BenQ FP241W *Wow*

Davepen

Davepen

Davepen

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Hey,
Longggg time reader, first time poster :)

I had been looking to upgrade my Hyundai 19" lcd monitor for some time but could never decide on which monitor to go for.

Initially I thought that I would go for the Acer G24, but didnt fancy backlight bleed in darker games and had heard a lot of bad things about it, was then thinking about the 24" NEC on OC but heard that wasent too great either.


Finally decided on the BenQ FP241W and all I can say is.... WOW

This monitor is truely amazing, I can notice no ghosting what-so-ever, I have been playing a lot of games on it, everything seems perfect. I have no dead pixels at all, all of the black tones are black as can be, all of the colours look amazing, and I havent even calibrated it yet!

I was even thinking of getting a new gfx card because I was worried that my pc wouldnt be able to handle running at 1900x1200 res (E6600, geforce 8800gtx, 4gb ram) but it seems to handle everything I can throw at it without issue.

I know Im probably gonna get a jesus.jpg but I think this is the best purchase I have ever made, a far better idea than upgrading my computers graphics card or processor, I mean, whats the point of having a mega fast pc if you dont have the display to watch it on?

I really think OCUK should start stocking this monitor, it truely is amazing!

This post is just to try and convince anyone thinking of taking the plunge and getting a big lcd to do it! You wont be sorry :)
 
Nice mini-review, and very helpful for those in the market for a 24" (like me). Glad you like it! OCUK used to stock this I think, maybe they should start again?
 
Ye..ive had one for over a year and still love it. It was £450 when I bought mine! OcUk should bring this back...one of the best panels on the go in 24" range!
 
I was really suprised at the quality of the monitor, considering how old it is.

I paid £320 for mine and its simply amazing :)

I read a lot of comparisons saying that the response time's compared to a CRT was bad, but I personally cant see it.

All this fuss about 2ms response time is not required, this is 6ms and I cant see any ghosting or lag at all, its simply awesome :D

OC should definatly start stocking this monitor again as it is top quality.
 
I have one and it is an amazing monitor. Though I have quite an old version without the firmware update that fixes the occasional flick to black screen for a second.
 
is this simply a very good monitor due to other technical bits inside it which means the 6ms does not matter - as most of the time you'd be looking for or recommended the lowest time you can ?

or is there really not much the naked eye can discern between 2ms,5ms or 6ms ?

i still cant decide on a monitor although this one is out of my price range :(
 
Though I have quite an old version without the firmware update that fixes the occasional flick to black screen for a second.
Click to expand...

Had one of these to begin with but due to other problems had it swapped by Benq for the FP241WZ model.

Both suffer/ed from the occasional black screen and are/were recent (2008) models but as far as I was aware there was no cure available.

Can you post me a link to the details of the firmware upgrade including date .

Thanks in anticipation.
 
Well now I am not so sure there is a fix. I thought that one had been made and I was sure I read about it on these forums.

To Google I go.
 
I have this monitor, and I'll flick another thumb to the sky in it's favour. I use it for the following:

PC (DVI-I),
360 (VGA),
PS3 (HDMI),
PS2 (S-video)
Wii (Component)

I find it hard to complain on grounds of colour accuracy and response times. There is a very slight smear effect when playing games with a heavy emphasis on scrolling images (such as FIFA), but there is absolutely no inverse ghosting. This is widely considered to be problem inherent in monitors featuring RTC modes, which can overcompensate and lead to ghosting of an opposite colour against a moving object (imagine a Liverpool player leaving a trail of green). Having been through several monitors, including the Hyundai W240D and the HP LP2475W, it was a pleasure to find one without any sign of this.

As people have mentioned, there is indeed a black-out problem. This essentially involves the screen losing signal for 2 seconds, and then regaining a picture. Based on my 4 months worth of experience with the monitor, I've noticed it tends to occur only every other day, typically just after turning it on or switching between sources (mainly on DVI). I've heard changing to a DVI-D cable resolves this issue due to it's higher bandwidth - but I've yet to hear confirmation on the matter. Obviously, testing it out myself would be the first port of call but, to be honest, it's never really bothered me to such an extent. It's clearly a defect, and I'm sure it'll be resolved in future models, but to me it's only a very occasional, momentary delay.
 
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Yeah. It's strange. I'm finding it hard to recall any instance where it blacked out with any other input.

It's also difficult to determine whether or not it's because DVI is the most used input - and therefore the most likely to showcase the problem when it does happen. It could just be a matter of chance.
 
Hmm. Three quesions:

1. Not enough space?
2. What are the differences between the two versions?
3. Which do you ultimately prefer?

I've always wondered about the Z version, since they discontinued it. I don't know what I'm missing out on.
 
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Z version was a gimic, it was designed to reduce ghosting etc on a screen that already did not suffer from this. It alternated black frames inbetween what you were seeing. gave some people headaches i beleive as well. it also dulled the colours and was generally a waste of money.
 
I cant tell the difference between them, the z has a slightly different coloured stand, as far as i was aware the z version only fixed stuff to do with the pixel mapping, ive used both a lot and not had any problems with either of them.

Well ive got these 2 moniters and a 40" 1080p series 5 samsung, so its become slightly redundant now unless i got a new graphics card with 2 dvi's and an hdmi.
 
MaX_PoWah said:
I cant tell the difference between them, the z has a slightly different coloured stand, as far as i was aware the z version only fixed stuff to do with the pixel mapping, ive used both a lot and not had any problems with either of them.

Well ive got these 2 moniters and a 40" 1080p series 5 samsung, so its become slightly redundant now unless i got a new graphics card with 2 dvi's and an hdmi.
Click to expand...

pixil mapping was fixed in a new revision around september 07
 
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