Iiyama ProLite X3272UHS-B1 review: A simple monitor that nails the basics

I recently reviewed the super-stylish and super-flexible 32in ViewSonic VP3268-4K, falling in love with its amazing colour accuracy.

This ProLite represents a humble return to planet Earth, with modest aspirations matched by a modest set of features – but that’s amply reflected in its price. After all, you can buy three of these Iiyama screens for the price of one ViewSonic.

Iiyama ProLite X3272UHS-B1 review: Build quality and design

The ProLite X3272UHS lacks flexibility. Its metal feet offer no height adjustment, so if you want the screen lifted more than 115mm you’ll have to invest in a desk stand. Even then, you might struggle to find one that works: the Iiyama’s feet sit so far apart that it would need to be at least 40cm wide. This does mean that it sits firmly on the desk, though, with none of the irritating rocking that can afflict more stylish and narrow designs.

With no portrait mode, the only built-in manoeuvrability comes via the 12° backwards and 4° forward tilt. That may not sound like much, but in practice I found it was plenty. And you can choose to abandon the stand altogether thanks to the 100 x 100mm VESA fixings, so this screen can be wall- or arm-mounted.

The practical side effect of the inflexible stand is that, if you want to show the contents of your screen to a neighbour, you have to manually rotate it. Not a difficult task when the whole unit weighs 6.8kg, but a pain. Office dwellers will appreciate the matte screen coating, though, which does a great job of minimising reflections from overhead lights.

The Iiyama isn’t a great candidate for a side-by-side display setup, however, with chunky bezels by modern standards. The key stat is a 12mm bezel on the left and right, which means you’d have an inch-wide border if you placed two side by side. Its 15mm top bezel, and 21mm at the bottom, only have a cosmetic impact. Even so, few people would consider this monitor ugly: its black and silver combo is timeless.

The OSD is easy to navigate: press the rotary button down to activate, then rotate it in the relevant direction. You can manually tweak the colour temperature and the balance between red, greens and blues, but the most useful option is to flick between the presets.

And there is good news once you look round the back. Two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort offer plenty of input choice, and there’s a picture-in-picture mode, if such things appeal.

Of more day-to-day use is the pair of 2W speakers, which are basic but capable of belting out Radio 4 whilst you’re typing away. There’s even a place to store your headphones, with a 3.5mm jack tucked next to the video inputs.

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Iiyama ProLite X3272UHS-B1 review: Performance

Viewed in that light, and in comparison to other 32in 4K screens on the market, it offers amazing value. Because this is still a high-quality display. It covers 99.7% of the sRGB gamut whether in Standard mode or its “internet” preset, and while an average Delta E of 3.5 is hardly anything to shout about – if colour accuracy is important to you, you would hope for less than one – that’s still good enough that most people will never notice.

It helps that its viewing angles are excellent. With a VA panel and LED backlighting, Iiyama claims 178 degrees on both the horizontal and vertical – to the naked eye, there’s very little dropoff to be seen. This isn’t the most uniformly lit panel, however.

In the top-left area, its brightness dropped away by almost 10% compared to the centre, with similar results at the bottom left. Will you notice? Probably not, but if you’re wondering why this screen costs £300 and the ViewSonic £900, that’s one giveaway.

As for gaming, with its 3ms response time, I found it performed perfectly well in casual games – it’s the 60Hz vertical refresh rate that holds it back.

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Iiyama ProLite X3272UHS-B1 review: Verdict

Will this screen set your world alight? No. Will it make you the envy of your friends and colleagues? Again, no. But it will do a solid job and, at £300 a pop, it makes a particularly excellent choice if you’re upgrading a batch of screens in an office environment.