Lenovo L32p-30 monitor review

Today we will get acquainted with Lenovo L32p-30 — 32-inch “universal” monitor with high image quality, which can be used not only for work, but also for games – thanks to the support of AMD FreeSync adaptive frequency technology.

Specifications of Lenovo L32p-30

Design

Lenovo L32p-30 has a very restrained, almost “office” design: practical black matte plastic body and the absence of not only backlighting, but also generally bright elements on the front side (even the manufacturer’s logo is on the back of the monitor).

Around the screen there is a thin “invisible” frame that hides under the protective glass – along with the thin line of the side face of the image body, an 8 mm wide frame surrounds the sides and top. The stand is simple in functionality, allowing you to adjust only the tilt of the screen back and forth (–5°..22°). If desired, the monitor can be mounted on the wall: there is a VESA mount (100×100) above the stand.

All video connectors are located in a small niche under the stand mount: one DisplayPort 1.2, one HDMI 2.0 and one USB-C (DP1.2 Alt Mode). There is also a USB hub for 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports and a minijack for wired headphones.

The leg is metal, behind it there is a cut-out for organizing cables, and at the base there is a branded “slit” where you can store various stationery stuff.

Menu

The Lenovo L32p-30 is controlled by four hardware buttons in the lower right corner, to the left of the power button.

The first two items of the main menu contain image settings: brightness, contrast, overdrive, color temperature and various options for HDR and video modes. In the next item, the volume of the built-in speakers (2×3 W) is adjusted, then there is a selection of video inputs, and in the last section, system parameters are collected: on-screen menu settings, information about the monitor, reset to factory settings, etc.

Functionality

The Lenovo L32p-30 uses an 8-bit 31.5-inch IPS panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels. The pixel density is 140 PPI, the point size is 0.1816 mm; this is a very good indicator in terms of image density and smoothness of fonts: you can make out individual points on the image only if you look closely at the screen.

The maximum refresh rate is 60 Hz – not very similar to a gaming model, but the manufacturer has added support for AMD FreeSync adaptive frequency technology, so you can still play on it at your leisure. And it is unlikely that in modern games it will be possible to get more than 60 fps at 4K resolution.

The brightness in this monitor is regulated by changing the current strength, PWM is not used over the entire brightness range, so there is no screen flickering. Also, the Lenovo L32p-30 has a TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort certificate, which confirms that this monitor does not tire the eyes and allows you to work comfortably for a long time.

You can control the monitor not only in the OSD, but also through the Lenovo Artery utility. It allows you to change all the monitor parameters available in the on-screen menu, but it is much more convenient.

Lenovo L32p-30 image quality

The screen coating is “semi-matte”, which has almost imperceptible parasitic reflections on a dark background, if you look at it from a typical position of a PC user. When tilted to the side, the screen gradually becomes more glossy, but it does not interfere with work. The so-called crystal effect is present, but very moderate.

The response time of the panel is typical for a universal IPS monitor: 14 ms in normal mode and 6 ms at the maximum, fourth level of overdrive. It should be noted that at the third level quite noticeable overclocking artifacts appear in the form of dark “plumes” behind objects moving on the screen. We would recommend using the first or second level: at the last level, the “loops” are almost not visible, while the image in the dynamics is much clearer than when overdrive is turned off.

Overdrive Off/Level 1/Level 2/Level 3/Level 4:

Black uniformity is excellent: in a dark room on a black image at maximum brightness, the screen “glows” with a moderate dark gray background (typical for IPS technology) without any irregularities, lighter or darker “spots”, etc.

The glow effect is also typical of IPS: if you look at the screen from the side and above, the black background has a moderate gray glow with a warmer or cooler shade depending on which side you look at.

The viewing angles are very large even for a “typical” IPS: when viewed from the side, the screen loses a little brightness, but not critically, while the image quality almost does not deteriorate, the colors saturation remains almost the same, the color temperature also almost does not change.

There are two main points in the monitor settings where different image options are selected. First, this is Color — different color temperature options (warm, neutral, cold) plus emulation of sRGB, DCI-P3 and BT.709 spaces are collected here. In addition, there are additional video modes in the Scenario Mode menu: for working with graphics, video, movie session, a mode with a reduced proportion of blue in the backlight and Panel Native – in the latter, the possibilities of the panel in displaying colors are not limited in any way. By default, the manufacturer offers a combination of Panel Native and Color – Custom modes, and we will start with it.

The color coverage exceeds the manufacturer’s claim and is 96% DCI-P3 (88% Adobe RGB). The brightness is adjustable in the range of 50-340 cd/m², which is quite sufficient both for work in almost complete darkness and in strong office lighting. The static contrast is also higher than “promised” by the manufacturer – 1300:1 (official specification – 1000:1). This is a very decent indicator for an IPS panel, although, of course, it is significantly lower than what monitors with VA technology demonstrate.

The Lenovo L32p-30 does not have gamma adjustments, but its value set by the manufacturer very precisely corresponds to the standard (2.2), so the user will not have to change it. The color temperature can be 6600K (Warm), 7200K (Neutral), 9000K (Cold) or 7000K (Custom).

It can be noted that the combination of “Panel Native + Custom Color” seems to be the most versatile, if artificial limitation of the color space is not required — in this case, the monitor shows maximum brightness and contrast, saturated colors and high accuracy of color reproduction, plus full access to manual adjustments of all parameters. If you want to make the image warmer, you can switch Color to Warm, but the maximum brightness and contrast will somewhat decrease.

The uniformity of the color temperature is quite good, considering the size of the panel: the maximum deviation in different areas of the screen ΔE is 4.5. The uniformity of the white field is mediocre: the lower corners are 13% dimmer than the center, where the brightness is maximum. The accuracy of color reproduction is very high – the Lenovo L32p-30 clearly is factory calibrated (although there is no corresponding report included with it). The average value of ΔE is noticeably less than one (the only color that “stands out” from the overall picture is explained by the nuances of the test colorimeter) — we remind, it is believed that the average user is not able to notice the difference between the reference color and what is displayed by the monitor, if ΔE does not exceed two.

The sRGB mode limits the color coverage to 96% of this space (74% Adobe RGB, 73% DCI-P3), the color accuracy is also very good, but slightly worse than Custom Color: average ΔE=1.7. But the DCI-P3 mode offers the same color accuracy as Custom (its coverage is also slightly limited, up to 93% DCI-P3).

Other “scenarios” offer unique settings templates for certain tasks: for example, in Image Creation, the color range is narrowed to sRGB dimensions, the brightness/contrast is slightly reduced, and the image looks more balanced. In Digital Cinema, the brightness drops quite a lot, the colors become more saturated (the coverage is the same as in the DCI-P3 mode), and the gamma rises to 2.7 – this makes the image visually more contrasty, with deep blacks, which should somewhat compensate for the IPS glow when watching movies in the dark. Video Creation is very similar to Image Creation, but the brightness is even lower (230 cd/m²) and the gamma is increased to 2.5.

It is worth noting separately that in all these “scenarios” the accuracy of color reproduction was also very high and ΔE in most cases was less than one — that is, unlike other monitors in which only one mode, maximum two video modes (usually sRGB and Adobe RGB) are factory calibrated, the Lenovo L32p-30 calibrates all available modes.