BL2400PT - Small Review & Videos

rickh · 12 Nov 2010 at 16:12

I got my BL2400PT today (same panel as the ew2420).

I can confirm that it's semi glossy.

Good points: The stand is excellent, the AG coating isn't visible (clean whites), the blacks are very nice, the panel is responsive enough for gaming - I can't notice it in games I've tried. Viewing angles are excellent (the colour shifts a little compared to IPS but it's miles better than TN).

Bad points: I have the 'dark finger' effect (dark shapes on whites) as mentioned here - doesn't bother me much though. I had to turn up digital vibrance to 60% because the monitor seems a bit washed out without it. The image isn't as crisp/sharp as it could be (compared to my apple cinema display) - even with the sharpness turned up to the max.

Overall - for £170 the monitor is brilliant value. It feels much nicer than my g2420hdbl did. However, if you aren't willing to play with it then I think the 2420hdbl looked nicer out of the box.

Something that might be useful to someone - this monitor comes with 'eye protect' enabled in the menu, which dims the backlight even if set to 100%.

Also, there is no 'game' mode - not sure what difference this makes.

Here are some videos comparing to an LG TN monitor:

Black level test in Toy Story 2 intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDYysxFh7Pw

Quick demo of call of duty & some viewing angle tests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5h6W78TkQQ

datalol-jack · 12 Nov 2010 at 16:26

Also, there is no 'game' mode - not sure what difference this makes.

AMA -Advanced Motion Accelerator; Turn it on and keep it on, if you have not done so already. Difference being a faster response from the panel, which is important for games and animation. Without AMA you may see after images or motion smearing on the screen to a greater extent than with it on. Check out the EW thread, PCM tested this feature in his review, and you can use the same approach to see the difference for yourself.

PCM2 · 12 Nov 2010 at 16:27

The 'game' mode is just a Senseye preset. Like all Senseye presets it's terrible!

Thanks for this. I can't say my experiences with the EW2420 have matched yours but it seems in balance you are happy. The EW2420 is far from washed out with the correct brightness and contrast adjustments and is one of the best standard gamut monitors I have used for colour reproduction. I'd have to say that the full glossy display of the Apple LED Cinema displays does bring out a little extra of vibrancy at the 'high end', but contrast is not as good. Sharpness on the EW2420 is also good even on the default setting (or up one). The glossy display of the cinema display may enhance perceived sharpness and they are, naturally, higher resolution - so it does have a little bit of an edge over a lot of monitors. Compare the sharpness of the EW2420 to another monitor at the same resolution and it is a better comparison.

datalol-jack · 12 Nov 2010 at 16:39

The 'game' mode is just a Senseye preset. Like all Senseye presets it's terrible!

I am quite happy to seen it gone from this model, to be fair. Whatever BenQ may say about its factory calibration, all of their presets, in my experience to date, were rather garish.

sRGB and Standard being tolerable out of the box, but are set too bright. Without the Eye Protect (Ambient Light) Sensor in operation, it was a bit too straining in a normal office setting.

rickh, did you experience the reported backlight 'ripple' pattern toward the bottom right corner of the screen, by any chance? The user in the EW thread commented on it alongside the 'death hand' effect

Just wondering if it is a batch or per-unit issue. Cheers in advance.

rickh · 12 Nov 2010 at 16:56

datalol-jack said:
rickh, did you experience the reported backlight 'ripple' pattern toward the bottom right corner of the screen, by any chance? The user in the EW thread commented on it alongside the 'death hand' effect Just wondering if it is a batch or per-unit issue. Cheers in advance.

Yeah - it's there but not obvious.
Only on bright colours.

As I said - for £170 it's a good monitor, but it's not a perfect monitor!
If I'd paid any more I'd be a little upset - but it's fantastic value considering TN panels are around the same price.

And yeah - first thing I did was enable AMA!

datalol-jack · 12 Nov 2010 at 17:00

Yeah - it's there but not obvious.
Only on bright colours.

Thanks for that.

If I'd paid any more I'd be a little upset - but it's fantastic value considering TN panels are around the same price.

Couldn't agree more: when this BenQ range came down in price from the original RRP of about 212 pound sterling, it became one of the best monitor bargains this year.

crisbduck · 12 Nov 2010 at 17:37

Mines coming tomorrow

rickh · 12 Nov 2010 at 20:43

Here's the worst cause of the 'dark fingers' I've found - twitter!

It's not noticeable on anything other than very light pastel colours or white.

Here's an image of a word document to show you that it's not usually that bad:

This might bother some - but for what you're getting at this price it's allowed to be imperfect (although I wish it wasn't).

PCM2 · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:09

Could you post links to the pictures instead? They don't seem to load.

datalol-jack · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:11

Imageshack hosted and load on this end, but below are the links to the image pages:

http://img824.imageshack.us/i/img0029kb.jpg/

http://img266.imageshack.us/i/img0030vu.jpg/

PCM2 · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:15

Can't see them for some reason and they don't load on the links either. I ran a bandwidth tester and have been loading other sites no problem so I have no idea what's going on.

crackerbear · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:21

Thanks for all the photos and especially videos rickh. I've been looking for someone to take photos or videos in comparison to other screens, like TN panels.

That LED ripple is quite off putting, for me, I think you're the 5th person I've seen that has had it with these BenQ VA models. The dark finger/death hand thing seems less pronounced on yours than what kmnWolfman had.

PCM2, the images load for me (I'm on O2), but not for a friend of mine on BT Broadband. Try these links:

http://oi55.tinypic.com/2rzc9b4.jpg

http://oi52.tinypic.com/t7mpf4.jpg

datalol-jack · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:21

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2531/img0030vu.jpg

Here is a direct link to one of the images, sorry. Have a go, and see if you can get at it. I had similar issues with Imageshack / Photobucket where my DynDNS filter decided it did not like something about either site and would not load perfectly legitimate images. Go figure. :\

PCM2 · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:32

Thanks cracker - can see them from your image. It is quite bad on the twitter page. Have you noticed it affecting colours in any way during your applications, too? I thankfully don't have any issues on my EW2420 but I probably would have sent it back if I did I. I'm quite fussy about things like that.

crackerbear · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:43

PCM2 said:
Thanks cracker - can see them from your image. It is quite bad on the twitter page. Have you noticed it affecting colours in any way during your applications, too? I thankfully don't have any issues on my EW2420 but I probably would have sent it back if I did I. I'm quite fussy about things like that.

You seem to have received an absolute gem of a unit, going by the reports of what others have got. It may not make a blind bit of difference, but where did you buy yours (if you can somehow answer cryptically)?

PCM2 · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:52

I feel the same. Like the review sample I got of the Dell ST2320L was absolutely terrible and the review had to reflect that (in a balanced way of course) despite the fact it was most probably a fault of the individual unit. I bought it from some Japanese sounding place - the 6th largest city in Japan, with a vowel infront of it. They were also very good at handling the return request that I initiated (before deciding to keep the unit) without causing a fuss. I'd certainly buy from them again if something wasn't available from a great place like OcUK.

datalol-jack · 12 Nov 2010 at 21:53

Could we possibly have yet another case of multiple panel suppliers / production facilities out which only one gets their quality control right?

crackerbear · 12 Nov 2010 at 22:03

PCM2 said:
I bought it from some Japanese sounding place - the 6th largest city in Japan, with a vowel infront of it.

Ah, ta. I know the store you bought from

crisbduck · 12 Nov 2010 at 23:19

/nervous bout my delivery now... well should have gone for the samsung :|

rickh · 13 Nov 2010 at 02:20

crisbduck said:
/nervous bout my delivery now... well should have gone for the samsung :|

I wouldn't be.

Even with the defects I still love it and in sure it will look better than any tn panel. The pictures exaggerate the issues.

The finger effects are barely visible and get less obvious with more brightness.
I didn't even notice the led ripple at the bottom until I saw the picture.

I could buy this and a 120hz monitor for the price of an ips panel and get the best of both worlds.

Just be prepared to play with settings.