The BenQ EW2420: Too good to be true?

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As many of you are no doubt aware I have grown sick of waiting for BenQ's PR department to send me a sample of their new EW2420 - so I went and bought one myself .

Well it arrived earlier today and I have now given it a good testing out in all its shrink-wrapped glory. My initial impressions were very positive - despite maintaining a fairly slender profile it has some decent weight to it so it has a good high-quality feel to it. After firing it up it was clear that the contrast was fantastic, as I would expect form a *VA panel monitor. Whites were brilliantly bright, blacks nice and deep and excellent distinctions between colours. Having dropped the contrast to '58' and brightness to '68' it performed admirably on the Lagom LCD tests for contrast showing excellent distinctions on both the black level and white saturation tests as well as one of the smoothest greyscale gradients I've seen for a long time.

Now why am I writing all of this in the past tense? After all, the EW2420 is sitting infront of me and I'm using it to type this... Despite having enabled 'AMA' (Advanced Motion Accelerator) I found the responsiveness just too slow for comfort. Whilst highly subjective I'm sure this is not what a lot of you guys who were pinning your hopes on this model wanted to hear. It is the first monitor I've used in a long time where you can see a black trail if you move the mouse cursor across the desktop quickly. I found the experience 'dizzying' on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - especially when zipping around on the ATV. It felt like my character was either heavily intoxicated or on some sort of hallucinogenic drugs. Even the characters normal walking speed was enough to make textures 'vibrate' with a significant loss of detail and sharpness I found unacceptable.

It's a shame that a monitor with such excellent contrast (the envy even of most IPS monitors I've used) and lovely colour reproduction at such a bl**dy amazing price has to be let down by its responsiveness in this way. I couldn't say it was entirely unexpected - my previous experience with similar panels and my research and use of future technologies (OLED) has echoed my experiences here.


Edit: That thing really grew on us. Well it stayed the same size - 24 inch diagonal screen with a bit of plastic around it, but we found the experience very good. Just how good? Read the full review and see - http://www.pcmonitors.org/monitor-reviews/benq-ew2420.

 

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PixPerAn? I will do so. I would also like to add at this point that the responsiveness issues were particularly bad on Bad Company 2 but I think a lot depends on the type of game you play. I have been testing Dirt 2 for the past hour or so and the responsiveness honestly wasn't that big an issue on that. At night things got a bit blurry but during the day it felt like a much more responsive monitor.

 

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Pixel transition times can be dependent on the colour change, yes. Considering a dark scene with artificial lights - some transitions are from 'near black' to very light colours or 'near white' which tends to be slower than a transition between two similar colours (especially on an overdriven panel). On *VA panels it is well documented that darker colours produce more noticeable trails so it isn't really that the AMA is working any differently but rather that the pixel response time becomes slower.

Edit: Can anybody who has used PixPerAn instruct me on the best camera settings to use to capture the motion? I'm not really clued up on that.

 

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For FPS gaming, yes. It really is a shame though because the fantastic contrast makes explosions and artifical lights look absolutely fantastic in the night. When you're not moving about, anyway.

 

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It's the panel type. It's exactly how I predicted it would be based on my previous experiences with similar panels.

 

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The contrast and colour reproduction is no doubt superior and I think for graphics work on a budget the EW2420 is an excellent choice and unbeatable for the price. I really find just browsing the internet and fiddling about on the desktop a real joy on the EW2420 - the contrast is just awesome.

It would depend what kind of games you were wanting to play and how often. I still think it is a good all-rounder but it depends on the game type and how sensitive you are to responsiveness (or lack thereof).

@ Trifid. I have used the VP2365wb but not for gaming. I think TFT Central has a review up of that one with the PixPerAn animation on to show how responsive it is. I will do the same test at some point and post some pictures for comparison (and of course feature them in the review).

 

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My initial impressions were very positive - despite maintaining a fairly slender profile it has some decent weight to it so it has a good high-quality feel to it.

Not much else to say really. The connection to the stand is not as secure as it could be and the montor does wobble if you push the top but overall it feels a lot more solid than most BenQ monitors. I've said before that they tend to feel like toys - this feels more like an actual piece of computing equipment.

 

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Is it somehow possible to capture the lag in a video to see how bad it is.

And do you think it would be a contender for ps3/x box 360 use as well as pc as my monitor needs to be able to do all 3 considering they all reside on/in my desk

I'm not sure.. It might be. I will experiment with some recording and see what I can come up with. If you deem it is suitable for PC use then I don't see why it wouldn't be suitable for console use - it has all the right connections.

A little aside - the definition in the avatars on this forum is just staggering on this monitor. You can see every little crease in my dude's suit and the wall behind him is completely distinctive. I do love the contrast on this thing.

 

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Well I would say that in terms of colour reproduction IPS panels have the slight edge where accuracy and overall range is concerned - although the range of colours this thing displays has surprised me so far in a very good way. The contrast of the EW2420 is considerably better than the Dell U2311H's, though. This is not to say that the U2311H has poor contrast because it doesn't - the contrast on the EW2420 is just phenominal. The U2311H is undoubtedly a more responsive monitor so is more suitable for fast-paced games.

 

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To be perfectly honest the U2311H is itself a compromise for 'professional level' editing over H-IPS and P-IPS monitors in particular - it's why it's so much cheaper. Having said that the colour accuracy once calibrated has been shown to be very good. The EW2420, I have no doubt, would be an excellent compromise for image editing particularly once calibrated (if accuracy is very important). *VA panels aren't quite as consistent with colours as IPS as there is a slight shift (nowhere near as bad as TN) across the screen and particularly as you move your head you will notice this. I think the enhanced contrast on the EW2420, however, can also bring out subtle details that even IPS monitors would miss!

 

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Yeah I think I was lucky to get this one (ironic since I want to send it back - even though I grow to like it more and more the more I use it). You can get it if you're willing to pay £190 for it but I guess that defeats the attractiveness somewhat.

 

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You might want to flick through the images here - my Chinese is a bit rusty and of course we don't know how these particular monitors have been set up, but there seems enough evidence to suggest that the Dell spanks it for colour reproduction (check out pages 6 and 7 in particular). Also, the Dell's viewing angles seem in a different league if that's important to you.

Ignore those pictures - complete and utter load of rubbish. First off what you see there is the colours that the camera sees followed by what your own monitor produces. Secondly it makes the VW they are testing look washed out. since I have used both the U2211 and EW2420 very recently I am more reliable than some Chinese website and can tell you from the images they clearly have the brightness at default (too high) and contrast at default (too low) on the BenQ which washes out the image. If I set the EW2420 back to default then even the Dell looks anaemic on the pictures. If I set the EW2420 to my preferred settings the distinction is huge - alarm bells should be ringing.

And somebody asked about movies... I will test them shortly but haven't got round to it yet.

 

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Well it's still a *VA panel and as such it does still show some degree of gamma shift. As with the lagom 'black level' test some very dark shades of grey do blend into the black more if you are perpendicular to the image. The text is still readable at any angle but certainly more distinct if you aren't directly perpendicular to it. The detail in shaded areas in games, though, is absolutely fine (much more so than other VA panels I've used). I will test movies later today to see if the same can be said.

Edit: If you shift the gamma from the default 2.2 to 2.0 in the OSD the text comes even easier to distinguish (the shift is still there but less pronounced). It does make the overall image a tad warmer but this can easily be compensated for by adjusting the colour balance.

 

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Right I've just tested two very different films. The first was the latest Futurama film (Into the Wild Green Yonder). It was absolutely fantastic to watch on this monitor. I won't go into too much depth as I don't want to spoil the review but the colours and contrast was just outstanding throughout. The second film was a bit more gritty and had plenty of dark scenes - it was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I am pleased to say that the 'black crush' problems that often plague such panels didn't rear their ugly heads on this title. Distinct details such as creases in clothes could still be seen in dark areas - what's more this is one of the very few monitors that can distinguish between the dark brown of the main characters eyes and the blacks of her pupils in some scenes.

Trailing was no more noticeable on either title than on most TN panels tested under the same conditions. I'm going to try to test some different genres of games (flight simulators and perhaps some RTS games).

 

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I'm afraid not. I would grab the demo and test it for you but they don't seem to have it. I'll test the Resident Evil 5 demo as I think that's the most similar title I can manage at the moment.

 

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Well I have tested the Resident Evil 5 benchmark. It did make me feel a bit dizzy - but I think that has more to the fact that it's a rolling demo and I wasn't in control of the action. The trailing didn't seem to bad and not really all that different to most TN panels I've tested it on. Red Alert 3 - likewise. I think the EW2420 is a fine monitor for RTS games. There is a fair bit of blur when you scroll quickly but that is very commonly experienced on any LCD monitor.

 

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I am having the same mental tussle myself. It is only to replace an aging Samsung 2032BW on my downstairs PC. I usually use whatever monitor I'm reviewing or a reference monitor on my primary PC. Bad Company 2 made me feel a bit dizzy but I don't often play that on my PC downstairs. Just like to have the option to do so. Haha

 

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Yes I do agree. It is an exceptional monitor for the price for that kind of use.

 

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What kind of games?

 

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Maybe it would solve the mental dilema if you went for something significantly cheaper, a little smaller but still good like the B2230N. It's still a great monitor (yes - it's a TN panel but that has its advantages as well), would be more suitable for CoD and MOH gaming and costs under £120 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-137-SA&groupid=17&catid=949&subcat=.

And don't worry about the VGA input - read the FX2490HD review on my website if you need convincing.