The BenQ EW2420: Too good to be true?

Firstly thanks very much to everyone who has contributed their knowledge and experience about this and other monitors on this forum - it has been a real help to me in gathering information to try and hone down the choice of my first monitor purchase (I've either had laptops or old Apple setups at work til now). I'm still a bit undecided though and could do with some advice!

I am getting a custom built computer with a TV card as I'm living in a studio-type flat with no TV and it will be arriving soon and I haven't anything to plug into it! I originally was just going to get a Samsung screen but was a bit underwhelmed when I got to see one, although I did notice the improvement in brightness and colour rendition with LED screens generally (over TN). I used to work in graphic design so have an appreciation of colour and quality in type rendition and although I don't do colour critical work now (I tinker around with Photoshop sometimes) I thought I'd spend a bit more and get something more pleasing, landing on the HP 2475, that is until I read all the quality issues with it. Then I found TFT Central, which was a great help, and liked the sound of the Dell U2410 over the HP ZR24, especially as I can get the sound bar (have little desk space for speakers) although it is at the top of what I want to spend and I am a bit concerned about the high power usage as I'll have it on most of the day... Then I discovered all the tinting and other quality issues with that monitor and resumed my hunt. So I found this forum and after reading PCM2's review was thinking that the BenQ BL2400 might fit the bill - I can save a bit of money now until the technology improves and upgrade at a suitable point later on but now am a bit concerned about the quality inconsistencies with the BenQs too! What to do?! Any thoughts on this dilemma would be welcome...

I mainly use the computer for producing documents and surfing the web, so do a lot of reading on-screen and now TV watching - I don't anticipate doing any gaming although need good responsiveness for TV and sports, and generally place importance on crisp and clear type as well as good all-round colour rendition. From what you've said PCM2, it seems that you think the Dell U2410 is the monitor of choice over the 24" BenQs and the Dell 2311, but I'm struggling a bit with the price difference when comparing these to the U2410. I'm thinking I should just take my chances over the quality issues but is there really a significant difference between the BL2400 and U2410 in the visual experience that warrants the extra cost? I know there is difference regarding connectivity but I've read that HDMI doesn't always work well and I'm not likely to be hooking up any XBoxes or PS2s etc - my computer will have an in-built Blu-ray player, card reader and USBs, so I can't imagine what else I'd be plugging into the screen. It sounds as if the BenQ 2400 hardware is a bit better than Dell's fiddley buttons and the stand is comparable, although I would want to be sure I can turn off the Eco motion sensor and Smart Reminder thingys as I don't want messages popping up, or the screen to turn off, while I'm sitting back on the sofa watching TV! Of course now the price reduction in the Dell 2311 has made the choice even more difficult without being able to see them for myself... Ultimately if there is not a really significant difference in the visual experience of the U2410 over the other 24" ones, I'd rather compromise a little and save the money.

Any help/input to aid my decision would be most welcome - thank you!
 
What settings did you tweak again? RGB? Gamma? May you post your current settings?
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You may also want his ICC profile the calibration tool produced. Settings and such a profile make a set, although it must be stressed that results from unit to unit differ. If you want accurate colour on your screen, you should perform calibration on your system instead of borrowing settings from a different machine/unit. :)
 
Just to keep you updated. Monitor has been received by the returns dept where i bought it, and they have confirmed it was faulty...

Oh well, they say these things happen for a good reason, and the good reason i suppose is that i want a more expensive 120hz monitor :P
 
topcaser said:
What settings did you tweak again? RGB? Gamma? May you post your current settings?
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None i reset to default and let the spyder 3 take care of the ICC profile. i just adjusted the brightness and contrast manually to 120cd/m2 and black level of 0.01 i used a free trial of colour eyes pro to do this.

My ICC profile will more than likely not work with ur system due to os configuration, graphics driver setting and monitor differences between each panel
 
wez1981 said:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7723077/IMG_0689.MOV
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I was all set to buy this monitor. But after seeing this video, I don't think I will.
I hardly ever game, however, on the occasions that I do, I do not want to be confronted by such severe ghosting.

If the monitor was £100, then I could well understand the ghosting, but at £170+, I would expect something better.

I'm now leaning back towards the Dell U2311H, as that seems to offer great image quality with very few flaws.
 
Yeah, ghosting is pretty bad on this, which was why I sent mine back. Got the U2311H now and much happier with it all round. At the price you can get it for now, it's a no brainer really. :)
 
sunama said:
I was all set to buy this monitor. But after seeing this video, I don't think I will.
I hardly ever game, however, on the occasions that I do, I do not want to be confronted by such severe ghosting.

If the monitor was £100, then I could well understand the ghosting, but at £170+, I would expect something better.

I'm now leaning back towards the Dell U2311H, as that seems to offer great image quality with very few flaws.
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i would not go by that video, i've not ran into a single problem, maybe the guy who did the vid didn't have AMA turned on

plus the dell is £100 more and smaller Sounds like great value for the fussy among us, still also has the same response time as the benq at 8ms GTG so the ghosting is going to be pretty much the same across both monitors.

from a online review

Response and games
U2311H utilizes a IPS panel that is not the fastest LCD panel but in the recent years manufacturers has been able to narrow the gap to the TN panels that are still considered the fastest LCD panels out there.

Response time on U2311H is fast but it’s not competing with the best gaming monitors today. I experienced some minor traditional trailing but also some Overdrive trailing (white halos) in fast motion.

The Overdrive trailing is more noticeable than the traditional trailing but not visible in all color shifts. I primarily saw some Overdrive trailing on black to white transitions and on green to black transitions but not on for example red and blue transitions.

U2311H is fast, however. It’s well suited for movie watching and for most gaming. I won’t call it a FPS gaming monitor and for very fast games you should stick with the 120 Hz monitors such as the Samsung 2233rz.

Another positive thing is that U2311H has virtually no input lag. I compared to some 120 Hz monitors and CRT monitors and only very rarely U2311H introduced a few milliseconds lag but U2311H is indeed very fast and performs very similar to the popular 2209WA monitor.
 
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The Dell U2311H can be had for £186.
The Benq can be had for for £170.

The price difference is around £15.
The other great thing about the Dell is that if upon arrival the product is defective, Dell will arrange a swap very quickly. The same cannot be said about Benq.

The advantage with the Benq is that it has better contrast and the extra inch (which is important).
 
bigjimmyauk said:
Response time on U2311H is fast but it’s not competing with the best gaming monitors today. I experienced some minor traditional trailing but also some Overdrive trailing (white halos) in fast motion.

The Overdrive trailing is more noticeable than the traditional trailing but not visible in all color shifts. I primarily saw some Overdrive trailing on black to white transitions and on green to black transitions but not on for example red and blue transitions.

U2311H is fast, however. It’s well suited for movie watching and for most gaming. I won’t call it a FPS gaming monitor and for very fast games you should stick with the 120 Hz monitors such as the Samsung 2233rz.

Another positive thing is that U2311H has virtually no input lag. I compared to some 120 Hz monitors and CRT monitors and only very rarely U2311H introduced a few milliseconds lag but U2311H is indeed very fast and performs very similar to the popular 2209WA monitor.
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From my own tests and eyes, the overdrive and trailing is there, but only in tests like PixPerAn.

In actual games (I've tried Left 4 Dead 2, Flatout 2, Mass Effect 2, Just Cause 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat, Civlization V, Saints Row 2, Fallout 3, Minecraft :p amongst others), I've not seen any haloing or ghost trails. I've also come straight from a CRT so I'd imagine I'd spot some if it was there.

Also my own input lag tests were very similar to what TFTCentral got, i.e. ranging from 0-30ms with an average of about 10ms - in actual games, I didn't notice any difference from a CRT.

I did notice something, only in FPS games, where the movement wasn't quite so smooth. I might of been imagining it (possibly because I was semi-looking for it), but that may be the 60Hz limit of most TFT screens. I'm certain I won't notice it if I play on the Dell some more. I used to play Counter-Strike a lot, so I would consider myself a little twitch sensitive, but from my experience of the games I've tested, the Dell is fine for all games - I certainly wouldn't shell out the price premium for a 120Hz monitor after testing this one (unless you want 3D).
 
Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere before, I've read through this thread almost in its entirety, but what's the difference between the EW2420 and the G2420?

This is also my first post, account was finally verified. So on that note, hi everyone, hope you're well, glad to be a part of the forums.

Steve

Edit: G2420 not VA panel? Think I got that right. Thought it was the EW that OCUK were selling, not the G =x
 
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Iam very happy with my unit. I got one, which has very good presets. I just need to lower brightness and increase contrast a bit and lower sharpness. No changes in RGB!!

Nevertheless, i have read some posts where some members can see Backlight LEDs in the bottom part of the screen. When i concentrate my view on the right bottom corner i can also see those LEDs a bit. Nothing to worry about, but they are there.

My settings are:
Brightness: 8
Contrast: 55
Sharpness: 2
AMA: on
Gamma: 2.2
RGB-mode: normal

PS: I own a EW2420.
 
It seems BenQ has a habbit of pushing out small amounts of new monitors before they are ready for full-scale release. The XL2410, EW2410 and related monitors were only supposed to be ready at the end of November/early December in the UK. Hopefully things should smooth out shortly.
 
Last night I ordered the Dell u2311h. Before ordering I searched the availability of all 3 Benq (related models). I believe that I only came across one place which was selling it for around £175. For an extra £11, I felt that the Dell offered better value for money.

There was also a place which was selling the Benq for around £140, which I thought was fantastic value for money. If that place had stock, I would've bought the Benq.
 
Just got my Dell U2311h delivered today and it is awesome. Was using a four year old viewsonic before, comparitively its night and day. I never new there was so many colours. Batman(oh that piping has red rust on it!) and TF2 look amazing. I dont really need dual monitors, its so big I dont know what to do with all the space.

My old monitor had a quoted four millisecond response time, but this one feels more responsive. Noticing it now it seemed like the old one skipped framerates perhaps.

No stuck dead pixels or tinting that I can notice either.
 
Was going to get one until I saw this any truth in it ?

1 week ago

I purchased one of from NCIX online.

Monitor is very bright, has high contrast. Looks great for regular web browsing or for word processing. It is not suitable for viewing most videos, or watching any thing streaming. It ghosts a lot, looks terrible, reds are not red, they are more orange, a green tint on any thing that should be dark red. Hue is not adjustable in the OSD.

Found out from a BenQ support site in Europe that this monitor is around 25ms, not 16 which is 8gtg.

How do I return it ?
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