The BenQ EW2420: Too good to be true?

PCM2

PCM2

PCM2

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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 :p.

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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Aw that really is a shame and I honestly mean that. Not just for me as I, as you know, was looking to buy it as well, but also for you since you have to go through the hassle of sending it back.

From the vast majority of "expert" reviews and user feedback, the monitor seemed to tick all the right boxes. It's a shame it doesn't quite live up to the hype, especially since it's almost there, just fell short on the last hurdle.

From the sounds of things, it seems a superb monitor if your only usage was watching movies, some photo editing and browsing web. However that responsiveness is a killer for anyone wanting to play games on it.

Thanks for going through the effort of buying and writing up a mini-review, I'll still read the full review whenever it's done.
 
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.
 
PCM2 said:
At night things got a bit blurry but during the day it felt like a much more responsive monitor.
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How odd. Is the AMA contrast dependent? Surely it can't be.

Edit:- The other initial impression on HardForum mentioned the BenQ passed all the Lagom tests, but not the PRAD bouncing box test. It does seem to match the seemingly contradicting responsiveness.
 
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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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Right, that makes sense.

I guess the monitor being only half responsive isn't quite good enough for me. I presume it's safe to say you'd still recommend the Samsung B2340H or P2450H over the BenQ EW2420?
 
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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PCM2 said:
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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That's the one... Sorry I couldn't think of the name...

I've only used it once and I think I used 1/200 shutter speed.

Have you used the Viewsonic VP2365wb or a similar panel monitor? If so, what is the responsiveness like compared to these and their 14ms GTG?
 
How would you say it stacks up against the B2430/P2450 in regards to graphics work. I don't mean as a professional use monitor, but I do use Photoshop a bit, plus games etc. so would like a decent all rounder, but on a budget. Would you say the EW2420 is better in that respect (in this price bracket) or still the Samsung?
 
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).
 
Good to know. How's the build quality and general 'feel' of the monitor? Have seen it said about Benq before that they feel a bit cheap, and particularly in comparison with the Samsung which i've seen first hand look and feel very good for the money.
 
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PCM2 said:
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.
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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.
 
PCM2 said:
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
 
bigjimmyauk said:
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
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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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