The BenQ EW2420: Too good to be true?

Indeed - but nothing official from BenQ regarding this. BenQ have used PVA panels in the past and I'm not sure if modern MVA panels actually match these for contrast. Most people who read the review will do so via the websites homepage. The whole 'undisclosed' issue is addressed here - http://www.pcmonitors.org/reviews/benq-ew2420-review-published :)

Damn too many comments.... Honestly guys I promise that no other review will be as rushed as this one. Any references you see to the F2380 or CCFL backlights are being removed as we speak! They are hangovers from the template used. ;)
 
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Another "helpful" suggestion :D - you point out the stand's flimsiness and limited adjustability, so it might be worth mentioning the VESA mounting points for people who might want to make use of them. :)
 
Has anyone been able to confirm whether this screen and the BL2400PT have the same semi-gloss coating?

I'd much rather have display port over 2 HDMI inputs.
 
CaptainCrash said:
Another "helpful" suggestion :D - you point out the stand's flimsiness and limited adjustability, so it might be worth mentioning the VESA mounting points for people who might want to make use of them. :)
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Agreed and added. :) Also added a little bit about the power consumption to the specifications section. The 40W maximum assumes a 100% brightness and active USB ports. I have just recorded 28W using the test settings and no active USB ports.
 
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Has anyone been able to confirm whether this screen and the BL2400PT have the same semi-gloss coating?

I'd much rather have display port over 2 HDMI inputs.
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Yes, from what I can tell they are essentially the same panel, aside from the fully ergonomic stand and different connection options. DP should also help with the input lag, although this is primarily a work / movie screen and for fast paced games Sammy's TNs would probably be more suitable.

BenQ confirm this too:

http://www.benq.com/products/product_detail.cfm?product=1735&pltag=3&ptag=273

Just scroll down to the anti-glare section.
 
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Hi guys,

I just bought a VW2420H monitor and I just noticed something a couple of strange things with my unit.

First there appears that there is something wrong with the panel(the closest I can describe it is that it looks like there are finger smudges on the screen). The reason I did not notice this before is because it only becomes evident when the screen is fully white and even then not really noticeable.

I took the following picture of my screen, notice the blackening smudge on the lower right and lower center:
10038765.jpg


In the next picture I messed around with the color levels in Photoshop to make the effect painfully evident:
56945934.jpg

In this picture there appears to be more blackening of the screen but that is probably because I wasn't perpendicular to the screen when I took the picture. In real life only the lower right and lower center suffer.

Also in the second picture my next problem is clearly evident. It appears that the backlight is bleeding through the lower part of my screen.

Both problems only become apparent when a full screen white picture is displayed and do not affect the other colors in any way, which is really weird and the main reason I did not notice them when I initially checked the screen.

And now for my question. Would these reasons be enough to try and change the unit for another one? The main plus for this unit is that I have zero bleed when black is displayed, which is perfectly uniform across the whole screen, and I do have the dynamic contrast turned off.
 
Are these even available anywhere yet? Looking for 3 monitors for Eyefinity but i cant find these anywhere!

How would you say they compare to the Samsung B2430H which is what i was originally looking at PCM2?
 
Lord-Jaffa said:
Are these even available anywhere yet? Looking for 3 monitors for Eyefinity but i cant find these anywhere!

How would you say they compare to the Samsung B2430H which is what i was originally looking at PCM2?
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The colours are better on the EW2420 (slightly more vibrant and undoubtedly more accurate) and the contrast is hands down much, much better. The LED backlight also gives it a slight edge in efficiency and lower heat production, although the *VA panel does nullify this advantage somewhat. The responsiveness is the only area where the B2430H really has an advantage. The stand is possibly a little better on the Samsung too but the overall build quality is similar. The EW2420 does have a bit of extra weight to it. This is all covered on the review though.
 
Lord-Jaffa said:
Are these even available anywhere yet? Looking for 3 monitors for Eyefinity but i cant find these anywhere!
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Look at the BL2400PT instead. A large shop has them in stock right now, it has a slightly narrower bezel and most importantly displayport so no need to waste time with the adapters.
 
Look at the BL2400PT instead. A large shop has them in stock right now, it has a slightly narrower bezel and most importantly displayport so no need to waste time with the adapters.
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Thumbs up to that. You get a better stand too, which will do a better job until you hook the screens up to a proper three monitor bracket.
 
PCM2 said:
The review is now published. Enjoy :) http://www.pcmonitors.org/monitor-reviews/benq-ew2420.
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Great review, just one spelling mistake that I spotted and that was "gamma shift thattends to" :)

I think that from what I've read, you seem to be one of the few lucky people that got a very good unit. Not only did you not get any back light bleed problems, but it also seemed to be fairly well colour calibrated out of the box - probably the biggest problem a lot of people have mentioned, including this review of the VW2420H. There's also that "LED ripple" problem that kmnWolfman and someone else had too that I've seen. It appears the quality control at BenQ is not quite up to par.

A few videos and photos that some might want to see:

Things that come supplied, stand capabilities and viewing angles of all the BenQ VA + LED models (VW2420H, EW2420 & BL2400PT): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFVVBXPCQAU Note, you can also somewhat see the degree of what the gloss/reflection on the screens are.

Short clip of someone using an Xbox 360 (though only some menus and not in game) on the VW2420H: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahQvft35soY

Here are some high resolution photos of the VW2420H by ak1001 on this russian forum: http://img801.imageshack.us/g/pa311909.jpg/ (zip archive of them all here)

More images of the VW2420H and BL2400PT on this article (outside of the UK, it seems they've dropped the suffixes so it's referred to as VW2420 and BL2400): http://extrahardware.cnews.cz/benq-va-led-konecne-v-redakci

Lots of photos of the VW2420H, including unboxing as well as colour and viewing angle comparison with a TN monitor (no mention of what model) here: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/KisPlay/1412678

Also I noticed that Prad are going to do a review on the BL2400PT, but no mention of when that'll come to light.
21. October 2010, 04:03 BenQ BL2400PT (Status: In the test lab)
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topcaser said:
Excuse me for that question, but how can i detect backlight bleed? I dont know what this is :-(
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Wait until it is dark, turn off all lights in the room and close the door so it is pitch black in the room. Put a black picture displaying on your monitor and observe the light that you can see seeping from the monitor. All LCD's do this but to different degrees.
 
If you haven't noticed backlight bleedthrough from your unit - for god's sake don't go looking for it! A lot of things are only a problem once you start noticing them. :)

@crackerbear.

Thanks for the heads up about the joined up words. I think you are very right about the quality variability of BenQ monitors. It is something I have observed with lots of monitors from all different manufacturers but the variability of 'cheaper' monitors such as BenQ and Hanns.G monitors seems even greater. At the higher end I have seen (or or at least heard about) considerable variability in higher end monitors such as the Dell UltraSharp series too. The more extreme variability is often from differences in the backlights themselves and not the panel - I'm hoping OLED monitors will show much better consistency due to the lack of backlight. :)
 
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