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Spain, Madrid
1 Level
78 Review
0 Karma

Review on πŸ–₯️ MSI Creator PS321URV 4K Curved Display with Height Adjustment, Anti Glare Screen, HDR, IPS Panel by Alan Sessoms

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Good monitor (not great) if only they would ditch local dimming

I bought this new monitor for $699 and I have to say it shouldn't cost more than $450. Why am I saying this? In order to get a clear picture, you must first look at it directly, the more you move from side to side, the blurrier it looks. Don't drag me into a blurry, four-cornered image. You literally have to move your head to the corners to get rid of the blur effect on the corners you're looking at. The clear viewing angle of this monitor should be more like a 120 degree angle. Second, when watching video from Mailbox, local dimming is like eight flashlights shining from the bottom of the screen. This local dimming strobe light effect blurs the part of the image where it is glowing. You cannot disable this feature in HDR mode. Local dimming stays on all the time, even when you're not watching video. The only way to disable local dimming is to disable HDR in Windows. Third issue: Windows HDR on this monitor blurs the desktop and most non-HDR content. Local dimming is also terribly annoying when you're not watching video. It creates the illusion that something is wrong with the monitor, although this is done on purpose. The HDR/SDR brightness balance feature in Windows HDR Settings does not fix this. Watching Netflix in 4K HDR on this monitor is a joke. Shows and movies are too dark to watch on this monitor during the day, and local dimming ruins the HDR experience at night. Again, the HDR/SDR brightness balance feature in Windows HDR settings will not fix this. Final issue: I have no idea why MSI chose DisplayPort 1.2a over DisplayPort 1.4. To enable 10 bits per channel in Windows, you need to lower the refresh rate to 59.997 Hz. The monitor does not support 60Hz when 10bpc is enabled. It's not too much of a problem, but it does show you how MSI has cheapened the design of this monitor. The only two good things I can say about this monitor is that HDR looks great with HDR YouTube content, but local dimming is still annoying and noticeable. Where this monitor shines is when HDR is turned off and when you're looking directly at the screen. This monitor is bright in SDR mode. Colors are accurate, bright and beautiful. Colors become even more beautiful when the monitor is calibrated.

Pros
  • 32 inches
Cons
  • The monitor is noisy when it is on.