The Sceptre C328B-144KN is all about providing a top-notch experience for home and office productivity users. This 31.5-inch panel is nicely curved, has a 144Hz refresh rate, and uses a variant of AMD FreeSync to ensure that it matches your rig’s frame rate.
Should you avoid or buy the Sceptre C328B-144KN Curved Gaming FHD LED Monitor? This display has a solid 4.5-star rating on Amazon and following our review we strongly concur with this rating. Sceptre has really outdone themselves and built an amazing display at an unbeatable price. They may not be stars in terms of brand presence but having been in the business for over 30 years, they probably know a thing or two about building amazing consumer electronics.
Pros
- Eye-catching design
- Excellent selection of ports
- Ultra-thin bezels
- Free-sync technology
Cons
- Lacks a USB type C port.
- No mention of daisy-chaining support by the manufacturer
Curved monitors are becoming more and more popular due to their ability to provide a more immersive viewing experience replacing the dual monitor setup. Opinions are divided with regard to the practicality of curved TV screens but ever since the first curved monitors started appearing in electronics stores, sales have been on an upward trend and now everyone wants a piece of the cake.
We can attribute the success of curved monitors to the fact that most users are mostly sitting smack in front of the display. This really leverages the perks that come with a curved skill such as an increased field of vision. Having the content angled towards you really enhances your viewing experience above and beyond what you get from a flat panel
Ask anyone about their wishlist when it comes to curved displays and Dell, Acer, LG, and Samsung will feature prominently in the responses you get. These are the most talked-about brands out there but focusing on the big manufacturers will make you miss out on the incredible amount of value you will get from smaller less-known brands like Sceptre.
Sceptre has on offer a range of competitive prices curved monitors that come packed with features. One such display is the Sceptre C328B-144KN Curved Gaming FHD LED Monitor. Apart from the stunning design aesthetics, there is so much more to love about this curved display.
Sceptre C328B-144KN Specs
| Panel Type | LED-Lit TN display | 16:9 Aspect ratio |
| Screen Size | 32” 1800R curvature |
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels | Full- HD |
| Response time | 3ms (Grey to grey) |
| Refresh rate | Up to 144Hz refresh rate |
| Screen brightness | 250 cd/m² |
| Viewing angles | 178˚ (horizontal)/ 178˚ (vertical) |
| Tilt stand | Yes | Backward: 15˚, Forward: 5˚ |
| Free Sync | Yes |
| Preset picture mode | Standard, User, Movie, ECO |
| Preset game mode | RTS (Real-Time Strategy), FPS (First Person Shooter) |
| Eye saver mode | Blue Light Shift |
| Ports |
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| Dimension | 28.28 x 19.51 x 9.79 inches |
| Weight | 20.72 Ib | 9.4kgs |
Sceptre C328B-144KN Review: Design and Features
One of the most desirable features of the Sceptre C328B-144KN Curved Gaming Monitor is the design. We really fell in love with the aggressive design from day one. Sceptre redefined attention to detail in this piece, the beautiful brushed metallic frame, artistic red accents at the back of the monitor, ultra-thin bezel, hell even the stand that comes with the Sceptre C328B-144KN is a piece of art in its own right!
If you have a front-facing desk, you’re going to love the looks of this monitor.
FreeSync
The Sceptre C328B-144KN Curved Gaming FHD LED monitor features AMD FreeSync technology for smoother and tear-free rendering. FreeSync is a graphics synchronization technology developed by AMD to rival G-sync. It eliminates screen tearing by synchronizing the frame rates on the display with those of the GPU. Unlike G-sync, FreeSync has now become an open-source technology hence its presence does not drive up the cost of your Sceptre C328B-144KN monitor.
FPS and RTS game modes
This monitor is tuned for gaming at 1080p. Sceptre even went ahead to include options in the display settings to allow you to tune it to optimize First-person shooters or real-time strategy gameplay.
We tested this feature and were pretty amazed at the significant changes it made when put to the correct setting. Generally, FPS games are more demanding while RTS games are less demanding. Having the monitor on the correct mode depending on the type of game you are playing will lead to higher frame rates and better graphics.
Most users will not buy a curved monitor based on its viewing angles. That said the Sceptre C328B-144KN Curved Gaming FHD LED monitor has decent viewing angles- 178˚ (Horizontal) / 178˚ (Vertical). It also features Backward: 15˚, Forward: 5˚ tilt angles.
Picture modes supported on the Sceptre C328B-144KN include Standard, User, Movie, ECO. One thing we noticed when we first powered the monitor is that it comes preset to ECO mode. This significantly reduces brightness and overall performance for energy consumption so if you buy this monitor for gaming you might need to change it to Standard or User mode.
Sceptre C328B-144KN Review: Ports
The choice of ports determines the kind of experience you get from your display. A normal user might get away with using any display cable readily available but more advanced users like gamers need to be a bit more discerning with their choice of cable. The Sceptre C328B-144KN has a great selection of ports, therefore, you have several options to choose from depending on your needs.
DVI Port – Carries video only (best for 144Hz 1080p gaming)
HDMI – carries both video and audio. A great choice especially if your computer also has HDM 2.0
DisplayPort – The best interface for gamers and graphic designers. This port will carry a 1080p resolution video to the Sceptre C328B-144KN monitor at 60(fps).
Another great feature of display ports is their ability to output to multiple displays- Multi-stream transport otherwise known as daisy-chaining. Now there might be no indication that this monitor supports daisy-chaining but you can still do this by use of a display port splitter. This will allow you to use one port to connect to multiple monitors. The Sceptre C328B-144KN, however, lacks a VGA port.
Sceptre C328B-144KN Review: Performance
When it comes to testing the performance of any display, figures and plain statistics alone won’t cut it. There are several factors that will affect the experience a user gets while using a monitor. These range from a selection of interface (display port/HDMI, DVI or VGA), the specs on the main computer, settings, etc. Assuming you had your Sceptre C328B-144KN monitor hooked to your AMD powered GPU (FreeSync works best with AMD GPU’s) using a display or HDMI port as we in our case, here is what you might experience.
The Sceptre C328B-144KN Curved monitor allowed us to play a number of games at 144Hz on 1080p resolution. Toggling between the RTS and FPS modes allowed gameplay at over 90fps with no lag or screen tearing whatsoever thanks to the availability of FreeSync.
The Sceptre C328B-144KN achieves brightness levels of up to 250 cd/m2 but it’s easy on the eyes since it has a Blue Light Shift eye saver mechanism.
Sceptre C328B-144KN Review: Conclusion
Sceptre has really gone out their way to create an elegantly curved display on the cheap. They even include a Sceptre screwdriver in the package to help you attach the stand!
At the time we did the Sceptre C328B-144KN review, this unit was retailing at under $500 on Amazon. This is a great bargain considering that curved displays from other brands at the same price have fewer specs. The LG 32MA70HY-P 32-Inch Full HD monitor is cheaper at $339 lacks free Sync and is a plain LED monitor, has thicker bezels, the BenQ EX3203R Curved Gaming Monitor is at par with this unit at $399 but is a 31.5 inches monitor and honestly not as elegant as the Sceptre C328B-144KN Monitor
If you liked our Sceptre C328B-144KN Curved Gaming FHD LED Monitor review and would like to check out other models from Sceptre, check out our review of the Sceptre C278W-1920R 27 Inch Curved Monitor
