguishable. Both were razor sharp but the Benq is 32" as opposed to the Apple at 27" so the Benq was more dramatic and pleasing to look at. I can only describe the sharpness as....gentler on the Benq but not softer. But both images are beautiful. Text was predictably sharper on the Apple but a little small on default. Enlarging the text via display settings made the difference between the two negligible. They're both pin sharp. The sound on the display is about the same as on my old Intel iMac. Quite good but if you are serious about your music you will want better. I am puzzled about the complaints about the webcam. It's fine for FaceTime and Zoom - my iPhone 13pro connected via the Benq is a lot better but if someone calls its just so much easier to answer on the Apple and have the mic and camera ready to go. One odd thing that i have discovered is that YouTube videos are better to watch on the Apple than the Benq in full screen - I presume because the compressed resolution is less obvious on the smaller screen. So which will I keep? Them both. Bugger. If I had to keep just one I would keep the Benq but I would miss the Apple. I think if I kept the Apple I would miss the Benq more.

This is a quick note for those of you moving from Windows to Mac who are getting hung up on the whole Mac scaling issue. In short, it's a red herring and you shouldn't worry about it. This monitor is proof. While researching your monitor for your new M4 you've probably come across purists harping on about needing a 5K monitor for that true Mac experience. I can tell you as a 54 year old with average eyesight for someone my age, there is no scaling issue. I quite literally plugged in my M4 to the monitor and I was up and running immediately. No need to reset scaling, no drivers to install, nothing. This monitor is plug-and-play, and it's very good. I bought this as a 'budget' monitor for photo and video editing. Colours are good with a high P3 rating. I don't see any issue with colour or contrast inconsistecies across the screen. White is white from edge to edge. Another reviewer posted an image of their monitor showing patches in the white. I do not see this, so I guess theirs was a lemon. FYI I have trialed the Apple Studio Monitor. It is a nice monitor, lovely and shiny and full of 5K goodness. At over twice the price compared to this monitor you'd expect it to be twice as good. It isn't. Not even half as good. It lacks ports for starters, and it has a shiny screen that makes everything look beautiful but, for photo editing, is not always a good thing. This monitor is matte in comparison but honestly, it's not so matte that it's flat. My previous monitor was a BenQ 2K monitor, bought years ago. Now THAT was a matte monitor. I'd put the PD2725U somewhere in between the two. In short, while using this monitor I do not have 5K, shiny screen envy. I suspect that any negative reviews for this monitor will be from purists who believe that you NEED 5K for things to work. That's nonsense. My ONLY complaint is that I don't think the PD2725U has a proximity sensor. My previous BenQ does and it's extremely useful, especially if you're keeping an eye on power consumption. That said, no other monitor in this class has one either.

Honestly, I didn't like this at first. The packaging and initial setup were fine and on initial thoughts, there was a lot too.love about the monitor. However, connected to a Mac I found some programs didn't play nice with it (Adobe Illustrator for one) and it flickered. I also couldn't get the screen to match my MacBook Pro (M1 Max) after messing about with it a while, putting it in the specific MacBook setting. I downloaded DisplayPilot from BenQ and things were a lot better as you get more granular and easier control and can also match the ICC Sync settings of your Mac. That said, as great as I now find the monitor, it won't match the brightness of the MacBook Pro and its Mini LED screen so don't expect it to. I've got used to the slight difference but have managed to get it pretty decent, especially for design and video/rendering purposes using the DisplayPilot software. Overall, it' a great monitor for the price - it won't match a £1k+ monitor but the features, ports, looks and pretty great screen are fantastic for the price. The Puck is great too - I can swap between Mac and Windows easily rather than reaching round the back of the monitor each time and the USB-C connection is great too. 4K is a bit small text size wise so I have mine set to 3008 x 1692 which is a happy medium and allows plenty of room for artboards and pallets on screen without squinting to see teeny tiny text when it's at 3840x2160. Overall - pretty happy with it - despite the initial niggles that nearly made me send it back. Stick with it, customise the settings yourself and you'll find it a great monitor. =)

This monitor (PD2725U) is somewhat of a mixed bag, in some respects incredible and in some extremely underwhelming. Ergonomics and design: First impression when unboxing was great – the built quality is amazing, the stand is very heavy and sturdy and the ergonomics are phenomenal considering that Apple charges you 400$ extra for a height adjustable stand. It also comes with a nice hotkey puck with customisable buttons and a brightness dial which is definitely a nice addition. The connectivity options (USB hub etc.) are good but nothing to get incredibly excited about. Display: Turning the monitor on for the first time was somewhat of a shock: The white areas were not uniform but completely covered in green/magenta blotches. I thought something must be wrong with my monitor. Going through the settings, I found that this was ironically caused by a setting called "uniformity". Turning this off results in perfectly uniform colours – and also a shift in colour temperature and vignetting. I got in touch with BenQ, who, after many days responded offering to send me a "refurbished replacement" with "no guarantee" for its condition, if I send them my brand new one. Of course, I respectfully declined, returned the monitor to Amazon and ordered a new one. This is when I learned that my monitor wasn't faulty. While the new one was slightly better, this model is just really this blotchy by design. I can hardly believe that no review points this out. This monitor is advertised as a professional designer monitor with great colour accuracy – however I cannot really believe anybody doing serious colour critical work would find the blotchiness acceptable. Whatever the official data says, the colour is so inconsistent that you can see it with your naked eye. Which of the blotches was calibrated to be accurate? The colours are otherwise beautiful and nuanced, and look great if you're not staring at a white screen, although the contrast is, as expected from an IPS panel, really not great. It's also not a display I would recommend for gaming, but I don't assume that comes as a surprise to anyone. Software integration. The Display Pilot software is great – it allows you to automatically sync your monitor colour space to the Mac display color profile to ensure accuracy and consistency. This means you can recall a colour preset from one of the buttons on your hotkey puck and the operating system will automatically sync its ICC profile. The only downside is that it cannot be automatically hidden on startup, meaning that you will always have to manually close the window if it is set to automatically launch. Overall, the integration with Mac feels very nice and seemless. Except: Resolution and Scaling: While reviews wildly overstate the severity of this, the 4K resolution is not 100% optimal for Mac in so far as the default scaling makes UI elements seem just a bit too large, while the next smaller setting definitley makes them too small. This really isn't a major issue but can be slightly annoying in programs like DaVinci Resolve, where the UI elements feel quite large and take up more screen real estate than I would like them to, leaving less space for the viewer. Again, this isn't a major issue but I see why people prefer a 5K display for Mac. Otherwise, the resolution is more than sufficient and everything looks sharp and text is very easy on the eye. TL;DR: + Design + Build quality + Ergonomics + Software/MacOS integration o Resolution / scaling - Uniformity / blotchiness - Pricey compared to similar monitors - Contrast ratio Conclusion: I wish I could love this monitor, since the ergonomics and design are incredible and the software integration is fantastic. It is really let down by the less-than-perfect panel. You need to make a choice between accepting the blotchiness or turning the uniformity feature off at the expense of moderate vignetting and needing to manually recalibtate the monitor (which you should probably do anyway). If you're a full-time professional who relies on colour accuracy, you will probably be better off spending at least twice the money on something better. If you're early in your career, on a budget and need to get work done while saving up for a proper designer or colour grading monitor, and you want seamless integration with Mac without buying the overpriced and outdated Studio Display, this might be a good option for you. If you just want a good 27" 4K all-round display, you might be just as happy with the more affordable DELL ultrasharp. If you're a gamer, nothing to see here. P.S. The picture I added has increased saturation because it is otherwise hard to see on a photo. Trust me that it is very clearly visible in real life.