Review on Samsung U32D970Q Professional Monitor - 3840x2160p, 55Hz, UHD by David Toliver

This review is written from a different perspective than most other reviews. I bought this monitor to use as a gaming monitor. For the last five years I've only had high quality IPS monitors. I didn't want to look at models with TN panels. My last monitor was an HP zr30w 30 inch IPS panel with a resolution of 2560 x 1600. It was a very well regarded monitor when it was launched. I previously had a 24-inch Dell Ultra Sharp IPS monitor with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. With that in mind, I'll start with the positives. 1) The colors are very bright and vivid. I'm seeing colors I've never seen in games I've played on two different monitors. It was definitely a noticeable improvement. I haven't done color calibration on third party hardware but I found the colors to be accurate. 2) The higher resolution allowed me to see things in these games that I hadn't seen before on other monitors. I could easily see the elastics and stitching on clothing, stray hairs on faces, peeling paint on walls, etc. This resulted in a much more realistic and immersive atmosphere that made the game more fun and enjoyable. 3) The stand allowed a full range of easy pan, swivel, portrait and height adjustments. 4) The mounting, the matte surface of the screen, the stand, even the keys seemed high-quality and fit perfectly. Now for the cons. 1) High price. I didn't want to look at the TN panels. Currently, the only other 31.5-inch 4k IPS monitors are the first-gen models from Asus or Dell and the second-gen models from Acer or BenQ. First generation devices are MSTs that are known to cause many idiosyncratic problems, e.g. E.g. not waking up from sleep or only showing half screen etc. You can read about it on online forums. These devices cost about the same as this Samsung. The Acer and BenQ models cost around $1,000 but have known issues with color uniformity, backlight blurring, and so-so color accuracy. 2) Very small text. You'll either need to zoom heavily if you're reading a lot of text, or sit close to the screen and strain your eyes. Scaling can be problematic on Windows 7 and 8. The latest version of Apple software offers better support if you have a new Apple computer. 3) You need a latest generation computer with high quality graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire, not to mention a powerful processor and a power supply of at least 1000W. It will definitely cost a lot more than the average regular computer. Overall, for me, the pros outweigh the cons. If you are looking for this monitor for professional use, you will probably look for different criteria to make your choice. I then clicked "Make text and other items larger or smaller” in the "Screen” category. Then I set the larger size to 150% and clicked Apply. Then you have to restart Windows and that worked great. Now the text size is much more readable.