Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsI wouldn't recommend it. It's not an upgrade from an XL2411z
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020
I had a BenQ XL2411z for many years I was happy with. The panel lottery is really bad though. I got lucky to get a pretty good all around XL2411z after RMAing a previous one.
I only wanted to "upgrade" because that monitor didn't have a displayport, which I needed for my new AMD 5700.
I read that the Viewsonic XG2402 was better than the XL2411z so I got that as a replacement. I was very unhappy with the terrible viewing angles to the point where there is no distance or angle you can sit at from the monitor for it to display properly. The contrast ratio was also noticeably bad.
So I resorted to paying more for a better monitor. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to exist yet. I saw a list of the best 240hz monitors and the #1 was the $500 Acer Nitro XV273 IPS. Well the IPS glow on it (and the replacement monitor) was horrendous to the point where it makes me mad that people are recommending IPS monitors at all. You can see from a web search that IPS glow is normal for IPS monitors.
I discovered that VA was what you want if you're willing to sacrifice ultimate TN response times for better image quality. Well the VA I got (AOC C27G1) was nice indeed, but due to the slow response times it has noticeable smearing/flicker on high contrast areas, which kind of ruins its prowess on darks/blacks.
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So back to BenQ then right? If I was happy with my XL2411z then this much newer monitor should be an upgrade right? Unfortunately not. It has the same terrible viewing angles as the XG2402, yet it has worse response times and worse black/backlight uniformity. You can see the terrible viewing angles and backlight uniformity in the pictures.
For the response times, on both AMA high and premium, I noticed a significant amount of overshoot on tree trunks in the fireside Tomb Raider scene I loaded. I didn't notice it in Titanfall 2 or Arabel (high contrast, dark game).
I've settled on my VA monitor. The high contrast smearing/flickering doesn't occur in enough areas to make it a worse problem than the issues with these other monitors. And the medium amount of motion blur on this TN (similar to the 240hz IPS) has a similar impact as the smearing/flickering in that it forces you to not focus while panning, so maybe nullifies/evens out the VA issue a bit.
FYI you do not need a TN monitor for competitive gaming. The slower G2G times are only noticeable in some high contrast areas, such as black letters on a white background. You do not need 240hz either. I could not tell a significant difference between 144 and 240hz.
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VA vs TN vs IPS summary:
No monitor is ideal right now, you're sacrificing one thing for another.
**VA** = nice blacks, but still some back light bleed that varies on any type of monitor, which still degrades black environments. Worst response times.
The best current VA I've been able to find - AOC C27G1 or C24G1 - has a smearing problem on high contrast areas like black text on white background, and vice versa. It makes it smear/flicker on some areas like a dark fence or book shelf. It's somewhat rare in games, but can contribute to ruining dark scenes and thus any VA-benefit to blacks is largely nullified. It made me want to try TN again.
**TN** = worse blacks and general image quality, but no smearing/flicker. Best response times.
I played competitive FPS for years, and now play casual games. TN/response times are overhyped, and you could easily go pro with a VA monitor.
If you go TN, just try to find the one with the best viewing angles and blacks, and least defects. Which that is I have no idea, but it's not the highly rated XG2402. The differences in response times are trivial, even for highly competitive FPS gamers. It only matters when it manifests as obvious phenomena such as the smearing/flickering of high contrast areas during movement on the VA monitor I tried.
**IPS** = scam. Only a tiny percentage of users should buy if they need super accurate colors for something or other. And even then, 1/3rd of their monitor will be inaccurate due to IPS glow.
Some say IPS has the best viewing angles, but my $220 VA (C27G1) has much better viewing angles than my $500 IPS (Acer Nitro XV273).
All the 144 and 240hz monitors I tried had similar levels of motion blur.
