Samsung LS32D850T 32-Inch WQHD PLS LED Monitor (2560 x 1440, 300 cd/m2, 16:9)

Product Information

The business focus of this screen means that its design is entirely function over form. It’s got one of the most versatile stands we’ve seen, with 130mm of tool-free height adjustment, plenty of horizontal swivelling and the ability to swing round into portrait mode. It’s a similar amount of versatility to the ViewSonic VP2772, which only just outreaches the Samsung with 150mm of height adjustment. The 32in Samsung S32D850Tuses VA panel technology, a great all-round panel type which produces excellent contrast levels, accurate colours and allows for very wide viewing angles, which is why it’s often found in larger monitors. It’s a 2,560×1,440 pixel screen, so it provides substantially more desktop space than a typical 1,920×1,080 Full HD monitor.

S32D850T 32-Inch WQHD PLS LED Monitor (2560 x 1440 Samsung S32D850T 32-Inch WQHD PLS LED Monitor (2560 x 1440

The “Cool” colour options served up improved Delta E levels but colour temperatures that hit 8084K and 9427K respectively, with brightness that dropped by around a quarter. This screen’s pair of Warm options were no better: colour temperatures were a long way below the 6500K ideal. While it’s true that those results are on the cool and warm side of the colour temperature scale, everything else is so hampered that we can’t imagine using them.It doesn’t stop impressing there, either. Its image quality outstrips the ViewSonic in most departments, and its 2560 x 1440 resolution is stretched over a larger diagonal – so you’re getting more money for your money. It doesn’t get much easier to set up a monitor – just place the Samsung face-down on a desk, swing the stand into position, and you’re good to go. A screwdriver only comes out if you need to remove the stand to attach a VESA mount. This Samsung sets its stall out as a large, affordable screen for the office, and it hits the mark in several key areas. It’s sturdy and versatile, and image quality is good – it’s got impressive results in the right areas, only lagging behind in departments where excellence is least required. It’s a better option than the rival ViewSonic when it comes to large, impressive work panels. Samsung makes a big play about the environmental credentials of this screen. When running at factory settings the screen consumed 56W, but it’s possible to load up a couple of eco-friendly modes to reduce that figure. These options had little effect on image quality other than reducing the brightness, and they dropped the power consumption dramatically: the first ran the screen at 170 nits with a consumption figure of 45W, while the second hit 123 nits and 41W.

32” Professional Business Monitor S32D850T with WQHD 32” Professional Business Monitor S32D850T with WQHD

The Samsung is a plain-looking screen: the bottom bezel is coated with a subtle brushed metal pattern, but the rest of its forward-facing surfaces are coated with an unassuming mottled finish. There are no sops to style on the stand, either, but it’s impressively sturdy – it anchors the 32in panel to the desk with barely any wobbling. In the Faster mode, which is the factory default, the Samsung sat at a middling 34.3ms. In Standard mode that result dropped to 41.8ms, and it improved to 31.3ms with Fastest mode chosen. None of those results will set the world alight but, equally, they’re not poor enough to be noticeable during the working day – or during most games, for that matter. There’s a gaming mode, although it seems somewhat redundant on an office screen. This mode simply ramped the average Delta E up to 9.83 and, to our eyes, made every colour look oversaturated. We wouldn’t use it, even for gaming. It’s simple to switch the Samsung into a different position because of the smoothness and ease of its mechanisms, and it’s a little easier to use than the Viewsonic VP2772 – that particular monitor required a pin to fasten its height-adjustment system. We’ve seen plenty of large monitors offering picture-in-picture (PIP) and picture-by-picture (PBP) modes, but none of them have worked particularly well. These modes are handy because it means you can have the output of two devices onscreen at the same time, with PIP providing an inset image, and PBP placing the inputs side by side. Typically, we end up with two squashed images because the monitor we’ve tested hasn’t told the PC what’s happening so that it can adjust the resolution accordingly. Samsung’s does, which means as soon as you enable PBP, both your connected devices will change their output resolution to create images at the correct aspect ratio and resolution. This means the Samsung S32D850Tis a screen you can share between two computers simultaneously.

In typical Samsung fashion, the physical design of this monitor has been given as much attention as its technical specifications. The monitor’s bezels are angled inwards, which creates a distinctive and pointy design that makes them appear thinner than they really are. The base of the monitor is very large but, importantly, flat. The base also doesn’t move when you swivel the monitor, which means that both it and the surrounding desk space won’t need to be shuffled around if you change the S32D850T’s position.