When comparing LG 38UC99-W vs BenQ PD3200U, the Slant community recommends LG 38UC99-W for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” LG 38UC99-W is ranked 29th while BenQ PD3200U is ranked 46th. The most important reason people chose LG 38UC99-W is:
Impressive amount of on-screen real estate, excellent picture quality, exceptional connectivity, and great color accuracy puts the LG 38UC99-W above nearly all competitors in the market.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Excellent general purpose monitor
Impressive amount of on-screen real estate, excellent picture quality, exceptional connectivity, and great color accuracy puts the LG 38UC99-W above nearly all competitors in the market.
Pro Supports 85W charging over USB-C
You can charge your laptop and have display output through a single cable thanks to the monitor's USB-C port.
Pro Features On-Screen controls
You can access all the general features of this monitor using your mouse and a keyboard thanks to the LG’s On-Screen Control software.
Additionally, the On-Screen Control offers many screen split presets.
Pro Perfect for multi-tasking
Having enough display real-estate to fit three vertically aligned Google Docs windows comfortably, the LG 38UC99-W is an excellent tool to boost up the productivity in everyday office duties, CAD/CAM applications, and many other fields.
Pro Excellent for watching movies
Acing the near-cinematic aspect ratio of 21:9, the LG 38UC99-W is an excellent companion to watch movies because you won't see the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen when watching most movies.
Pro Has a pair of good speakers
The LG 38UC99-W features a built-in 20 Watt stereo speaker system which sounds fairly well compared to the 4-10 W speakers the competitors at this price point offer.
Pro Exceptional connectivity
This monitor beats most of its premium competitors in terms of connectivity because it features a USB-C downstream port which has multiple parallel functions. First, you can use it to access the monitor's onboard USB hub. Second, it can be used for charging a USB type C compliant laptop. Finally, you can use it to receive video and audio signal from a computer.
Additionally, the LG 38UC99-W has two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, and an inbuilt Bluetooth module.
Pro Supports dual linkup
You can connect this monitor to two computers so that each machine use half of the on-screen area. This might come in handy for those who frequently use a stationary desktop computer and a laptop.
Pro Great picture quality
Only the best monitors can match the LG 38UC99-W's contrast ratio, peak brightness, gamma, and color accuracy, as the monitor features one of the finest IPS panels in the industry.
The LG 38UC99-W displays beautiful pictures, with deep and rich blacks, vibrant and accurate colors, and good-looking intermediate tones. Despite the fact that the monitor's native contrast ratio is only 1000:1, the dark scenes look deep and intense as the backlight of the 38UC99-W can drop below the brightness level of 0.15 nits, which only the best monitors can do. Colors pop and look vivid, as the 38UC99-W can sustain its brightness above the 300 nits mark. The mid-tones look lifelike thanks to the monitor's near perfect gamma value, which is only 1.3% off from the ideal value.
Moreover, the monitor's color inaccuracies can't be seen by the human eye because it only has an average color error dE of 2.12.
Pro Excellent general purpose monitor
The BenQ PD3200U has excellent picture quality, exceptional color accuracy, great adjustability, and good connectivity, which combined with the monitor's generous amount of display real estate, makes the PD3200U one of the most versatile panels on the market.
Pro Has speakers
The BenQ PD3200U features a pair of inbuilt 10 W speakers.
Pro Excellent connectivity
Connectivity-wise, the BenQ PD3200U, is among the best monitors on the market, as its USB 3.0 hub offers four upstream USB ports that can be used for connecting or charging peripherals. The two downstream ports are used for connecting the hub to a computer.
The PD3200U's stand-out feature is the builtin KVM switch, which allows sharing a mouse, a keyboard, and the monitor itself between two computers that are connected to the monitor through the downstream USB ports.
Additionally, this monitor has an SD/MMC card reader, and it features fairly fast transfer rates since it works over the USB 3.0 interface.
Pro Suitable for media artists
The BenQ PD3200U makes an excellent tool for color-critical applications like video editing and web design as it can display the full sRGB and Rec. 709 color spaces accurately.
Pro Has a puck switch
The puck has four buttons that grant you fast access to display's settings and multiple preset modes.
Pro Excellent range of ergonomic adjustments
Setting up the perfect workspace is no hassle since the BenQ PD3200U supports tilt angle, swivel angle, and even height adjustments.
Furthermore, you can use the monitor in either landscape or a portrait mode.
Pro Large on-screen real estate
This 32-inch 4K monitor is an excellent for multitaskers because it has enough on-screen workspace to allow you to work with multiple windows stacked side by side. The monitor feels best when used in a two by one vertical alignment.
Pro Excellent picture quality
The monitor's native contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma are superior to what the majority of competitors in this price range offer. Furthermore, the BenQ PD3200U is among a handful of monitors that offer a true 10-bit panel in the sub $1000 price range.
The BenQ PD3200U reproduces eye-catching images with colors that are vivid and accurate, dark scenes that are truly deep and rich, and intermediate tones that look realistic and beautiful. Colors pop and look vibrant thanks to the monitor's peak brightness of 317 nits. Dark scenes look beautiful because the monitor's AHVA panel has a native contrast ratio of 1040:1, which allows it to reproduce blacks realistically. The mid-tones look life-like as the monitor's gamma value is only 1% off from being ideal.
Additionally, the colors look realistic as the monitor's color inaccuracies can be spotted only by specifically-designed equipment.
Cons
Con Very expensive
For the same price as this monitor, you can buy three decent 27-inch ultrawide monitors.
Con Bluetooth indicator is inconvenient
The monitor's Bluetooth indicator occupies the on-screen workspace. Unfortunately, there is no way to remove the indicator while using the Bluetooth speaker option.
Con Has an external power brick
The external power supply unit of the LG 38UC99-W might cause inconvenience especially if you want to mount this monitor on a wall since the PSU is quite bulky.
Con Wobbly
The stand isn't rigid, so you might observe some minor wobbling if your work desk is flimsy,
Con OSD is quite messy
The on-screen-display of the LG 38UC99-W does not have any programmable shortcut keys and is quite hard to navigate.
For example, to enable or disable the motion blur reduction feature, you’ll need to press more than 15 keys because the menu goes very deep.
Con Unsuitable for gaming
Gaming just doesn't feel responsive because of the monitor's massive input lag.
Con Lacks hardware calibration
Hardware color calibration is an essential feature of a professional grade monitor. Without it, you can only perform software calibration which is not as efficient because it affects the computer’s video card output instead of the monitor itself.
Con Lacks USB-C
At this price point, many users expect to have at least one USB-C port in 2018.