Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2009
- Posts
- 6,038
- Location
- North Leicestershire
****I am not a regular reviewer of computer hardware but thought I would share a unbiased opinion on this monitor for the people that are having difficulty deciding.****
Review of BenQ EW2420 Backlight LED Monitor
After spending some time with the monitor today i thought i'd post my findings here
Firstly i've had a real mare setting it up regarding colour,contrast and brightness and at one point today was 2 clicks away from buying a calibration tool. After 3 hours i've finally settled on what i think is best for me which is as follows
brightness 32
contrast 60
sharpness 3
gamma 2.2
red 88
green 88
blue 86
AMA on
This seemed to give me the best possible all round quality and colour for my pc and ps3.
Right onto what i think
Firstly backlight bleed, direct(face on) on the unit suffers no backlight bleed only when moving to a 70 degree angle to the left or right can i start to notice a bluish tinge to the 2 opposite corners, it's perfectly acceptable as most people do not view their monitors from obscure angles on a daily basis.
Next i went on to test the ghosting/trailing i've seen a lot of people talking about. Yes there is some ghosting to be seen especially when going from extreme white to black very quickly. The best example I found of this was by going to this webpage http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php also opening up a second tab with googles homepage on there. Now switch to the langom test page,wait 10 seconds then switch tabs to google homepage and you will see the 15 black boxes from the langom page drift away on the google page. I timed this 5 times and made a average of the time it took for googles homepage to become white again. The average time was 2.1 seconds remember that is an extreme example of black to white transition.
Next I tested ghosting/trailing in game the games I tested today were.
Metro 2033
Splinter cell conviction
Crysis warhead
Resident evil 5
Alien Vs Predator
Killing floor
Need for speed shift
I can honestly say it is not a problem in any of the games I tested, yes it's present in a minor form but unless you are specifically looking for it then it is something that is not going to affect you in your everyday gaming sessions. Even using splinter cell convictions sonic goggles which show white,grey and black I did not notice and trailing which would inadvertently affect your gaming.
Onto the picture quality using the same games mentioned above
One word can describe my experience very well and thats WOW I have never seen any of my games look so good the colour reproduction,transition and a feel of depth to the scenes were immense at some parts, Crysis warheads greenery looked vivid and lively, right down to metro 2033's dark damp tunnels and stinking sewers . I think the reason things look so good is down to the semi gloss coating of the screen itself. I really cannot explain any more how good the quality is from this monitor especially in it's price band.
Movie and high definition playback
This was also a joy to watch blacks were deep and dark and not the usual greyish blacks I was used to from my old TN panel. My movies of choice were Terminator salvation and The matrix on blu-ray, both looked stunning using the Playstation 3 as the playback source. I actually got sidetracked from what I was doing watching Terminator it was a joy to watch the 40 minutes or so that I did. Once again colours were top notch.
My final verdict
I think at this moment in time and in this price band the BenQ EW2420 is a cracking all round monitor. And other companies definitely have to pull something special out of the bag in this price range for me to consider switching again to another brand.
Any questions then please feel free to ask and i'll answer best I can.
****Also sorry if it seemed long winded it is my first time reviewing anything!****
Review of BenQ EW2420 Backlight LED Monitor
After spending some time with the monitor today i thought i'd post my findings here
Firstly i've had a real mare setting it up regarding colour,contrast and brightness and at one point today was 2 clicks away from buying a calibration tool. After 3 hours i've finally settled on what i think is best for me which is as follows
brightness 32
contrast 60
sharpness 3
gamma 2.2
red 88
green 88
blue 86
AMA on
This seemed to give me the best possible all round quality and colour for my pc and ps3.
Right onto what i think
Firstly backlight bleed, direct(face on) on the unit suffers no backlight bleed only when moving to a 70 degree angle to the left or right can i start to notice a bluish tinge to the 2 opposite corners, it's perfectly acceptable as most people do not view their monitors from obscure angles on a daily basis.
Next i went on to test the ghosting/trailing i've seen a lot of people talking about. Yes there is some ghosting to be seen especially when going from extreme white to black very quickly. The best example I found of this was by going to this webpage http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php also opening up a second tab with googles homepage on there. Now switch to the langom test page,wait 10 seconds then switch tabs to google homepage and you will see the 15 black boxes from the langom page drift away on the google page. I timed this 5 times and made a average of the time it took for googles homepage to become white again. The average time was 2.1 seconds remember that is an extreme example of black to white transition.
Next I tested ghosting/trailing in game the games I tested today were.
Metro 2033
Splinter cell conviction
Crysis warhead
Resident evil 5
Alien Vs Predator
Killing floor
Need for speed shift
I can honestly say it is not a problem in any of the games I tested, yes it's present in a minor form but unless you are specifically looking for it then it is something that is not going to affect you in your everyday gaming sessions. Even using splinter cell convictions sonic goggles which show white,grey and black I did not notice and trailing which would inadvertently affect your gaming.
Onto the picture quality using the same games mentioned above
One word can describe my experience very well and thats WOW I have never seen any of my games look so good the colour reproduction,transition and a feel of depth to the scenes were immense at some parts, Crysis warheads greenery looked vivid and lively, right down to metro 2033's dark damp tunnels and stinking sewers . I think the reason things look so good is down to the semi gloss coating of the screen itself. I really cannot explain any more how good the quality is from this monitor especially in it's price band.
Movie and high definition playback
This was also a joy to watch blacks were deep and dark and not the usual greyish blacks I was used to from my old TN panel. My movies of choice were Terminator salvation and The matrix on blu-ray, both looked stunning using the Playstation 3 as the playback source. I actually got sidetracked from what I was doing watching Terminator it was a joy to watch the 40 minutes or so that I did. Once again colours were top notch.
My final verdict
I think at this moment in time and in this price band the BenQ EW2420 is a cracking all round monitor. And other companies definitely have to pull something special out of the bag in this price range for me to consider switching again to another brand.
Any questions then please feel free to ask and i'll answer best I can.
****Also sorry if it seemed long winded it is my first time reviewing anything!****
