Dell Pro 32 Plus 4K USB-C Hub Monitor Review 

Introduction

The Dell Pro 32 Plus 4K USB-C Hub Monitor (P3225QE) is an affordable but functional office monitor.

It ticks the boxes on paper for folks wanting a cheaper 4K panel with a zippier 100Hz refresh rate for more responsiveness, as well as a vast port selection, good stand adjustment and image quality.

For £549.60/$599.99, it’s more affordable than some key business-centric rivals, including Dell’s own 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED and the BenQ PD3226G, which is nearly double the price. The BenQ MA320U seems like a more sensible capacity.

I’ve been testing the P3225QE for the last couple of weeks to see how well it performs.

Design

• Modern looks
• Great adjustment
• Well-rounded port selection

The P3225QE has a modern look with minimal bezels around the screen, and a pleasant silver colourway that looks the part in a current office setup. Build quality is solid, with a metal frame and base keeping things sturdy.

It’s an easy panel to build with toolless construction in a similar vein to its rivals, with an arm that snaps into the back of the panel, while its base screws into the stand from the bottom. The base is quite narrow in depth, so it doesn’t take up much space on the desk – this is in a similar vein to the Alienware AW2725Q gaming screen.

Stand adjustment comes with great scope for tilt, swivel and height adjustment. The P3225QE can go into portrait mode with relative ease, too, although you will have to swivel it slightly, owing to it being a 32-inch panel.

The ports are well-rounded with one each for HDMI and DisplayPort, as well as a USB-C port that can offer up to 90W of power delivery and DP Alt display out. There is also an Ethernet port, as well as three USB-A ports for hub power. 

Two of those USB-A ports are on the underside, while the other, along with a second, lower power USB-C are on a pop-out feature on the lower bezel for very handy access.

Image Quality

• Decent brightness, black levels and contrast
• Solid colour accuracy
• Higher refresh rate is useful for better responsiveness

Dell hasn’t sprung many surprises with the choice of panel with the P3225QE’s screen for a high-res productivity display with a 32-inch 4K IPS option for solid all-around image quality without the vast expense of an OLED.

In using my colorimeter, it revealed this Dell screen to be reasonably punchy with a peak SDR brightness of 325.9 nits, although the BenQ MA320U gets much brighter. There isn’t any HDR support, though, perhaps negating the need for even more vividity.

Black levels out of the box at 0.15 are on the money for an IPS panel and quite deep, and the 1180:1 contrast ratio provides reasonable, if unimpressive, dynamic range. The 6600K colour temperature is rather good.

The P3225QE’s colour accuracy is decent, with 100% sRGB proving it perfectly displays mainstream colours for productivity tasks, while the 88% DCI-P3 and 82% Adobe RGB results are above the requisite level where I can recommend this screen for more colour-sensitive tasks.

The 100Hz refresh rate adds some more responsiveness against the litany of 60Hz office-grade options out there, although it isn’t enough to make this a bona fide gaming monitor.

Software and Features

• Basic but functional OSD
• No speakers

The P3225QE comes with quite a basic OSD that offers controls for brightness and contrast, as well as a handful of preset profiles and means for selecting an input. Apart from that, there isn’t too much here, but it is functional and easy to navigate.

This Dell monitor is bereft of speakers, as is becoming more common for monitors up and down the price ladder. For your audio needs, you will be left using the headphone jack for a separate, and arguably higher quality, solution.

Should you buy it?

FAQs