Philips BDM3270QP2 32-inch Class LED-Lit Monitor, 2560x1440 res, 4ms, 50M:1DCR, VGA, DVI, DP, hdmi-mhl, USB, Spk, Black

The monitor that I sought after to satisfy my needs included the following key requirements and features:1. No more than $600 total cost including tax.2. At least 30 inches diagonal width with wide viewing capability.3. WQHD 2560x1440 Screen with either IPS or VA panel technology.4. Ability to pivot the monitor to either a landscape or portrait orientation.5. Multi Screen Functionality. Split-Screen and Picture-in-Picture Viewing for Multi-Screen Functionality in order to simultaneously connect and view content from two separate computers.6. Multiple Interface connectivity including HDMI, Display Port, and DVI inputs.7. Multiple USB 3.0 and 2.0 Hub with at least one USB charging port.8. Additional movie viewing and gaming capability.After much deliberation and a long-term search, painfully whittling down from over ten to two monitors, I decided to go with this monitor as it met all of the former listed requirements. The final decision came between the Samsung S32D850T 32-inch LED Monitor and this one, the Philips BDM3270QP2 32 inch LED monitor. It was a very close choice as they both met all of the requirements. What swayed my decision was that the Philips was of newer design, included internal speakers, provided for 10-bit color depth vs 8-bit depth, better response time, better flicker-free technology, and an extra VGA source input connection.The primary uses of this monitor are: (1) the need to edit text while viewing other source material on the same screen; (2) reading, viewing, and scrolling through many pages for book and article authoring; (3) Historical Biblical dating and research; (4) Audio digital conversion, processing, and transcription; (5) DVD authoring; (6) Graphics and web authoring. Screen multi-tasking and the ability to pivot from landscape to portrait are essential to my needs.If I didn't know the names of the respective manufacturers of these two monitors, I would have sworn that the Philips was an upgrade to the Samsung monitor as it appears as if they utilize the same WLED Backlit, AMVA LCD Panel with the monitors having nearly identical features. The Samsung came out in the year 2013 and the Philips was recently released this past fall (2016). Samsung is the bigger name in TV's and monitors and so, that is the major reservation to my choosing the Philips monitor. I believe that I made the better choice and only time will tell if it was the right one. I will provide an update to this review after I have used it over the following days and months.

I'm liking this monitor for a number of reasons: Great color and clarity for photos and CAD/BIM work. Lots of screen real estate as it has such high resolution. It has enough inputs for all that I wanted to connect and a built in speaker which is convenient but not a high-fidelity solution of course. As a computer monitor and a HD TV monitor this monitor is terrific.But....I have a few pet peeves:- There is no remote. Typically a monitor wouldn't have one but this is problematic because switching inputs on this unit is a bit of pain. The buttons are on the front but are overly sensitive to touch so mistakenly touching an adjacent button is common as is touching a button more than once by mistake. There is no single button to cycle through the inputs so you have to know which button to select to show the inputs and then a different one to scroll through the inputs. To make matters a bit worse the unit doesn't seem to have a default input that you can pre-program so that it stays on that input. You can only program a USR button which will display the available inputs - it just won't let you set one input in particular. What happens is that if your computer goes to sleep this monitor switches to whatever input it finds that has a signal. So if your set top box remains active with a cable TV screen saver (like FIOS does with their bouncing message telling you to touch the "Menu" button on your remote) then the monitor will switch from your sleeping computer to whatever input is currently "active". It almost forces you to disable your computer's sleep mode just so you don't have to mess with the input buttons every time.

If you're reading this it probably means that you, like I was, are looking for a high quality monitor at a good price. The Philips replaced a 27" generic monitor that really didn't have the clarity and color fidelity I was looking for. I've got a 21 inch drawing monitor for various art applications which is much better than it was in those aspects. So shifting back and forth caused a bit of a visual disconnect. I also have limited desktop space (the drawing monitor is on an arm). I'll admit locally there aren't a lot of monitor options to look at but I did look at the 4K offerings available in my price range ($500 and under) as well as wide screen options - and a lot of Amazon's offerings and reviews of said. I eventually ended up here. 2560x1440 offers about 1.8 times the number of pixels than HD which in my case is more than enough. The larger size would seem to be an issue if you've limited desktop space but, in my case, I also had a couple of speakers which are no longer needed - and fewer wires at that. I'm not an audiophile but the speakers in the monitor seem very adequate to me, probably better than what they replaced.Philips calls this a Brilliant monitor. It really is. The default settings are working fine for me. As other have noted the screen controls at the bottom of the monitor itself are problematic. Philips includes a Smart Control application that, in my case, wasn't Windows 10 compatible. I contacted Philips support and they quickly pointed me to another version that is so I don't have to deal with those controls for other than the occasional on/off. They also class it as a business monitor rather than a consumer model. I'd guess that is in large part due to the stand and the variety of connectivity options the monitor has. This undoubtedly the best stand I've encountered and I was in IT for decades. Heavy duty stuff as you'll see if you get it - the box it comes in forewarns you by its size.I really recommend this monitor - there's a good review by Tom's Hardware that gives you a deeper review.