It’s not typically that gaming shows make headlines in the course of the yearly tech bonanza of CES, however this yr Nvidia unveiled its gigantic 65in ‘big format’ screens with all of the G-Sync bells and HDR 4K whistles you may presumably think about. We do not know how a lot they’ll truly price proper now – most likely someplace within the area of £1500/$2000, I think – however personally, I simply can’t see myself having one on my desk. Maybe in the lounge if for some ungodly purpose I needed to eliminate our TV, however not 30cm in entrance of my face.
For me, a 27in 2560×1440 monitor remains to be the proper candy spot for my PC gaming wants, and the BenQ EW2770QZ on check at the moment is one such monitor. How about that for a seamless segue?
When you first set it up, the EW2770QZ makes an ideal first impression. It’s superbly slim, with tiny 5mm bezels surrounding both sides of its 27in IPS panel, and the display itself appears to be like each bit as beautiful as my calibrated AOC Q2770PQU. There’s a small blobby bit protruding from the decrease edge – extra on that in a minute – however in any other case its good black and silver stand and base reduce a high quality profile in your desk.
In reality, I’m just a little disenchanted by the shortage of peak adjustment right here – I’d anticipate extra flexibility than only a little bit of monitor tilt for a £400/$400+ display – however on the entire it wasn’t an excessive amount of of a difficulty. Laptop customers on the lookout for a second display, however, will most likely need to park their monitor cash elsewhere (equivalent to the stunning Acer XF270HU), as even my small 13in work laptop computer obscured a big a part of the Windows job bar. You may all the time wall-mount it, after all, however nobody desires that sort of faff now, do they?
As a PC monitor, although, there’s a lot to love concerning the EW2770QZ. Most importantly, its color accuracy could be very excessive throughout the board, requiring little to no tweaking with a color calibrator to get the perfect out of it. On its default Standard mode, as an illustration, my i1 DisplayPro confirmed it was already displaying 98.eight% of the usual sRGB color gamut, which is simply in addition to none of its ten image presets truly allow you to manually alter its RGB values aside from User mode.
The EW2770QZ’s max brightness additionally reached a formidable 340cd/m2, providing you with loads of flexibility to show it up or down relying in your lighting circumstances. Really, you’ll most likely need one thing nearer to 200cd/m2, if not decrease, for on a regular basis use, however should you’d reasonably take the problem out of adjusting it your self, you possibly can all the time activate the EW2770QZ’s Bright Intelligence+ characteristic in the principle menu system.
This makes use of the monitor’s aforementioned blob bit to detect the color temperature and ambient gentle ranges of your present environment, producing what ought to hopefully be an eyeball pleasant image to assist remove pressure and fatigue. In concept, this could imply the monitor appears to be like hotter and dimmer in low gentle, and cooler and brighter when it’s daytime. It may also dynamically regulate its brightness to mirror what’s at present onscreen, serving to be certain shiny areas aren’t overexposed whereas darker bits don’t get misplaced within the shadows.
In follow, it’s all fairly refined. Brightness shifts occurred in small, just-about-perceptible increments, however have been by no means overt sufficient to be off-putting. Meanwhile, the color temperature modifications have been stealthier nonetheless, and I barely observed it was taking place till I got here again to my desk after making a cuppa mid-afternoon and located that Google Docs was only a bit yellower than once I left.
There have been a couple of events when the sensor couldn’t fairly make up its thoughts about what brightness degree it needed to choose, however I think I used to be extra distracted by the little eye icon that appeared within the backside nook telling me that issues have been taking place than the brightness changes themselves. Once I turned the ‘light meter’ off in the principle menu, it grew to become lots much less irritating.
It’s a great factor to have, actually, because the EW2770QZ’s distinction degree is arguably its biggest weak point, measuring simply 940:1 on Standard. That’s not dangerous, however it’s not sensible, and murky scenes in video games like Little Nightmares or gray, misty mornings in Skyrim simply didn’t have the identical sort of depth or impression as they did once I ran them on my AOC. Switching to its Game image profile didn’t assist both, because the distinction right here got here in at simply 860:1.
It doesn’t assist that the monitor’s black ranges aren’t nice both, with its Standard preset coming in at a relatively excessive zero.33cd/m2 (the nearer to zero.00cd/m2, the higher). I’d anticipate this from a less expensive TN show, not IPS, and I used to be disenchanted that the onboard distinction controls did little to enhance the state of affairs.
This is a disgrace, as brighter, extra vivid video games equivalent to The Witcher III regarded beautiful on the EW2770QZ. Indeed, the Northern Kingdom’s wealthy, painterly blue skys and beautiful sunsets regarded simply as shiny and vibrant on the EW2770QZ as they did on my AOC, and even ducking into shadowy forests did little to dampen the expertise. Fire up a sport with numerous caves and different dingy locales, nevertheless, and all of it begins to crumble on the seams barely. The ambient gentle sensor helps, however isn’t fairly sufficient to color over the cracks utterly.
I’d additionally prefer to see a couple of extra ports for optimum flexibility at this sort of worth, equivalent to a USB hub or DVI-D, however I’d think about most individuals can be completely proud of its pair of HDMI ports, headphone jack and single DisplayPort.
Were the EW2770QZ’s distinction and black ranges a bit higher, this may positively be a powerful monitor within the £420/$400 ballpark. Ultimately, although, I feel I’d reasonably pay a bit extra and get the Acer XF270HUA (which remains to be on sale for £500/$590). I recognize that’s fairly much more for these within the US, however till I get a couple of extra screens in for testing, the Acer stays my prime advice in the meanwhile. After all, not solely does the Acer have a superior panel with higher distinction and black ranges, however its height-adjustable, rotatable stand additionally provides you buckets extra flexibility for a greater variety of makes use of.
The BenQ EW2770QZ, however, feels a bit extra limiting. It’s splendid in some areas, however nose-wrinklingly irksome in others. If its particular strengths suit your area of interest, nice. But for individuals who need a extra versatile 27in 2560×1440 monitor on their desks, the Acer XF270HUA remains to be a troublesome act to beat.
