Samsung 32″ WQHD LED Monitor (S32D850T)

I know my monitors – and this one is fantastic…

I’ve owned a Seiki 4K monitor (39″ @ 3840×2160), an Apple Thunderbolt monitor (27″ @ 2560×1440) and an ultra-wide, 21:9 aspect ration LG UM95P (34″ @ 3440×1440) and now this one. This one wins.

27″ is a bit too small and anything over 34″ is a bit too big.
32″ is perfect.

4K (3840×2160) isn’t useful in its native resolution for productivity, as the screen is either too big (have to pan your head around) or the text is too small (have to increase icon & text size, thus negating the point of extra resolution). Also, HiDPI mode might be nice, but 4K is too hard to push for games and 30hz is unacceptable.

This Samsung monitor has a 91.79 PPI, which is fairly crisp, but not ultra-crisp….
The ability to PIVOT this huge thing is awesome for working with Excel data, iTunes playlists, *READING KINDLE* and taking notes.

*for movies & console gamers*
The 1440p resolution is exactly 4x as many pixels as 1280×720, which is what many PS3/Xbox360 games are running at, as well as movies you are streaming or have downloaded. That means that when blown up to 2560×1440, there are no interpolation artifacts, which makes the picture look great, as well as the 100% sRGB, which means you can turn on “FULL range RGB” color field for your games, images, etc. I’ll never use a non 100% monitor again.

My incredibly nice Sony laptop has 95% and my Macbook has ~70%; this monitor has fantastic color production with 100% coverage.

I wish it had speakers, but at least it allows you to plug in headphones. This is useful if you have a console or laptop and don’t want to constantly fiddle with audio connections. I leave my headphones plugged in; switching from PS3 to laptop allows me to have both plugged in at the same time, even picture-in-picture. Samsung got it right with this one.

Also, the stand is very sturdy and is exactly the size of an Apple bluetooth keyboard. If you watch movies, play PS3/Xbox games that are in 720p (like GTA V), or could use an insane 2560 lines of *vertical* resolution for your productivity, this is the monitor you want. 2560 lines of vertical resolution (when in pivot) is 19% more than 4K would give you, by the way.

Being able to raise/lower and tilt the monitor up/down is a huge bonus.

After my 8 year-old Samsung monitor died, I was originally looking at the 34″ 21:9 LG models (the UM65), but it has only a 1 year warranty (no faith in your product, LG?) and I read there were some backlight bleeding issues (which LG considers a “feature” since it’s an IPS panel). No doubt due to its width, there’s no pivot capabilities that I’m aware of, and I also knew I’d miss the extra vertical real estate. Enter the Samsung S32D850T with its 3 year warranty and VA panel.

First off, it is huge! But, it’s not TOO huge, just amazingly, wondrously so. I haven’t bothered to calibrate anything yet, just lowered the brightness quite a bit (monitors always ship set much too high), and the picture still looks better than my 25″ Samsung SyncMaster T260 (moved to the PC that was using the LCD that died) or my Alienware OptX AW2310. This was confirmed in an unsolicited observation by my husband.

The monitor is shipped in its original packaging, so its contents are no surprise. You definitely want to be home on delivery day. Knowing the expensive, fragile contents sadly didn’t keep UPS from abusing it – there was a puncture in the box, and the (expletive deleted) driver left it on my doorstep, on a rainy day, without a plastic bag. He also didn’t wait to see if I was home, and actually went so far as to put a heavy box on top! Despite all of this, the monitor was thankfully unharmed.

The S32D850T arrives with stand installed in portrait position, but it was quite simple to rotate the monitor to landscape. The pivot rotates easily and smoothly, and the stand’s base is stable and wobble-free, so I am not worried one of my cats will knock it over. Raising and lowering the display’s height is also straightforward although it requires a bit of effort.

Samsung provides cables for any setup (displayport with mini displayport adapter, hdmi and dual-link DVI) plus a USB 3.0 cable for the USB hub, The USB 3.0 hub works perfectly (I even have my USB 3.0 network adapter plugged into it) and I appreciate having the USB ports inset on the back panel, instead of tucked awkwardly underneath where they’d be hard to access. If the back of the monitor will be facing the room this might bother you, but it makes cable access much easier.

I have been unable to detect any dead, dim or stuck/bright pixels, and I’ve surfed the web, played WoW, and watched movies. While there are programs to easily check for this, frankly, if there’s something nitpicky and minor I can’t see during normal use, it’s better not to know about it or its presence will become an obsession. There’s also no problematic backlight bleeding – lighting is extremely uniform.

I originally thought to use this in place of a dual monitor setup, but it turns out it just doesn’t work for me when I’m gaming. I like to game full screen, but I often like to either watch Amazon Prime, have iTunes up, or refer to web pages, so I kept the Alienware after all. Thankfully, I have a Versa Center 60″ desk (made in the U.S.A.; highly recommend!) and it fits my 23″, 32″ and 25″ monitor without any overhang.

I’m using the S32D850T with a GTX 670 and can play WoW at full resolution with maxed out settings. The game looks amazing and I find myself noticing tiny details that were effectively invisible with a smaller monitor. The resolution and monitor size also mean my aging eyes don’t have to strain the way they did when using my 25″ monitor with 1920 x 1200 resolution (with my desk setup, my monitor is about 30 inches away).

As a new owner, I completely understand the praise It received when asking about the monitor. I highly recommend!