Connectivity

In terms of video inputs, the EIZO FlexScan EV3240X is equipped with everything you might expect from a serious office monitor. That includes a pair of HDMI 1.4 inputs, a DisplayPort 1.3 input, as well as a 5 Gbps USB-C port with DisplayPort Alt Mode and Power Delivery support.


The rear ("main") USB-C port can deliver up to 94 W of charging power to connected mobile devices, such as laptops, smartphones or tablets. That's enough juice to charge most laptops regardless of what you're using them for. The side-mounted USB-C port supports 15 W Power Delivery, but doesn't support DP Alt Mode, so it cannot be used as an additional video input. Of course, the main USB-C port is also used for data transfer between your PC and whichever devices you plugged into the three 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports or the side USB-C port. Thanks to all of this, the EIZO FlexScan EV3240X essentially acts as a docking station. Combining it with a laptop boils down to connecting a single cable, which will extend your desktop, enable the use of any and all peripherals and external drives connected to the monitor, and charge the laptop's battery.

In case your computer doesn't have a USB-C port, you can still use the monitor's integrated USB hub by utilizing its USB Type-B upstream port and connecting it to a regular USB Type-A port on your PC. The two upstream ports (USB-C and USB Type-B) also let you connect the monitor to two computers at once and seamlessly switch between them with a single set of peripherals. Let's say your work machine is a USB-C laptop and you're also using a standard desktop PC for entertainment. You'll connect your laptop to the EIZO FlexScan EV3240X with a USB-C cable and your home PC with a regular USB Type-B to USB Type-A cable, and a DisplayPort or HDMI video cable. Finally, you'll connect your keyboard and mouse to the USB Type-A ports on the monitor. After doing that, all you have to do is switch between the USB-C and DisplayPort/HDMI inputs on the monitor; the built-in KVM switch will swap your peripherals between active video interfaces. Meaning, when you switch to USB-C, your mouse and keyboard will control your laptop. After switching to DisplayPort/HDMI, your peripherals will automatically control your home PC.

A third option is to connect two sources to the monitor individually and use them in Picture-in-Picture or Picture-by-Picture mode. These two modes are found within the source selection menu in the OSD or the appropriate quick menu.


The monitor also has a gigabit Ethernet port, which is internally wired to its USB-C interface, so you can enjoy the benefits of a wired connection to your local network without worrying about your laptop being too thin to host an Ethernet port.


The monitor also has a 3.5-millimeter line output (for powered speakers) and a headphone jack.

Power Consumption

The EIZO FlexScan EV3240X gets its power through a beefy integrated power supply. I've used the Meross MSS315 Matter Smart Wi-Fi Plug and the accompanying mobile app to determine the monitor's power consumption at various brightness levels, as well as in Power Saving mode, which it enters as soon as the PC goes to sleep. My power consumption measurements are summed up in the chart below. They were made after resetting the monitor to factory defaults and turning the "Auto EcoView" and "EcoView Optimizer 2" features off, to remove variation from power consumption measurements, which could be caused by alternating ambient light levels in my home office.



The power consumption results are quite impressive for a 32-inch 4K IPS monitor. It's worth noting that both the brightness and power consumption raise very slowly from 0 to 75 brightness setting in the OSD, and then in much larger steps from 75 to 100. EIZO is obviously focusing on letting us finely adjust the brightness within the range where we're looking to save our vision and prevent eyestrain. Being able to drop the brightness down to 0.75 cd/m² is another such measure; even most smartphones can't go as low. In case you use either of the USB-C ports to charge your mobile devices, the power consumption will of course rise proportionately. It can go north of 100 W, assuming you're charging a more powerful laptop through the "main" USB-C port.


As for the aforementioned "Auto EcoView" feature, it uses a built-in EcoView Sensor to actively measure the level of ambient light and automatically adjust the picture's brightness accordingly. In my fairly dim work environment, the adjustment was too aggressive for my taste, as it lowered the screen brightness to 20 cd/m², which I don't find bright enough to use the monitor comfortably. The monitor was consuming a mere 12 W of power in that state. The EcoView Sensor is accompanied by the "EcoView Optimizer 2" feature. It aims to further reduce backlight brightness while increasing the gain of darker content, which should result in no perceivable loss of brightness, but reduce power consumption. My power meter showed almost no difference with the EcoView Optimizer 2 on or off. I would resort to manually adjusting the brightness to a preferred level and aim to keep it constant during the day (in a controlled environment at least), but that's not to say some users won't prefer to let brightness adjust itself automatically (and dynamically). Either way, look for the Auto EcoView and EcoView Optimizer 2 toggles in the EcoView Settings menu.