Benq EX3203R, 32-inch curved monitor with USB-C connectivity

USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) connectivity is the next big thing for monitors. The Benq EX3203R is one of the new breed.

It is a 32’, 1800R (radius of the curve), 16:9, 2560x 1440, HDR, VA panel, Freesync 2, 144Hz monitor. It achieves a brightness of 400 nits and 3000:1 contrast.

At A$799 the Benq EX3203R is aimed at business, gaming and prosumers.

Connectivity is via 2 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x DisplayPort and 1 x the new USB-C (PD10W, DP Alt mode, Data). All that means is it supports DisplayPort over USB-C, data at 10Gbps and 10W power downstream.

It is VESA certified DisplayHDR 400. That means it meets the VESA standard specifying HDR quality, including luminance, colour gamut, bit depth, and rise time. There are currently three VESA standards.

VESA 400 is the highest an 8-bit colour edge-lit panel can achieve. Few monitors can meet this standard.

Martin Moelle, managing director of BenQ Australia commented.

“The BenQ EX3203R features HDR performance that has earned VESA DisplayHDR 400 and AMD FreeSync 2 certifications. These third-party accreditations assure Australians that EX3203R can flawlessly render HDR content while raising the bar for PC and console gaming monitors.”

HDR and B.I+

Benq has invented what it calls B.I+ (Brightness Intelligence Plus). It supplements HDR to bring out even more detail in dark areas. Via an inbuilt light sensor it detects ambient colour temperature and brightness. It automatically adjusts the monitor’s brightness and colour temperature for the most comfortable and accurate viewing

2560 x 1440

Because of its 32” size and the need to keep to at 16:9 ratio the pixel count accordingly increases from 1920 x 1080. The result is that pixel count (ppi) is 93 which is similar to a smaller FHD monitor. The result is about 1.5 times the image space without loss of definition.

8-bit colour achieves 90% DCI-P3 (U.S. movie standard). It is a wider colour gamut than sRGB (which are really colours that a printer can reproduce). In some respects, it is better than Adobe RGB and vice versa.