- Overall
The HP Pavilion 32 is an easy to own upsized monitor with excellent colors and contrast and a 1440p resolution. You don’t get a lot of extras with this option due to its budget nature, but a 32-inch monitor with superb imaging capabilities for under $400 makes it an easy winner. The HP Pavilion 32 fits into a highly lucrative segment with a fantastic price bracket, so let’s check and reveal its secrets and cut corners which help HP to sell it this cheap.
HP Pavilion 32 Specifications
- Screen Size: 32 Inches
- Resolution: 1440p QHD
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Panel Technology: Vertical Alignment (VA)
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- Response Time:5ms
- Contrast Ratio: 3000:1
- Brightness: 300 cd/m²
- Built-in Speakers: No
- Stand: Height – No
- Stand: Tilt – Yes (-5°/+21°)
- Stand: Swivel – No
- Stand: Pivot – No
- VESA Compatibility: Yes 100 x 100
- Connectivity: DisplayPort 1.2 x 1, HDMI-HDCP x 2
- Dimensions With Stand(WxHxD): 29.1″ x 20.6″ x 7″
- Weight: 21.6lbs
Design and Features
The HP Pavilion 32 shares its form and design with the HP Omen 32, which is the gaming equivalent of this product. The frames are reasonably thin at half an inch each, but against the 32-inch view space, they are mostly unnoticeable. The rest of the plastic cabinet shares this color and texture which we prefer for most monitors, making it resistant to dust, fingerprints, and scratches.
Like most budget-oriented displays, the HP Pavilion 32 doesn’t offer a lot of extra features, although, that isn’t saying that it doesn’t have enough. On the I/O panel, you get a lone DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI slots with HDCP compatibility. You can connect up to three host devices with this layout, but older devices which rely on DVI and VGA are out of the game.
There are three USB 2.0 ports included as well, and while they are not as fast as the 3.0 standard, you get one with fast charging capabilities. USB 2.0 is more than enough for connecting keyboards or mice, so we don’t consider this as a downside due to the affordable price tag of the HP Pavilion 32.
The HP Pavilion 32 doesn’t have a removable stand for VESA mounting, so you can’t stick this massive display to your wall or articulated armature. The included stand, however, offers a tilt range of 26 degrees, and like ultrawide monitors, you only have to sit at dead center to enjoy its full benefits. The rectangular base provides excellent stability for the 18lb heft of the cabinet, plus the vast space between the two upright post makes it easier to access the rear panel.
Display and Performance
The HP Pavilion 32 features a 32-inch VA panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, a 7ms pixel response time, and an impressive 3000:1 contrast ratio. Out of the box, colors are correctly saturated with 100% sRGB coverage even if there are slight deviations in the green spectrum. This flaw doesn’t affect the image at all, and we did not notice any greenish tinting in our tests. The thick matte AG coating is excellent at avoiding glare, but we suspect a glossy or semi-glossy treatment would release more vibrancy instead.
The elevated contrast ratio of the VA panel helps the HP Pavilion 32 a lot since it improves the screen to make the brighter colors pop out. In our Mass Effect Andromeda test, the vibrant colors of the planets were gorgeous and alive, while the darker reaches of outer space appeared satisfyingly black and profound. Shadows and grayscale performance are superb, just like on the HP Omen 32 we reviewed earlier.
Details and objects in low lighting are visible and highlighted, and we did not notice any clipping during our session. If there were one downside, it would have to be the slow pixel response rate of the included VA panel. For relaxed or casual gaming, you can’t go wrong with the HP Pavilion 32, but in fast-paced action when our character entered a combat phase, running around the environment and swiping the mouse revealed noticeable interlacing and ghosting trails.
These image defects do not ruin the fact that the HP Pavilion 32 is excellent for visuals. A faster panel would have boosted this product in ratings, but another limitation detrimental to gamers is its 40ms input lag. The delays are noticeable for some of us, but we reckon sensitive, hardcore gamers will dislike this product for their titles, especially FPS games.
Finally, unlike the HP Omen 32, the HP Pavilion 32 does not include FreeSync capabilities. It’s a shame you can’t enjoy hardware-supported smoothening for exciting eye-candy. Gaming at 1440p is easy for high-end cards, but a larger chunk of the populace own midrange cards which cannot provide stable 60FPS output in AAA titles.
Thoughts
The HP Pavilion 32 is an excellent choice for users who want a large, 32-inch screen for the office or home PC but wouldn’t want to spend the extra cash. At the time of this writing, you can get this model for as low as $350 which still isn’t cheap, but still too low for other products which ask $400 to $500.
Of course, the HP Pavilion 32 does have cut corners like a simplified exterior, slower and less responsive module, and exclusion of gaming features. You can still enjoy games for after-hours relaxation, but competitive gamers should look elsewhere. HP branded this offering as a mix-use home or office monitor and priced it to fit well within limited budgets. You get what you pay for, but for what it’s worth, the HP Pavilion 32 is a well-rounded PC monitor.
MiCas says
Hi! Which display of this size with a glossy or semi-glossy treatment you would recommend?
Paolo Reva says
Hi, MiCas! Shoot us an email with your budget, specs, and requirements so we can recommend an option for you. Cheers!
narfomat says
well, mine HAS fresync, but this is completely irrellevant, b/c the input lag is SO BAD (both HDMI and DPport) and the display is SO SLOW that even a casual FPS player should never use this display for that… the input lag and motion blur is absolutely horrible! even compared to my old acer B326HUL (also a 32inch MVA).
the display DOES come with a VESA mount adapter so you actually CAN mount the display to the wall!
I have not callibrated the panel with spyder yet, but the colors look quit good out of the box.
I guess this panel can be recommended to anyone but DONT buy it if you want to play games with.
for anything static the wva panel is absolutely great, great blacks, great and (so far compared to my callibrated old acer) accurate colors, no IPS glow, very few to non backlight bleeding (at least on my sample), almost no bright spots (again, for my sample, maybe got lucky).
I payed 200euros for mine (damaged package), should be still a very good choice for th 300 average retail.
Paolo Reva says
Thanks for sharing your valuable feedback narformat! We reckon the differences in specs is probably due to regional differences.
Xen says
Pavilion DOES have FreeSynch. Only notable (yet minor) differences between Pavilion and Omen is 7ms vs 5ms LCD response time, 60 vs 72 Hz max refresh rate, and possible difference in input lag.
Paolo Reva says
Hi, Xen, there is an earlier release that does not include FreeSync. The HP Pavilion 32 isn’t included in AMD’s FreeSync certified list.