Review on SAMSUNG LS32A804NMNXGO 31.5" 4K Monitor with Adjustable Stand and Anti-Glare Coating by Bob Fisher

UPDATE: 10/30/2022, I think the monitor looks good as long as you sit in the middle. Forget 180 degree viewing with this one. If you deviate from the center by 20 degrees, you start to lose contrast and color. The menu is lame. I spent some time with Samsung Business today and that's where you need to seek support. There are no software or firmware updates. Why was I there? The unit does not automatically switch inputs from DP or HDMI. As long as you use HDMI all the time the picture will always turn on, but when I turn on a computer with Displayport I get nothing. Then you need to enter the menu and turn it on. Do we manually switch inputs in 2022? I mentioned earlier that the monitor feels heavy and solid, but as soon as you move it across the screen, it shakes like a drunk on New Year's Eve. To make matters worse, the S/N and model number are listed after the HDMI and DP connectors on the back of the unit. Bad design nightmare. In addition, as with many older models, the cables are attached to the underside of the parcel shelf. I urge you to try to connect the cable immediately without scolding him. The menu is another terribly designed feature. You can't see any part of it and have to go through it in Braille. Ultimately, and I said this to the Samsung rep, I would not have bought this monitor if I had known the above negative traits. A device that doesn't automatically detect the input signal is a deal breaker for me. My old Dell monitors do all of this well. My 6 year old 65 inch Samsung 8 Series 4k TV does all of this admirably and yet they've made this mess for a 4k computer monitor. Ignore everything below from my original review. what was i thinking I was so excited to upgrade to a 4k monitor but my mind was blank. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I ordered this model mainly because of the stand, adjustability, 4k and the Samsung name. The stand looks flimsy in photos but is far from it and quite heavy. Initially I was looking for lower resolution 165Hz gaming monitors and 60Hz 4K monitors. My Alienware laptop displays 144Hz or 4K. The monitor on the laptop is one of the best I've seen, running at 144Hz with a resolution of 2560 x 1440. The colours, resolution, speed and quality are just ridiculous so I was pretty sure it was a big monitor could be fair. I pulled the trigger on a Samsung 4k at 60Hz. Got the box and put the stand on it in seconds. A small permanent Philips screw attaches the rod to the base, BAM, and then inserts directly into the monitor. Even Brandon could do it. This monitor comes with the most cables I've ever seen for a product: DisplayPort, HDMI, power cord, and USB 3.? hub cable. I connected the monitor to my laptop and turned it on. I think the monitor turned on automatically. I have two Dell monitors 1920 x 1080 60Hz and it looked worse. My first thought is, well, this is Revain and can bring it back. I play games and edit photos so I chose 4k 60Hz for a more realistic resolution. On my other devices, games run fine at 60 Hz. Played Tomb Raider and Rise of TR and looked at some pictures. Haven't checked the settings yet. Okay, now it's time to find some menus. This turned out to be the best menu on all the monitors I've owned, and many of them. You get a standard button surrounded by four other oblong buttons for familiar directions and other activations. By the way, paper instructions are terrible. So now I tweaked the contrast and brightness a bit which turned out to be the only thing I could do. Things are looking a little better now. I looked a bit more and found that there must be some other settings as it still doesn't look better than 1920x1080. I'm using win11 on this laptop and it's not always easy to find the resolution WHY. Remember to take the easy route when in doubt, go to RUN and type DXDIAG and the information for the windows system, audio and video will appear. The default monitor is set to 1920x1080 and for some reason I couldn't find it in PERSONALIZE. I stumbled upon the change resolution window and now I'm at 4k. Ok it still doesn't overwhelm me at 4k but better. I decided it was time to google this mediocre 4k monitor. By the way, I used my 4K Samsung 65 inch TV as a monitor, but it was moved to the living room and I needed a real computer monitor. Editing photos in 4K on a 65-inch TV is great and shows all the flaws and cons well. So a google search tells me there is an ECO setting in the monitor menu that is generally not good. A little fiddling with the menu buttons gives plenty of settings and adjustments, in addition to brightness and contrast, yup. Of course, last thing on the list is turning off the ECO setting, which Google says. I did WOW. Now we're getting 4k somewhere and no ECO setting dove into other tweaks and did a few more tweaks, went back to Tomb Raider, Rise of TR and looked at some 6k photos from Canon. We are definitely looking for 4k now but still haven't lived up to my expectations see where we are we are. The restart was a win and put the monitor in the sweet spot. I remembered seeing the game mode in the Samsung menu and decided it was time to take LARA in 4k more seriously. The game mode also has an "always-on" mode. LARA just went into hypermode, woe, Nellie. I now pack 4k in 32 inches instead of 65 inches. Snow scenes, rain scenes, sunshine, scenes with partial sun and clouds now caught my eye. My laptop is an IPS monitor and Samsung is a VA type. also a TN type monitor and I dare you to determine which one is better and I've read tons of stuff. Skip it and just buy it. The black color on this monitor and laptop was roughly comparable, meaning BLACK. Smaller IPS monitor. a little darker, but 4k has never looked better on a 32-inch screen. I also have to say that this laptop has a decent Nvidia 3060 6GB graphics card that can definitely compress some serious pixels. I've been playing Crash Bandicoot since my daughter bought a PS1 and there is no blurring, smearing, lag or anything else that's considered a negative unless I'm using higher game refresh rates of 165Hz or 144Hz at lower resolutions . Tomb Raider 1 and 2 look and play incredibly well on this 4k Samsung. I've tried many times to get good contrast and blacks on HD 1920x1080 monitors and something was either too dark or very washed out. I haven't adjusted it since yesterday and my game mode looks very dark. Dark scenes are eerily dark and lights or sunbeams look bright and perfect. I'm getting older now and viewing dark scenes at 1920x1080 can give you a headache, but dark scenes are so sharp here that I don't check the brightness slider and dark scenes are still clearly visible. The monitor screen is flipped. side to side, vertical, up and down. O baby! Connections include Displayport and HDMI. I haven't connected the DP cable yet to compare them. My laptop has a USB-C port so I need to buy another cable or adapter to connect DP to USB-C and see the difference if available. The monitor comes with a DisplayPort cable while the laptop doesn't, but USB-C is the same difference. HDMI 2.1 is now said to be the same as DP cable. We will see. My photos on the Canon 6dii look noticeably better as the resolution of the photo is 6k. Many people say they don't need 4k because they don't have 4k movie players. Bzzz! Wrong answer. Good cameras today and even Netflix and streaming services now offer 4k for better viewing and easy on your eyes and mind. A bit annoying when browsing the web in 4k, the font is much smaller and you keep resizing the page to make it easier to read by zooming in. I paid an extra $200 for this monitor at Revain, eh, EXTRA? This monitor is the same screen as the one that sells for $200 less. I needed the flexibility to move the monitor around at will, extra cables, and a USB 3 hub system for more USB outputs. Laptops don't offer many alternatives to USB. Therefore, this screen can be had for about $200 less. $500 never looked better. A few years ago I heard a truism: buy the best you can. We all watch TV for hours, sit in front of computer screens for hours, sleep in beds for hours, wear shoes for hours, drive for hours, spend good money on the best, and make the hours of our lives more enjoyable and comfortable. It is not profitable to shop cheap and be miserable, but to constantly give your things to a thrift store or to poor relatives and make them miserable.