I got myself a new monitor! I got it for a really good price around that Black Friday / Cyber Monday time. Anyway, the model in question is Samsung LU32J590UQU, what a lovely name, or in short, the UJ590 series. This is one of the cheapest 4K 32” monitors on the market, that not only doesn’t have a TN panel, but rather a VA one, and also has VESA mount, which was a must-have in my case. Why?
Well, one thing that I’m also going to do in this video is upgrading my monitor arms, since I will be putting this monitor above the AOC’s 34” widescreen which I already have, so I will essentially stack them up, with using two Arctics products, their Z1 3D Gen 3 arm, and Z+1 Pro Gen 3 add-on arm. Up until now, I’ve been using their older 3 monitor stand model for around 4 years now because back then I had three monitors, but since I ended up with just one, this widescreen, over last two years, I got to a conclusion that I really need another display because it became really unpractical switching between my editing PC and test rig when I’m doing benchmarks, it would just take too much time, plus it would render my editing rig useless for doing something else on it while the tests were being done, and before all, it was time for me to get a 4K monitor so I can also do 4K testing for you.
You know what, sorry past Matthew, but I like it here better. That’s why I started my search for a reasonably priced 4K monitor which could be my secondary monitor for the test rig which I have right next to me, and for occasional multi-screen tasking for my main editing rig when I’m not benchmarking. Because of that, I didn’t need anything super extra, I’m not going to do any color correction or such on it, just for document display, handling files and browsing. But, compared to its brother, the U28D590D, which was five years ago one of the first cheap 4K monitor on the market and which didn’t fair that good in reviews when it comes to picture quality, the UJ590 told a different story while I was doing my research and hunt for such display, which is why I went for it. It was definitely time to change things up a bit, get a second monitor and reconfigure my setup with new monitor arms, but more on that later on, let’s get back to the monitor itself.
LU32J590UQU – weird name for a meaningful purchase
Being a strictly budget-oriented model, the build quality of Samsung UJ59 is nothing to talk about expect just saying it’s fine. Everything is of course covered with that under fingers rough feeling plastic, with a hint of glossy on the side of the bezels. Speaking of that, it’s pretty thin, just like my existing monitor, nothing that will blow you out of the water, although I personally don’t care that much, it’s nice to have them thin, but I’m not going to look at the bezel, but rather at the screen.
Going to the backside, in the left corner, or right if you’re facing the monitor from display side, we have a single joystick for controlling the monitors OSD, I personally like it, it was very easy to navigate through the menus using it, I just hope it won’t fail on me that fast. The menu itself is very simplified, your basic picture and feature controls can be reached quickly. There’s not a lot of it though, of course beside ones like the brightness, contrast and color control you have other gimmicky features like game mode, but other than that’s it. I did have to manually turn on the LED power indicator since it was turned off by default, for a second I actually thought that the monitor came in broken.
Moving to the opposite side of that, in this recessed area we have three video input options, two of them being HDMI’s, one capable of receiving a 4K 60 Hz input, that’s the second HDMI 2.0 port, while the first one, the HDMI 1.4, can only take 4K 30 Hz. Besides them, my main choice here would be the DisplayPort 1.2 port, 4K 60 Hz capable, especially since it supports FreeSync. Yes, this monitor besides picture in picture mode, also support Free-sync for all of you gamers out there, ideal for something like an RX 5700 XT GPU, granted the range isn’t that big, from 42 Hz to 60 Hz at 4K, but hey, it’s there. One mention though, I had a problem with the second, 60 Hz 4K HDMI connection, I couldn’t get the games to scale full-screen on a non-native resolution, I don’t if it was because of the graphics card or something related to the monitor itself, but on the DisplayPort connection was working just fine. Tell me in the comments down below if you have any insights into this.
Samsung UJ59 VA panel delivers more than good performance for the price
Last but not the least, Samsung U32J590 carries a barrel laptop type of power connector, and for powering it up we have this small external power supply brick that can rotate its plug connection in case you need to mount it in a specific way. And, yes, look at this engineering marvel, right-handed power connection for the monitor, hanging like this upside down. Why, because why not? Because why wouldn’t you put extra strain on the connector end of the monitor together with the cable wire of the power brick. I feel like Samsung had leftover bricks from some kind of other product, or they’re just mass producing it in bulk altogether for something that needs a right-angled connector so they’re using it across a range of products, including this monitor. I did jerry-rig it at first, thanks to Jerry, but in the end, I ditched this solution since the power cable is supported by the monitor arm so thankfully there’s no strain on the cable nor the connector.
Moving to the bottom, we get to the stand itself, which is pretty simple looking, yet kinda modernish, you just clip it on and that’s that, it offers only tilt in terms of adjustment, which is to be expected for a monitor that costs this much, and personally I wasn’t worried about that since I knew It was going on a monitor arm right away, but at least you’ll have some level of adjustment. The stand also has this hook-like thingy on the back, which serves the purpose of guiding and managing the cables coming to the monitor, one which you’ll get in the bundle, that being the 2 meters long HDMI cable.
As I mentioned, this model carries VA panel, so the performance of the, I’ve used a color-calibrated profile which Wendel made on its Leve1Techs YouTube channel, feel free to check its review of this monitor, but I will be doing my color calibration once I get a hold of the DataColors Spyder X Elite, which will soon be with me, so I’ll address that once again on this and my main monitor, so be sure to subscribe for that one.
As for now, with what I can see here, the viewing angles are pretty good, there’s no noticeable color shift or loss of brightness with smaller angles, the vertical angle shift seems to be performing a bit better than the horizontal, which suits my case since the monitor is placed above me. The back-light clouding is somewhat noticeable, but overall the display is pretty evenly lit, there’s no excessive back-light bleeding in isolated areas. In terms of the color reproduction, at first glance with the color profile definitely better than with a regular TN panel, but as I said, I will do a more in-depth look once I get the color calibrator so I can get all the data out. The brightness levels seem to be OK, as well as its uniformity, nothing I can complain about, while the display itself has a non-glossy finish so reflections are minimal.
Although I don’t have any measuring gear, the response time and input lag seem to be OK at least in terms of what I can perceive, which is also confirmed by other reviewers, but on the other hand, I’m not planning to really game on it anyway.
Helping hand on the budget – Arctic Z1-3D Gen 3
That’s pretty much it in terms of the monitor, let’s check out the new monitor arms which I’m going to use for both. As I said these are Arctics monitors arms, the Z1 3D Gen 3 and the Z+1 Pro Gen 3 add-on, very simple but yet effective alternative for replacing your original monitor stand. I’m liking the new smaller footprint of the main Z1-3D stand, while it still keeps the four USB 3.0 ports which my older model had, which is always a great feature to have. It also seems to take up a little bit less depth, so it leaves me more space on the desk.
The installation was very easy straightforward, they really made it as simple as possible with this new generation of their monitor arms, and that packaging sort of gives that away since everything is compact. There are few screws and Allen keys involved, and the only thing I did a bit differently is that switched up the monitor arms, I’ve put the 3D arm on the top since I will be moving that new 4K monitor around as needed, and the regular arm on the bottom. You’re able to do this since the diameter of both carrying poles are the same, one just goes onto another as an extension using this adapter bracket, so you can switch the configuration up. A big pressure clamp on the bottom of the carrying base holds everything up against the table, and beside the data connection for that USB 3.0 hub, you will also need to provide additional power to those ports via this micro USB port since they can’t all be properly powered over a single USB connection coming from the PC.
All in all, everything is really sturdy and well build, easy to operate, especially the 3D arm, you can move it around as you wish and it will stay put. Of course, this depends on the monitor’s size and weight, but you can adjust that easily on the 3D arm itself. This one can take up to 38” monitors with up to 8 kilograms of weight, while the add-on is capable of carrying up to 49” monitors and 15 kg of weight, both having the 75 and 100 mm VESA mount support.
The data cable is around 1,8 meters long, while the power cable is really short so you will have to get a MicroUSB cable of your own. Both arms come with a few cable routing points, while 3D model doesn’t have any expectation one on the pole itself since it can move around in any direction, you can even rotate it, so it’s better that you provide it with a longer set of power and video cables, just so you can have more slack on them in case you really plan to move it around constantly
So, after all of this is done, how my liking it? Well, it’s actually awesome.
To be honest, I don’t why it took me so long to put a second monitor above the main one, it’s like it never crossed my mind for some reason. I know that some of you out there probably won’t like this kind of setup and the angle of the monitor, but I had to go this route since there’s basically no space left. On the other hand, I won’t be looking at that top display all the time, maybe like 20% of it, since it’s here to monitor my hardware benchmarking or to be an occasional helping hand, the second display for my editing rig. Using these Arctics arms, especially the top add-on, was one of the cleanest solutions for my setup since I didn’t have any extra room left on the sides of the table. Samsung UJ590 series monitor does its job really good , does it have flaws, yes it has, but again, it’s really hard to beat it at this price point and it hit just the right spots in terms what I need, and in the end, that’s what’s all about when buying something.
That’s it for this time, I hope this Samsung UJ59 review and Arctic Z1-3D review, if you have any question feel free to hit me in the comments section of my YouTube video listed above, you can contact me via my social media channels!
