The BenQ EW2420: Too good to be true?
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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.
So for image editing etc. would the EW2420 be a worthy compromise over the Dell, especially when you consider it's £100 less? Or is the colour reproduction still going to let it down considerably for such uses vs the Dell?
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.
Interesting. I must say, the colours on page 4 look a bit more punchy on the Benq, but the other images look less so... that seems odd. The Benq also looks a bit sharper to my eye in a few of those pics.
The number of times I like to position my monitor just like THIS, it's good to know the Dell will still look good!
Hang on, that's the VW2420. What's the difference?
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Soldato
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.
I don't think I need to go on but if you have any questions feel free to ask. I will continue with the review as normal (without the usual photography as I don't dare remove the shrink wrapping) and most likely return this monitor as soon as I can.
Whats it like watching a dvd film quality wise ?
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The outer bezel and aesthetics are different, but the actual panels used are exactly the same so image/picture quality also the same. The VW2420 is thinner, it uses an external power supply brick and it also has 1 less HDMI port. I'm not sure if there are any other major differences, but from what I can tell it's worse, feature wise.
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Soldato
really thinking you'd need to try b4 you buy with this monitor.
i'm gonna ring that guy up i spoke to this afternoon and see if i can arrange a trial or return it if i don't like it.
i'm gonna ring that guy up i spoke to this afternoon and see if i can arrange a trial or return it if i don't like it.
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That sounds like your best bet.
The responsiveness (as well as everything else on monitors) seems to be highly subjective, so whilst some may find it nauseating, others are totally fine with it - hence why there's a lot of conflicting reviews out there.
Personally, I'm going to trust PCM2 and give the BenQ models a skip as I mainly want a fast monitor.
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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Fair enough.
How does your sample cope with this image? (you might want to blow it up to full screen) Is the text clearly discernible from directly head-on, and if not, does adjusting the gamma so that it *is* visible mess the image up in other ways? Do you need to go far off-perpendicular in the horizontal plane before there's a dramatic difference?
I'm not asking the questions very well, but I guess you know what I'm getting at.
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.
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).
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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It certainly does sound like a very good monitor for watching movies.
Do you own Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 by any chance? It's probably the game I play most currently and wondered what the ghosting/smoke trail was like in that game since it's generally quite dark, but has some bright bits on certain maps.
Do you own Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 by any chance? It's probably the game I play most currently and wondered what the ghosting/smoke trail was like in that game since it's generally quite dark, but has some bright bits on certain maps.
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.
