Acer B326HUL 32" Widescreen LED Professional/Gaming Slim Bezel Flicker Free Monitor -
- Thread starter Kronos
- Start date
Oh, would just like to add one further thought to this that I forgot to put in my "review" post above, and it's relative to all screens of this kind of size, not just this particular one.
It didn't even occur to me to consider this before I had it sat on my desk in front of me but I learnt a lesson that you can have too much vertical space. We (nearly all) talk about what a shame it is that things are now 1080 high and how nice it was when we had 1200 high etc., but actually with a 32" screen I found that in some games stuff was pushed too far outside my field of view.
Take World of Warcraft for instance (yeah, I know, bear with me!). When you're in combat during some scenarios you get messages come up towards the top of the screen. When you're playing on a typical 24" 1080p screen that's all nicely visible without taking your eye off the combat. But with the 32" screen I found I had to physically look up to see what it was and that was massively distracting.
Now WoW is a bad example as most things can be moved with add ons, though I'm not sure about the test I'm thinking off. But my point is that width wise, the extra space is great, you can push things off to the sides that you don't really need all the time but height wise it was a bit of a PITA !
It didn't even occur to me to consider this before I had it sat on my desk in front of me but I learnt a lesson that you can have too much vertical space. We (nearly all) talk about what a shame it is that things are now 1080 high and how nice it was when we had 1200 high etc., but actually with a 32" screen I found that in some games stuff was pushed too far outside my field of view.
Take World of Warcraft for instance (yeah, I know, bear with me!). When you're in combat during some scenarios you get messages come up towards the top of the screen. When you're playing on a typical 24" 1080p screen that's all nicely visible without taking your eye off the combat. But with the 32" screen I found I had to physically look up to see what it was and that was massively distracting.
Now WoW is a bad example as most things can be moved with add ons, though I'm not sure about the test I'm thinking off. But my point is that width wise, the extra space is great, you can push things off to the sides that you don't really need all the time but height wise it was a bit of a PITA !
Thanks for the extensive hands on review there guddler. I feel a little vindicated for going with the Benq... although I dont feel confident since they are generally the same panel (AOC).
Are you going to be sending this back then?
Are you going to be sending this back then?
Me? Yes. RMA'd and waiting in the hallway for collection tomorrow. I did try to do that on Saturday but I missed the tech support line cutoff time as it appeared to close early. I think if you are comfortable with the overall package (size etc.) then I would be pretty confident with the Benq. For me, it's not the panel, it's Acer's implementation.
I have gone for something entirely different. The LG 29" 21:9 and I have actually cross ordered it at my expense as the old Digimate screen is already in the recycle centre so I'm without a monitor on my gaming PC. Not the end of the world of course, but I'm gaming a lot at the moment.
No. Again, provided you're happy with the vast size then you will be fine. It may be 16:9 rather than 16:10 but it has a much greater vertical resolution than 1080 (@1440) so you will be fine. And because of the 32" screen size the dot pitch will be a nice size so things won't be tiny cramming all those pixels into a small space.
You'll find the odd older game has black bars down the side potentially on loading screens (WoW does) because their loading screens were written back in the days where 16:10 was common place but once you get into the game proper every game out there is now going to be designed for 1080 as that's the most prevalent resolution out there right now.
You'll find the odd older game has black bars down the side potentially on loading screens (WoW does) because their loading screens were written back in the days where 16:10 was common place but once you get into the game proper every game out there is now going to be designed for 1080 as that's the most prevalent resolution out there right now.
Figured I'd take a punt on two fairly polar reviews 
Have one arriving tomorrow. Think I'm on set most of the day though so doubt I'll be able to test it out much, but I can get a good idea for motion and colour accuracy (and the sheer size of it of course). Hopefully the overdrive thing isn't an issue, fingers crossed.
Have one arriving tomorrow. Think I'm on set most of the day though so doubt I'll be able to test it out much, but I can get a good idea for motion and colour accuracy (and the sheer size of it of course). Hopefully the overdrive thing isn't an issue, fingers crossed.
Thats what I have done Cooper.
I also saw the BENQ review by that crazy dood on youtube. Tbh... from what I saw, the panel looks lush (but obviously its very difficult to pick up on those anal aspects that we are all discussing here from a youtube clip).
I also saw the BENQ review by that crazy dood on youtube. Tbh... from what I saw, the panel looks lush (but obviously its very difficult to pick up on those anal aspects that we are all discussing here from a youtube clip).
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
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- 30,833
They are an epic screen imo, fantastic for general work and media esp 
They are an epic screen imo, fantastic for general work and media esp
Pff you will never get me to part with my cash!
Says the man who bought more or less the same panel for 100 quid more.
Out of interest were you a lurker? Good to have people like yourself come on board
Thank you! No, not really been lurking. According to my account history I ordered from OC back in February 2008 when I bought my 24" Digimate. Could have sworn I bought it elsewhere but obviously not! I've visited the forums quite a lot since when I'm researching stuff but for the most part I haven't needed to post, only read and you don't need a login for that.
Been reading loads for the last week or two while looking for replacement monitors! I guess once it's business as usual and the replacement has been bought I'll be off again
Until next time. Which in this house isn't usually that long...I need to update my gaming rig soon, when money permits.
I don't think so. If I needed a general monitor then I would probably take one but as I am looking to upgrade my gaming monitor I don't think this is suitable. Great price though.
Arrived earlier, just got round to plugging it in. First off this thing is comically large - It's like the first time you got to use a 30" monitor coming from a 19" TFT, and that's with it set up next to a 27" already.
Haven't had a chance to calibrate it or properly put it through it's paces yet but I would say that any worries about overdrive should be secondary concerns. Yes it would be nice to have none but it's not too aggressive. I imagine over time you would just get used to it.
Surprisingly it feels like quite a premium bit of kit. The stand base isn't so nice but the monitor itself feels pretty solid - Probably help that it weighs quite a bit. Adjustments are good enough - Up and down and back and forth, all smooth.
Most importantly though, compared to the AOC 27" especially, it's much better in the shadows. Even though there is a bit of glow/contrast shift as expected with this panel, it's nowhere near as bad and certainly preferable to what I was seeing on that. Can't handle shadows like my Eizo but for a third of the price I can't expect it too. I'm hoping this will also improve further with calibration as I've currently rather crudely just dropped the brightness way down and twiddled a few other settings.
Looking forward to booting up some Arma when I get it home and seeing how it handles in games, but so far it's looking like a huge amount of screen for the money.
Haven't had a chance to calibrate it or properly put it through it's paces yet but I would say that any worries about overdrive should be secondary concerns. Yes it would be nice to have none but it's not too aggressive. I imagine over time you would just get used to it.
Surprisingly it feels like quite a premium bit of kit. The stand base isn't so nice but the monitor itself feels pretty solid - Probably help that it weighs quite a bit. Adjustments are good enough - Up and down and back and forth, all smooth.
Most importantly though, compared to the AOC 27" especially, it's much better in the shadows. Even though there is a bit of glow/contrast shift as expected with this panel, it's nowhere near as bad and certainly preferable to what I was seeing on that. Can't handle shadows like my Eizo but for a third of the price I can't expect it too. I'm hoping this will also improve further with calibration as I've currently rather crudely just dropped the brightness way down and twiddled a few other settings.
Looking forward to booting up some Arma when I get it home and seeing how it handles in games, but so far it's looking like a huge amount of screen for the money.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
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- 30,833
Great stuff Ade, let me know your settings once you have a nice picture
I ended up just dropping brightness to 70 and with the user setting just dropped Blue to 90 (I'd read it on a review somewhere, seems to give a pleasing picture)
I ended up just dropping brightness to 70 and with the user setting just dropped Blue to 90 (I'd read it on a review somewhere, seems to give a pleasing picture)
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 30,833
Out of? 100?