The expert’s rating
Benefits
- Attractive 32-inch, 4K Display
- Competitive price
- Good connecting features
- Adjustable height and rotation
Disadvantages
- Not intended for professional use
- Fiddly Display Pilot App
- Light, plastic house
Our judgment
It will not challenge Apple’s display at the professional level, but MA320U is an attractive and affordable 4K screen for general use at home or in an office.
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Benq’s 27-inch MA270U (reviewed separately) provides a very affordable alternative to Apple’s expensive study display, but its under $ 500 price tag involves some compromises. In this review, we look at the 32-inch MA320U is a little more expensive, for $ 599.99/£ 549.99, but as well as giving a larger screen also addressing some of the weaknesses of its 27-inch stem and producing a lighter display with balls, sharper colors. Just for the record, however, we should point out that the screen actually measures 31.5 inches when measured diagonally.
It is not surprising that the basic design of the two MA series screens is very similar with a silver and black case that is mostly made of plastic. It may not match the slim elegance or sturdy aluminum construction of Apple’s screens, but it provides features missing in its more expensive Apple rivals. Most notable, the tripod provided with MA320U allows you to adjust the height of the screen at no extra cost – while Apple charges an extra $ 400/£ 400 to give this option its studio screen. When going one step further, the MA320U can also rotate through 90 degrees into the vertical (portrait) position, which can be useful for graphics or photo editing work.
Benq is also aware of smaller details, including a cable holder that cuts on the rack and helps keep your cables a little cleaners – which is particularly handy if you use the display with both a desktop Mac and a MacBook laptop, or maybe a Windows PC. There is also a rubber cushion on the bottom of the rack where you can rest your MacBook or smaller items such as a set of AirPods (although it is a shame that the pillow does not give Qi wireless charging as well).
Having on the back of the screen you will find two HDMI ports for video input, two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports and a headphone jack located on the lower edge of the screen for easy access. There is no DisplayPort plug, but one of USB-C ports supports display port for video input when connected to a Thunderbolt port on your Mac. This USB-C port also provides up to 90W charging to a MacBook laptop, which was fine for charging my 14-inch MacBook Pro, although 16-inch models need more power, so you probably still need to use the external power supply delivered with your MacBook.
The second USB-C port on the display provides 15W power to charge smaller devices, while the two USB-A ports deliver 7.5W. And if your Mac is connected to the display via USB-C snarers than the HDMI can you also use the USB-C connection to transfer data so you can connect devices, such as an external solid drive to the display, or a keyboard and mouse. It makes it easy to connect all your peripheral devices and other devices to the display so you can just download your MacBook and take it with you as you travel while all your peripheral devices remain connected to the display and ready to use when you return.
The MA320U has a small set of built -in speakers, but they are quite weak, so you may be able to use that sound jack to connect some headphones to listen to music, video or play games. I was also happy to find out that I could use USB ports on the display to also give audio input to my reliable little BeoPlay speaker.
The MA320U certainly scores well for its connection features, but the image quality is equally important and it improves on Benq’s cheaper 27-inch model. The solution of the display is still 4K (3840 × 2160), but as well as giving a larger screen than the MA270U, ​​the MA320U also improves stronger image quality and enters 550 nits lighting (600 nits with HDR), which sits well along the display of my MacBook Pro. Contrast is sharper than the MA270U, ​​and the MA320U includes an ‘M-Book’ mode designed to match the colors of a MacBook screen. It also supports 99% of the SRGB color standard and 97% of the DCI-P3 standard for video editing, so it can definitely be used for basic graphics, photography and video work, although professionals and creative users may need a display that provides even more accurate color check.
But for general use at home or in an office, MA320U gives a light and bold screen that is a worthy companion to the built -in display on my MacBook Pro. Benq also delivers an app called Display Pilot running on Macs and Windows PCS. The Display Pilot app contains a drop-down menu that sits in Mac’s main menu, and allows you to quickly adjust settings such as the color profile or turn on or turn off HDR. Admittedly, the app is a bit fiddly to use and assumes rather a lot of technical knowledge, especially when it comes to choosing color profiles and HDR settings, but it will still come along well for people who need to do some photo or video editing from time to time.
Should you buy Benq MA320U
The MA320U is very intended for a general display for use at home or in an office, and it may not meet the needs of creative and professional users. But for less than half of the price of Apple’s Studio screen, it provides an attractive and versatile 4K screen and will especially appeal to MacBook owners who need an affordable external screen for their laptop.
See how Benq MA320U is compared to other speakers we’ve tested in our rounds of the best Mac screens and screens we’ve tested.