Acer ProDesigner BM320 32-inch 4K Monitor Launched: dE < 1 Guaranteed
by Patrick MacMillan on May 8, 2017 2:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Monitors
- Acer
- Enterprise
- Professional
- Prodesigner
- BM320
While gaming monitors like the Predator X27 and Z271UV tend to get the most attention, there is still a significant market for work-oriented monitors that boast accurate color reproduction and a large work area. Those are two criteria that the new Acer ProDesigner BM320 has been designed to meet.
This 32-inch display has a native UHD resolution of 3840 x 2160 with a standard refresh rate of 60 Hz. It features an IPS panel with anti-glare coating, a peak brightness of 350 nits, wide viewing angles of 178°/178, and a 5ms response time. Contrast is listed as a comical marketing speak 100,000,000:1, which is the Acer Adaptive Contrast Management (ACM) figure.
Color reproduction and wide color gamut support is a key feature of this model, and it expands its range to include 100% of Adobe RGB, 100% of sRGB (plus 100% of Rec. 709), and 90% of DCI-P3 coverage. There is no explicit mention of a 10-bit panel, but support for 10-bit color is touted as a feature. The ProDesigner BM320 also comes factory calibrated and tested to ensure a DeltaE of 1.0 or less, which is near perfect color accuracy and better than almost all other claims of per-unit factory calibration, which typically gives dE < 3. Professionals will also have access to 6-axis color adjustment settings to create custom color profiles or simply to update the calibration as the monitor ages.
Given its professional positioning, the BM320 ships with Acer’s highly adjustable ErgoStand. The stand can tilt the display between -5 to 25 degrees, swivel +/- 45 degrees, pivot +/- 90 degrees, and provide height adjustments of up to 5.9 inches (150mm). The 90° of swivel rotation should not be overlooked since that means the display can be rotated into a vertical orientation. The ZeroFrame design results in this model having very thin screen bezels on three sides, which should help create near seamless multiple monitor setups.
| Acer ProDesigner BM320 | |
| Product Page | Link |
| Panel | 32-inch IPS |
| Native Resolution | 3840 x 2160 (16:9) |
| Maximum Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| Response Time | 5 ms (GTG) |
| Brightness | 350 nit |
| Contrast | '100,000,000:1' Using ACM |
| Viewing Angles | 178º/178º |
| Dynamic Refresh | None |
| Pixel Density | 138 PPI |
| Display Colors | 1.07 billion 10-bit Support 10-bit Native? |
| Color Gamut Support | Adobe RGB: 100% sRGB: 100% Rec. 709: 100% DCI-P3: 90% |
| Stand | Tilt (-5º to 25º) Swivel (-45º to 45º) Pivot (-90º to 90º) Height (up to 5.9-inch / 150 mm) |
| Inputs | 1 x DisplayPort 1.2a 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x DVI 1 x HDMI 2.0 |
| USB Hub | 4 x USB 3.0 (1 x USB 3.0 for hub) |
| Audio | 2 x 2W |
| Price / MSRP | $1299 |
Connectivity is listed as DVI, DisplayPort 1.2, Mini DisplayPort, and HDMI 2.0 video outputs. There is also a five port USB 3.0 hub (1 up, 4 down) and two integrated 2W stereo speakers.
The Acer ProDesigner BM320 is available now in the United States with an MSRP of $1299 and a three-year warranty. That is a high price tag for gaming enthusiasts, but not outside of the norm for a display aimed at creative professionals.
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Source: Acer
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Robert Pankiw - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
"it expands its range to include 100% of Adobe RGB, 100% of sRGB (plus 100% of Rec. 709), and 90% of DCI-P3 coverage."The chart says 100% of DCI-P3, which is it?
philehidiot - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
It's anything you want it to be, big boy.Yeh, prostitute speak and monitors don't go together well.
Sarchasm - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
Also says 5ms GTG in the writeup but 1ms GTG in the table. It's most likely 5ms, but that chart is dodgy as hell.DanNeely - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
Behold the power of copypasta table generation instead of a proper templating system.Alistair - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
Any reason this one is 300 dollars more than the LG equivalent model? Just the calibration?fanofanand - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
I was drooling over this monitor until I got to the price. Sweet monitor and I like the trend this follows but this is out of my league.DanNeely - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
Pro grade monitors have always been seriously expensive (eg NEC wanting $2300 for the 3090 vs Dell/Hp/etc only wanting about half that for their 2560x1600 screens a decade ago). For the target market where an hour of artist time costs anywhere from $40 at the low end to $200+ on the high end it's a rounding error; while the various pro grade features are able to quickly pay for themselves.fanofanand - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
I didn't say it was overpriced for it's function, simply that it's out of my league :)fazalmajid - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
$1,299 for a pro 32" 4K monitor would be a great price (the 2K NEC PA302W-SV is $2,250 for instance), but this monitor lacks hardware calibration à la NEC SpectraView II or Eizo ColorEdge, and thus it does not qualify as a pro monitor.chaos215bar2 - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link
Why try to split hares about what makes a "pro" monitor?If you're expecting NEC SpectraView or Eizo ColorEdge level features for $1300, well, I have at least a few bridges to sell you. The same applies, if you're expecting a $300 monitor to perform similarly to this.
What you're getting here (if performance matches the specs) is a display with a highly uniform panel that can always be calibrated on the OS side. Since both the panel and the interfaces support exactly 10 bits of color, this doesn't technically lose you anything, it just means you can't calibrate the monitor itself, set the OS to output your color space of choice (and the monitor to match) and be done with it. You need to create and install a color profile for your specific monitor on the OS side.
Of course, with AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 (well, and sRGB) as the only options for in-built calibration, you probably want this anyway. Neither is a complete superset of the other, and many modern displays support colors that lie outside of either.