Displays So I finally decided on a new monitor... Benq EW2420 (24" 1920x1080 A-MVA)

I've read a few threads here recently where people are having a great deal of trouble choosing a monitor. I'm in the same boat as I've been looking for a replacement for my exisiting pair of 19" 1280x1024 AU Optronics P-MVA screens (HP LP1965) as I've decided my priorities for my home PC are gaming and video watching, with a lesser emphasis on photo editing. A 4:3 aspect is great for general Windows work, document editing, etc, but obviously less so for gaming or widescreen video.

Initially I wanted a 1920x1200 resolution which led me to the HP ZR24W and Dell U2410... but the high price of both soon put that idea to bed!

Next I thought the Dell U2311, which is still a little expensive, although there are some good deals to be had on it the last couple of months (currently hovering around the £207 mark from Dell Small Business with their 25% deal) but then I saw so many mixed reviews of strange pink colour tinting and backlight bleed - 'IPS glow' as I've read it described in some places - that it's put me off. Some people have reported that these issues have now been fixed, so I revisited the U2311.

I was almost at the point where I was ready to hit the buy button on the website, but thought I'd have one more look and see if there was any chance I could get a 24" for about the same or less money. The Samsung P2450 has great reviews for a TN panel, but as I'm coming from a P-MVA I was concerned that despite the good feedback, going back to TN would probably be a bad idea.

Then I stumbled across the Benq EW2420, a 24" WS AU Optronics AMVA @ 1920x1080 going for £170 on eBuyer... there's a big thread comparing the U2311 and EW2420 on another tech forum so it seems others are in the same boat as me. There are some mixed opinions on the response time... for some it's slow enough that they've sent it back, whereas for others it's fine, and they are thoroughly enjoying the deep blacks and strong contrast. TFT Central have got a review up here: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/benq_ew2420.htm

I've taken the plunge and ordered one from eBuyer for £170ish, it's arriving tomorrow! Once I get it set up and have a chance to throw some fast moving games and videos at it, I'll add my experience here.

 

That would be most appreciated mate!

 

Yes please let us know what you think of it.
I hope it is true that using white LED back lighting will help lower the cost of these kind of sets as they did with the TN panel market.

 

Yes. you'll save a few pennies per year, at the cost of not having true white. Congrads.

 

that is some AWESOME black levels! (on the review)

great choice, should be fantastic for dark themed films.

 

Looking forward to hearing about it, i think it looks rather good, bit more affordable aswell, I know people say quality over quantity, but I wouldn't trade my current 24" in for a decent 22" anyday

 

i have the slimmer VW2420H ( external power brick ) version.

I was in the same situation as you as i couldn't afford the more expensive versions of the the likes of Dell etc.

perhaps i should do a mini review aswell ???

 

If it's not a TN panel, I am interested.
This summer I plan to make a nice comparison table of non-TN panels, which will show many interesting and bit-tech users recommendations models. I am missing budget models.. so getting some form of feedback and detail specs, would be nice (BenQ page for your monitor doesn't want to load the specs :S)

 

Good review here, if you're interested.

 

Goodbytes, that would be handy, I think a lot of people are unfamiliar with the VA panels as they aren't that common compared with the cheaper TN types and the more expensive IPS. However they can strike a great compromise between the two.

At the very least if we can all share our experiences with the monitors we own on the forum as best we can it will help others trying to make a decision in the future; a call to arms guys, get your mini-reviews up!

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Benq EW2420, so I'm really looking forward to putting it through it's paces tomorrow.

I expect the stand to be rubbish as it only provides tilt control, although as the screen has a VESA mount, I'm planning to use the excellent stand which came with the HP LP1965, providing height adjustment, tilt, as well as rotation into portrait mode - all features you would expect from a business monitor the LP1965 was targeted as.

Full specs on the monitor are as follows:



I've received the eBuyer dispatch email so with any luck it will be with me early-ish tomorrow. I'll get it rigged up and should be able to provide some feedback and pics late tomorrow night.

 

but what about those untrue whites?

 

Well, the MVA models are still pretty cheap. If you went PVA or S-PVA..prepare to open up that wallet.

Mind you VA panels still have some of the greatest blacks compared to TN or IPS, it's just that they have some odd responses. Having 3 S-IPS monitors and a S-PVA I can say that the S-PVAs are much better in colors and contrast but they lag terribly..

Perhaps this BenQ doesn't.

 

Well... wow, just... wow... what a lovely monitor!

'Before' with the two 19" HP LP1965's (1280x1024)



'After' with the 24" Benq EW2420 (1920x1080)





My first job was to ditch the colour profile that Windows automatically installed and set it to sRGB IEC61966-2.1. Next I switched from 'Standard' mode to 'sRGB' on the monitors OSD and set Brightness to 100 and Constrast to 50.

The other modes - Photo, Game and Movie - are atrocious, don't bother... the last mode - Eco - just seems to dim the brightness a bit, with an onscreen message flashing up to indicate a 20% power saving.

After a few hours using my preferred settings I decided to do the Lagom Monitor Test to check how accurate it was. Surprisingly it was pretty much spot on. Gamma was good, I could see differentiation in all bars on the Contrast test, and there was only the slightest of banding in the darker portion of the gradient test. The only areas which seemed to indicate a weakness was the response time test, and the viewing angles - I'll come back to those in a sec.

TFTCentral used the 'Standard' mode during calibration which gives you more control. It allows you to adjust the individual red, green and blue levels, gamma and sharpness, along with the standard brightness and contrast. After re-reading their review, I decided to give their settings a go, downloading the ICC profile provided on their site and configuring the monitor OSD settings as per their results from calibration. The results for me were less than satisfactory... the green was far too prominent and everything was washed out. I've gone back to my sRGB mode which I think is more accurate. If I had a hardware colourimeter available things might be different.

There's no backlight bleed at all, at least not to my untrained eye.

With regard to the viewing angles, it's fine in normal use, don't worry about it. At no point have I noticed any colour shift unless I am actively looking for it by moving my head to about a 45 degree angle, in which case I start to see a slight change on the far side - only really noticeable on light backgrounds, where is gets a bit darker.

Now as for the response time, whilst the Lagom test indicated this might be quite poor, in 'real life' it's absolutely fine - and when I say fine, I mean I don't notice any ghosting or slow response. I've had a quick blast in Just Cause 2, a more sedentary cruise in Star Trek Online and a frenzied match of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Oasis map this afternoon and I couldn't see any ghosting at all. This was one area I was genuinely concerned about and I'm pleased to say that it's a complete non-issue. I used to play Counter-Strike at a vaguely competitive level on my old HP monitor which had a grey-to-grey response time of 6ms. The EW2420's response time virtually the same at 8ms, so this probably explains why I can't see any difference, and it also confuses me as to why some people are reporting ghosting... surely ghosting is a non-issue until perhaps 20-30ms or more?

The depth of the blacks on this monitor is fantastic, I know what people mean when they describe them as 'inky' now.

For those of you worried about the vertial resolution of 1080 not being enough for anything other than gaming or video watching, again, I wouldn't worry about it, I certainly don't feel like it's too cramped. 1200 res monitors aren't worth the extra expense unless you can afford it.

Conclusion: I do the odd bit of photo and video editing and web design and I don't feel like this monitor will cause me any problems being a *VA panel rather than IPS. For gaming and video watching it's fantastic. For document editing and viewing two browser windows I can comfortably have them side by side using the handy Windows 7 feature. A 24" non-TN monitor for £170? No brainer in my opinion, I can certainly recommend this.

 

Nice review, cheers. Does sound like a very interesting screen indeed for the price.

As expected, the stand does look rubbish. Have you had a go yet at using the HP stand with it? If you do post a few more pics please

 

Love your desk set up.

Looks like you have the same disease as me - OCD cleaning!

Nice post.

 

Hehe, thanks - yeah me too, if my desk is untidy I just can't think straight or work properly. Needs to be clean and mess-free!

 

With regards to the stand I'm was planning to try it today, but I think it's more likely to be either tomorrow or Saturday now. I think the height adjustment will definitely be welcome, but it might look a bit odd with the mix of matt black and silver against the glossy finish of the monitor - worth a shot though eh?

 

I think if I were to get another larger monitor it would probably end up being an Ea23Wmi or that 23" Viewsonic.

Not a bad monitor at all. I just don't like the glossiness.

 

Grabbed a few pics with the adjustable HP stand attached. The added flexibility of this stand is very much welcome, but I think it looks naff in comparision to the original glossy round base. Not sure which I'll continue to use in the long term yet.



Also, portrait mode is mad, it's so tall!

 

Damn, that portrait shot looks pretty amazing!