At a glance
Expert's Rating
Pros
- Attractive 32-inch, 4K display
- Competitive price
- Good connectivity features
- Adjustable height and rotation
Cons
- Not intended for professional use
- Fiddly Display Pilot app
- Light, plastic casing
Our Verdict
It’s not going to challenge Apple’s professional-level displays, but the MA320U is an attractive and affordable 4K display for general use at home or in an office.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Prices Today: BenQ MA320U
BenQ’s 27-inch MA270U (reviewed separately) provides a very affordable alternative to Apple’s expensive Studio Display, but its sub-$500 price tag does involve some compromises. In this review we are looking at the 32-inch MA320U is slightly more expensive, at $599.99/£549.99, but as well as providing a larger screen it also addresses some of the weaknesses of its 27-inch stablemate and produces a brighter display with bolder, crisper colors. Just for the record, though, we should point out that the screen actually measures 31.5 inches when measured diagonally.
Unsurprisingly, the basic design of the two MA-Series monitors is very similar, with a silver and black case that is mostly made out of plastic. It can’t match the slimline elegance or the sturdy aluminium construction of Apple’s displays, but it does provide features that are missing from its more expensive Apple rivals. Most notably, the stand provided with the MA320U allows you to adjust the height of the screen at no extra cost – whereas Apple charges an extra $400/£400 to provide that option with its Studio Display. Going one step further, the MA320U can also rotate through 90-degrees into the upright (portrait) position, which can be useful for graphics or photo-editing work.
BenQ pays good attention to smaller details too, including a cable holder that clips onto the stand and helps to keep your cables a little tidier – which is particularly handy if you’re using the display with both a desktop Mac and a MacBook laptop, or perhaps a Windows PC. There’s also a rubber pad on the base of the stand where you can rest your MacBook, or smaller items such as a set of AirPods (although it’s a shame that the pad doesn’t provide Qi wireless charging as well).
Tucked around the back of the screen you’ll find two HDMI ports for video input, two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and a headphone socket that is located on the bottom edge of the screen for easy access. There are no DisplayPort connectors, but one of the USB-C ports supports DisplayPort for video input when connected to a Thunderbolt port on your Mac. That USB-C port also provides up to 90W charging for a MacBook laptop, which was fine for charging my 14-inch MacBook Pro, although 16-inch models need more power so you’ll probably still need to use the external power supply provided with your MacBook.
The second USB-C port on the display provides 15W power for charging smaller devices, while the two USB-A ports provide 7.5W. And, if your Mac is connected to the display via USB-C – rather than HDMI – then you can also use the USB-C connection to transfer data as well, allowing you to connect devices such as an external solid-state drive to the display, or a keyboard and mouse. That makes it easy to connect all your peripherals and other devices to the display, so that you can just pick up your MacBook and take it with you when you leave, while all your peripherals remain plugged into the display and ready to use when you return.
The MA320U does have a small set of built-in speakers, but they’re fairly weak so you may want to use that audio connector to plug in some headphones for listening to music, video or playing games. I was also pleased to find that I could use the USB ports on the display to provide audio input for my trusty little BeoPlay speaker as well.
The MA320U certainly scores well for its connectivity features, but image quality is just as important, and it does improve on BenQ’s less expensive 27-inch model. The display’s resolution is still 4K (3840×2160), but as well as providing a larger screen than the MA270U, the MA320U also improves stronger image quality too, stepping up to 550 nits brightness (600 nits with HDR) that sits well alongside the display of my MacBook Pro. Contrast is sharper than the MA270U as well, and the MA320U includes an ‘M-Book’ mode that is designed to match the colours of a MacBook display. It also supports 99% of the sRGB colour standard, and 97% of the DCI-P3 standard for video-editing, so it can certainly be used for basic graphics, photography and video work, although professional and creative users might need a display that provides even more precise colour controls.
But, for general use at home or in an office, the MA320U provides a bright and bold display that is a worthy companion for the built-in display on my MacBook Pro. BenQ also provides an app called Display Pilot that runs on Macs and Windows PCs. The Display Pilot app provides a pull-down menu that sits in the Mac’s main menu bar, and allows you to quickly adjust settings such as the colour profile, or turning HDR on or off. Admittedly, the app is a little fiddly to use, and does assume rather a lot of technical knowledge, especially when it comes to choosing colour profiles and HDR settings, but it will still come in handy for people who need to do some photo or video-editing from time to time.
Should you buy the BenQ MA320U
The MA320U is very much intended as a general-purpose display for use at home or in an office, and it may not meet the needs of creative and professional users. But, at less than half the price of Apple’s Studio Display, it does provide an attractive and versatile 4K display, and will particularly appeal to MacBook owners who need an affordable external display for their laptop.
See how the BenQ MA320U compares to other speakers we have tested in our round up of the Best Mac monitors and displays we have tested.
Best Prices Today: BenQ MA320U
Author: Cliff Joseph, Contributor, Macworld
Cliff Joseph is a former editor of MacUser magazine and a freelance editor with 30(ish) years experience of Mac and PC technology. He first used a Mac working as a magazine sub-editor and found it so much better than using scissors and a pot of glue to make the words fit on the page that he become a convert to the Mac overnight. He has spent the rest of his career following the ups and downs of Apple (and is old enough to remember the time Apple came close to going bust). Cliff writes many of MacWorld’s games reviews - and is currently exploring options for getting Diablo IV to run on a Mac…