BenQ MA320U review: A giant, Mac-friendly monitor for sensible money
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The BenQ MA320U is a 31.5in 4K monitor that delivers good image quality and fantastic ease of use
Pros
- Crisp, colour-accurate 4K panel
- Decent connectivity and 90W USB-C power delivery
- Desktop widget is genuinely useful
Cons
- Only eight dimming zones for HDR
- No Thunderbolt 4
- Backlighting could be better
If you’ve found yourself backing away from an Apple Studio Display for the sake of your bank balance, or more practically because you need a monitor that isn’t ideally betrothed to a Mac, then the BenQ MA320U may just reignite your passions.
This 31.5in 4K panel supports USB-C and HDMI connectivity, comes with 90W of USB power delivery and has DisplayHDR 600 certification. What’s more, it swaps a fiddly on-screen-display for a desktop widget that synchronises your colour profile and brightness settings between your laptop and monitor. For a rather sensible-sounding £550, it looks like something of a steal.
BenQ MA320U monitor review: What do you get for your money?
A scan down the specification sheet reveals little in the way of surprises. The 31.5in 3,840 x 2,160 IPS panel has a 60Hz refresh rate, a matte anti glare coating and BenQ claims a contrast ratio of 1,300:1 in addition to 99% sRGB and 97% Display P3 coverage. The DisplayHDR 600 certification is backed up by basic HDR10 support and a modest eight vertical edge-lit dimming zones.
Granted, the MA320U’s design doesn’t scale the striking heights of Apple’s own displays, but this is a nice looking monitor nonetheless. The sizable panel sits atop a smart looking silver adjustable stand, and this provides 115mm of height adjustment alongside ample amounts of tilt, swivel and 90 degrees of portrait rotation in either direction. The large, square silver base does a good job of keeping the monitor stable even at full extension, and it’s easy to adjust the monitor single handedly without any wobble.
If there’s a criticism here, it’s the very basic cable management: you simply get a little plastic collar that clips around the monitor’s stand. You’ll need to make sure that there’s enough slack in the cables before spinning the monitor around into portrait mode. In fact, you’ll also need to be careful that you’ve extended the monitor to full height before doing so – the stand exhibited a hefty scuff from where a previous reviewer had spun the monitor around a little too rashly. One thing you won’t necessarily need to do is manually rotate your desktop, however, as enabling the auto pivot feature in the app does it for you.
Connectivity isn’t as generous as some monitors we’ve encountered recently – the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE or U2724DE, for instance – but it strikes a nice balance. There’s no Thunderbolt, which is a shame, but the primary USB-C port carries both 4K 60Hz images and provides up to 90W of power delivery for compatible laptops, and you also get a further two HDMI inputs. The primary USB-C port powers up a pair of USB-A ports and a single USB-C port (which provides a more modest 15W of power). Usefully, the second USB-A port and headphone output are hidden under the monitor’s front edge for easier access.
Unlike most monitors we’ve seen in recent years, the BenQ MA320U’s ports are mostly rear- rather than downward-facing, so slotting in cables is tad less fiddly. This isn’t life-changingly helpful, but some users may find it handy if they’re regularly unplugging USB-C or HDMI cables and slinging them in a laptop bag.
The only issue with the MA320U’s connectivity is that the USB-C connection doesn’t have enough bandwidth to simultaneously handle both 4K 60Hz images and full-fat USB 3.2 Gen 1 data speeds. Users using the USB-C connection need to choose between 4K 60Hz refresh rates and reduced USB hub transfer speeds, or drop down to a 30Hz refresh rate for maximal USB 3.2 Gen 1 transfers. This isn’t unusual – other 4K monitors with USB-C connectivity, such as the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE are similarly limited – but it’s worth bearing in mind. If you want both 60Hz refresh rates and speedy USB transfer speeds, and you can use the HDMI input instead, then two cables may be a more attractive compromise.
The really interesting thing here, however, is the presence of BenQ’s DisplayPilot 2 software. This allows both Mac and Windows users to control the monitor’s various settings without ever once setting foot in the monitor’s on-screen display. In fact, BenQ is so confident in the utility of its app that the monitor’s on-screen display has been pared down to the bare essentials. The little four-way joystick under the monitor’s front edge allows for quick adjustments to brightness and volume, but that’s your lot – all the fine control is done via the app. Helpfully, the on screen display even provides a QR code sending you to the download page for the Display Pilot 2 app.
Install this and you’re presented with a neat control panel that minimises to an icon in your system tray or menu bar when it’s not in use. Tap the icon, and the widget pings into view and gives you quick access to a variety of useful settings.
You can quickly enable features such as HDR and auto pivot without diving through reams of system settings menus, and you can synchronise the display’s current colour profile – for instance, sRGB or Display P3 – and the screen brightness between a monitor and laptop. Select the required colour profile from the drop down menu and – if you select the ICCsync option – the relevant ICC colour profile is activated on both displays. Similarly, if you tick the Synchronise Brightness checkbox, you can simultaneously adjust the brightness of both your laptop and monitor with the shortcut keys on your laptop or via Windows’ on screen controls.
One nice touch is that the app works via DDC, so it behaves nicely regardless of whether you’re using the USB-C or HDMI video connections.
Speaking of volume, BenQ has integrated a couple of 3W speakers in the MA320U, but they’re typically unremarkable. They go fairly loud, with a peak of 68dB(A) from a metre away measured with a pink noise source, but they’re not a pleasant listen. There’s no bass and very little lower midrange and the result is that both voices and music sound lightweight and raspy. If you have a MacBook connected, you’ll be far better off sticking with its integrated speakers.
BenQ MA320U monitor review: How good is the image quality?
In short, the MA320U puts in a very respectable performance. The 4K resolution provides pleasingly sharp text and oodles of fine detail in images, games and movies alike. With no adjustment at all, images teem with vibrant, accurate-looking colours and natural-looking skin tones, and both SDR and HDR movies and games ooze with detail and nicely saturated colours. If you’ve been used to a smaller monitor, or one with a limited colour gamut, the MA320U will come as quite an upgrade.
That subjective performance translates into a very decent set of numbers in our various SDR (standard dynamic range) tests. Contrast is typical of IPS panels, but the 1,220:1 figure isn’t far off BenQ’s claimed 1,300:1. Things look up elsewhere, too, with the panel’s sRGB mode providing 99.9% coverage with an average Delta E of 0.68 and a maximum deviation of 1.59. The 6,000K white point misses the 6,500K mark by quite a bit, but it’s not an issue for casual use.
Select the Display P3 colour profile in the Display Pilot 2 app and you’ll be rewarded with similar refined results. It didn’t quite reach the claimed 97% coverage in our tests, but 94% is still pretty respectable. The colour accuracy is good, too, with an average Delta E of 1.14. The maximum Delta E is understandably a bit higher – after all the panel can’t actually reproduce 6% of the desired range of colours – but a maximum Delta E of 3.25 isn’t egregiously bad by any stretch. Thankfully, the measured white point is a bit closer to the ideal, with a result of 6,317K.
Hit the HDR toggle in the app and the MA320U lives up to its DisplayHDR600 certification – we measured a peak brightness of 610cd/m². This is bright enough to add a welcome bit of punch to HDR highlights, but you’ll have to temper your expectations – the panel only has very basic edge lit dimming. I counted only eight vertical dimming zones. As a result, you’ll see thick vertical strips of the screen jump up in brightness as highlights move across the screen. This is fairly noticeable once you know what to look for, and especially so if you’re watching a letterboxed movie, as you’ll see the black bars going slightly grey as the backlight brightens.
It’s not unusual for a monitor even at this price, but the MA320U’s backlighting isn’t particularly even. We measure both brightness and contrast across 25 points on every display we test, and the MA320U showed some fairly hefty variances along its bottom left and right sides. Compared to the centre of the display, brightness dropped by as much as 12% in these areas, and the bottom left corner also exhibited a fairly large 7% drop in contrast. You may not notice these variances in everyday use – unless, that is, you have a habit of using a solid colour for your desktop backgrounds, in which case you may see faintly uneven patches where the backlighting dips most egregiously.
Given the 60Hz refresh rate and 5ms GTG response time, most gamers will have already left the chat, but it’s worth emphasising: this isn’t a gaming monitor. Delve into the AMA settings and you can pick from three overdrive settings: Off, High or Premium. The monitor is set to the middle High setting by default. Notching it up to Premium does very subtly improve motion clarity, with leading edges looking just a tad crisper, but we’d advise against turning it off as the increased smearing is intrusive. We’d advise most users to just leave the AMA settings well alone, however. For everyday office use, in addition to gaming and watching the odd movie, the MA320U is fine left at its default settings.
BenQ MA320U monitor review: Should you buy one?
The MA320U has much to recommend it. It’s colour-accurate, well-connected and the adjustable stand makes it ideal for both work and casual media consumption. It’s the versatility and sensible design that really takes the MA320U up a notch, however. The Display Pilot 2 app is far less fiddly than a traditional on screen display, and the multiple video inputs and extra connectivity create an attractive package for users who want to hook up a port-starved MacBook or laptop in addition to a desktop PC or games console.
If anything bears pause for thought, however, it’s that IPS monitors with this kind of basic, edge-lit backlighting are beginning to look a tad, well, ordinary. And especially so when it comes to HDR. For instance, the Mini-LED backlit Philips Evnia 32M2N6800 offers searing HDR highlights and wide contrast levels alongside a smoother 144Hz refresh rate for its £740 RRP, and it’s currently on sale for £599 on Amazon. Make no mistake, the BenQ is a brilliant all-rounder, but if HDR performance or gaming trumps everything, this may not be the monitor for you.
BenQ MA320U – Specifications | |
Display | 31.5in IPS panel |
Panel resolution | 3,840 x 2,160 |
Refresh rate | 60Hz |
Panel response time | 5ms GtG |
Adaptive Sync Support | Yes |
HDR Support | Yes, HDR10, DisplayHDR 600 |
Ports | HDMI 2.0 x 2, USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 x 1 (upstream, up to 90W, Displayport Alt), USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 x 2 (downstream, up to 15W), USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 x 2 (downstream), Headphone out |
Other features | Speakers (3W x 2) |
Stand | Ergonomics: -5~20-degree tilt, 15~15-degree swivel, 90-degree pivot, 115mm height adjustment, |
Dimensions (with stand) | 715 x 220 x 609mm |
Weight (with stand) | 9.1kg |