The HP Pavilion 32 QHD 32-Inch Display shows rich and reasonably true colors for both video and photos. With goodies like a USB Type-C port (which you can use as a display-signal input, or to quickly charge small devices like cell phones), it is a worthy successor to the Editors' Choice-winning, and similarly named, HP Pavilion 32 Display. It's our newest pick among large-screen, general-purpose home monitors.
A Straightforward Design
Design-wise, the matte-black HP Pavilion 32 QHD 32-Inch Display is plain and straightforward, with half-inch bezels on two sides and the top, and an inch-thick bezel at the bottom. The cabinet rests on a short stalk attached to a rectangular base.
Including the stand, the Pavilion 32 QHD measures 17.1 by 29.9 by 2.6 inches (HWD), and it weighs 15.7 pounds. The monitor supports tilt adjustment, from 5 degrees downward to 25 degrees upward, but it lacks height or swivel adjustment. The back of the monitor includes the ports, some ventilation grilles, and a notch for a security lockdown cable.
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The Pavilion 32 QHD employs a 32-inch panel (that's measured diagonally), with a native resolution of 2,560 by 1,440 pixels (known also as QHD), for a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. The panel uses vertical alignment (VA) technology, which is known for its high contrast ratio and deep blacks.
Its pixel density works out to 92 pixels per inch (ppi), which matches that of the earlier HP Pavilion 32 Display. (It has the same screen size and resolution as the Pavilion 32 QHD.) This is lower than the density of 32-inch 4K monitors such as the BenQ EW3270U (138ppi), but it should be fine for mainstream home use. (Higher pixel densities generally translate to sharper images.)
Outward-Facing Ports in Back
The Pavilion 32 QHD's port selection consists of HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2 inputs, a USB Type-C port, and two USB 3.0 ports, the latter two both downstream—meaning that you can't stream content over them to the monitor. You can charge small devices from them (they each deliver up to 4.5 watts) or connect peripherals to them.
The USB-C port supports DisplayPort over USB, meaning that you can stream video and other content through it. (It's also the upstream data connection for the USB-A ports.) The USB-C port also can supply up to 15 watts of power, which allows you to charge small devices (such as recent iPad Pro tablets, and most Samsung Galaxy M-series phones) through it. Other monitors offer greater power delivery to quickly charge laptops over their USB-C port. For instance, the Dell 27 USB-C Ultrathin Monitor (S2719DC) supplies up to 45 watts, while the Dell UltraSharp 34 Curved USB-C Monitor (U3419W) delivers as much as 90 watts.
Also on the back of the Pavilion 32 QHD is an audio-out jack, letting you connect headphones or powered external speakers to the monitor, which has no speakers of its own. This is a step above the recently reviewed HP 27 Quantum Dot, which has neither speakers nor an audio-out jack; sound for that model has to come from your computer or other input source. The BenQ EW3270U includes a built-in pair of 2-watt speakers.
The Pavilion 32 QHD has fewer ports than the older HP Pavilion 32 Display, which has two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort connector, and three USB 2.0 ports (one upstream and two downstream). However, the 32 QHD's USB ports (two USB 3.0 ports, plus the USB-C port) are rated for faster throughput than its predecessor's USB 2.0 ports.
All the ports on the Pavilion 32 QHD are in back and face outward, which is also the case with the HP Pavilion 27 Quantum Dot. This isn't as convenient as having at least some of the ports on the side facing outward, but it's better than downward-facing ports, which is the arrangement on the BenQ EW3270U and many other monitors. With the 32 QHD, you can turn the monitor around to add a cable to the port of your choice.
Easy Joystick-Based Navigation
You access the Pavilion 32 QHD's onscreen display (OSD) with the monitor's mini-joystick-style four-way controller. It's located on the back, near the right-hand edge. We mostly see these controllers in gaming monitors, and it's good to see them migrate to more general-purpose home monitors, as they're much easier to work with than the set of individual buttons that many manufacturers resort to for navigation.
From the Pavilion 32 QHD's main menu, you can access selections for Brightness, Color, Image, and Input. Color settings include Warm, Neutral, Cool, Native, Custom RGB, and a slew of preset picture modes. The latter batch includes selections for Low Blue Light, Night, Photo, Reading, HP Enhance+ (a noise-reduction feature), and Gaming with FreeSync. You move through the list by pushing the joystick down or up, going to different menu levels by pressing the joystick left or right.
Spot-On Color
I did our color, brightness, and black-level testing for the Pavilion 32 QHD using a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo Six-G signal generator, and SpectraCal CalMAN 5 software. HP rates the monitor's luminance (brightness per unit area) at 300 candelas per meter squared (nits), and it came up just short of that (292 nits) in my testing. I calculated the contrast ratio at 2,920:1, in line with its 3,000:1 rating.
HP claims that the Pavilion 32 QHD covers 100 percent of the sRGB color space—the world standard for web-based graphics (the "s" even stands for standard) and my testing bore that out, as it turned in a perfect score. This makes this monitor a good choice for people looking for color accuracy in photos they publish to the web. Above is a color fidelity or chromaticity chart for the 32 QHD. The area within the triangle represents the sRGB color space, and my data points (the circles) are evenly placed around it.
I also viewed a host of test video clips, as well as photos, with the Pavilion 32 QHD. Video looked good, with bright and rich colors, and good detail and dynamic range. Photos looked crisp and bright, and the color seemed true enough.
A Sop to Gamers, and a Short Warranty
The main gaming-friendly feature that the Pavilion 32 QHD includes is support for AMD FreeSync adaptive sync technology, which is common enough these days among mainstream consumer monitors not specially targeted at gamers. When coupled with a computer with a late-model AMD Radeon graphics card, FreeSync can reduce image tearing by adjusting the panel's refresh rate to match the frame-rate output of the card. The 32 QHD's refresh rate is a mere 60Hz. This monitor is fine for casual gaming, but serious esports competitors will want to get a true gaming display with a higher refresh rate.
HP provides a meager one-year warranty for the Pavilion 32 QHD. Most other monitor manufacturers (Dell, ViewSonic, and Asus, among them) back their products with at least a three-year plan. HP does offer extended warranties for a small extra sum (three-year, next-day-exchange service for $44.99, or two years for $24.99). Still, at the 32 QHD's price, the company should back this panel with a standard warranty that's more in line with the competition.
A Solid Citizen for Photos and Video
Short warranty notwithstanding, the Pavilion 32 QHD delivers. It showed decent brightness and good color fidelity in our testing, nailing the sRGB color space, and it handled our test photos and video clips well. Its port selection is better than that of its ancestor, the HP Pavilion 32 Display, thanks to a USB Type-C port and an upgrade to USB 3.0. And replacing that monitor's button-based control system with a mini-joystick controller makes navigation much easier. Thanks to these upgrades, the Pavilion 32 QHD becomes our latest Editors' Choice among large-screen monitors for general-purpose home use.
An all-purpose monitor for home use, HP's Pavilion 32 QHD 32-Inch Display provides good, accurate color for video watching and photo viewing.
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