BenQ V2400W In Depth Review

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2[H]4U
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Jul 20, 2006
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I'd like to take a quick sec and thank Kyle, BenQ America and the [H] for this opportunity. I had a lot of fun doing this review and it was well worth the time I spent.

I'd also like to thank all the [H]ardForum users for their insights both generally, and specifically on the V2400W review thread. This is YOUR review. I'm just the freaking secretary.:)

So let's dance with BenQ's V2400W monitor hot off the production line and get right into it.

BenQ Canada's QuickSpecs:

Here are the BenQ Canadian specifications. I used these because the U.S. site listed the brightness of the panel at 500 cdm/2, definitely not the case for this monitor.EDIT: Fixed By BenQ on BenQ.com

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Box and contents:
The V2400W box is nice, silkscreened, and MUCH BETTER than the G2400W’s. It provides adequate protection with little weight. I carried it around by one handle without dragging it on the ground. My monitor was an April 2008 build date.

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On the top Styrofoam you will find a small flat bag with the CD, Quick Start Guide and
Support guide. You will also see the 5.5 foot VGA cable through a hole in the Styrofoam and a 5 foot power cable. The VGA cable is installed prior to shipping.

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It was very easy to lift the monitor out of the box by finding the back of the stand where it connects into the display and pulling up from there. You don't have to worry about the stand coming off as it doesn't. The monitor is quite light at around 14 lbs.

I received an April 2008 built display to test.

Physical dimensions, Construction Quality, Heat and Noise:

Base: 13.25” wide and 5.5” deep, with an arm coming back another 2” or so. Stability is good, and I didn’t notice any leaning due to off centre, asymmetrical design. The monitor wobbled a bit if I shook it hard enough or hit the OSD buttons too hard, but I am a bit clumsy.

Monitor Height: The bottom of the monitor’s bezel sits 4” above your desk, and 3.5” on the left side where the OSD buttons are. The top of the monitor is 18.4” above the desk, and the bezel is 22” wide in total. The total height of the bezel is 14.4”.

Bezel: It’s less than an inch in width at .875” and piano black with a silver lining that goes all the way around and integrates into the OSD buttons. There is an “HDMI” logo and “senseye+photo” logo on the bottom right.

Panel: The panel is an anti-glare matte screen with a resolution of 1920x1200. It is 20.375” wide by 12.625” tall. The anti-glare induces NO sparkling or graininess to the display. It is very clean like the G2400W.

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General aesthetics: Subjectively, the monitor is an attractive design, even though it is asymmetrical and a touch busy with the OSD buttons on the left. It is functional and super thin. It is a cross between Dell and Samsung’s latest designs, but it is less than 3” at its thickest point which is a real feat. My only dislike is the stuck-on AMA sticker on the top right which looks like an afterthought. C'mon!

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Connectors:
The headphone jack is on the left side of the bezel. Behind the OSD buttons there are VGA, HDMI, DVI connectors and on the right side is the power connector. HDMI audio is passed through the headphone jack from consoles or BluRay players.

Construction: I found construction quality to be good. The piano black bezel is thin and feels tightly affixed, and didn’t creak a lot when I tilted the monitor. The tilting mechanism gives the right amount of resistance and I never felt that I would knock over the display by tilting it back and forth. The stand felt stable and more than wide/deep enough to keep the monitor from keeling over. My only concern is the ability of the offset stand to hold the monitor straight over the years.

Heat/Noise: The monitor puts out a very small amount of heat where I circled it below. The difference is about 3 degrees Celsius from ambient which is very little.

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With the small vent holes in the back of the panel, any noise that could come out is blocked but this isn’t an issue regardless. The panel produces zero noise at all brightness levels. I couldn’t hear anything even with my ear glued to the vents while changing brightness.

OSD Buttons and Power LED: The V2400W’s touch sensitive OSD buttons work fairly well and light up when one of them is touched. Only the “Power” button works on first touch. The rest will activate a HotKey setting on first touch, and require a second touch to change settings. They emit a very quiet “beep” when pressed in lieu of mechanical sounds (as they are touch activated). The Power LED is suitably bright. There is no OSD option to allow altering the brightness of any of these:

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Hotkey Functions
Auto: VGA auto configuration
Menu: Starts the OSD
Left Arrow: Changes picture modes on the fly
Right Arrow: Pops up the Brightness and Contrast (not available when Dynamic Contrast is on)
Enter: Changes inputs

Quick Comparisons with the G2400W:

The LCD Panels are listed as being equivalent with a 250 cdm/2 brightness, 1920x1200 24” anti-glare panel, and 1000:1 static contrast which I found on the BenQ.US site listed as “power consumption”. Who edits these things? :) Note: It is now fixed on BenQ.com
It looks to be the same panel with added overdrive/AMA and dynamic contrast, but it's likely not. Later on I’ll explain why I don’t think it’s the same panel as the G2400W.

The V2400W is heads and shoulders above the G2400W in look and build quality. The G2400W has one advantage that it can be attached to a VESA mounted stand/mount using 100mm x 100mm spaced mounting plates. This cannot be done on the V2400W.

Subjective LCD Panel Qualities and Features

Text Quality: The text on this monitor is razor-sharp. There is no need to adjust the sharpness controls using a PC over DVI or HDMI. There is a little antiglare and “barrel” distortion on these photos because I basically just put my camera into “Super macro” mode and butted the lens up against the display (gently of course).

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Backlight Bleed and Black Level: My sample was very good. A quarter inch on the bottom was visible in the dark as you can see in this picture at 1/3 second exposure. The V2400W is on the left, the G2400W on the right:

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To make it even more apparent I set the camera to a FULL ONE second exposure for the following photo:

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I liked the fact that the V2400W had no clouding or “mura” effect on the blacks like the G2400W did. Both monitors have better-than-average blacks, but the V2400W seems to have the edge over the G2400W. Black level in general is very good.
Note: You may also notice that the black on the G2400W is more of a “grey” in the lighter spots, and the V2400W is more of a “dark blue”. I would “guesstimate” that the V2400W is using a different revision of the panel if not a different panel entirely. This may be a sign of different polarizers at work giving the blacks a very slight blue cast. The BLB did not change over my week of use.

Dead or Stuck Pixels or Sub-Pixels: My monitor had none from day one and did not develop any over a week of use. There was no screen door effect detected through testing or visually.

Banding: I found a very tiny amount of grey banding in popular banding tests. It was extremely hard to see and was quite subtle. Whatever banding there was tended to only be visible up close on dark greys.

Dithering and Hi FRC Color Effects I didn't see any of these two issues. Even up close I could only see a slight mild "movement" in dark greys which I could only pick up by staring for long periods of time. BenQ has done a great job with this. Much better than some competitors selling 6-bit+HiFRC/FRC/Dithering TN panels.

Dynamic Contrast: This feature is only available in “Dynamics” picture mode and works well enough. I’m not a big fan of it as it raises and lowers brightness and contrast when scene brightness changes. It seemed to be fairly conservatively set. It worked fine but all calibration and subjective analysis was performed with it OFF.

Subjective Color Quality and Factory Color Calibration: Color calibration of this display was on-par with the G2400W which is very good. With instrumented testing using my Eye One Display 2 calibration hardware and BasicColor 4.1.8 software I found my subjective feeling to be correct. That will be explained in detail later.

Viewing Angles: For a TN 24” display, the viewing angles are excellent horizontally, and decent vertically. Only darker colors shift visibly when the level of your head is raised or lowered. Here are some photos that I took. I don’t believe in 75 degree off angle photos. They show me nothing useful, so I try them at 45 degrees (estimated) max:

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The [H]ard Forum pic is a bit amplified by the camera. The shift is less than what is seen here but similar in characteristics.

Continued in Part 2
 
Gaming

Here is the section I wanted to put first for the enthusiasts that make the [H] one of the best general enthusiast forums around.
The first section will discuss PC gaming and video, the second Console gaming and the last BluRay movies on PS3.

PC Gaming and Video

I would probably list the most important aspects of PC gaming for most [H] readers to be the following in order of priority:
- Input lag
- Low motion blur and ghosting/reactivity/response time
- Able to handle custom 4:3, 5:4 and 16:10 resolutions used by both old and new games and scaling of those resolutions

Input Lag:

To test input lag I put the V2400W on one port of my nVidia 8800GTS 512MB graphics card, and the G2400W on the other on Windows XP with 169.21 ForceWare. I then set the resolution to 1280x1024@75hz and the monitors to 1:1 pixel mapping and took between 40 and 70 photographs at 1/125 second exposure time while running the inputlag.exe program from FlatPanels.dk. I then switched video card ports and repeated the process, and finally set the V2400W to use “aspect” scaling to scale the 1280x1024 picture up to full height. I did that to see if the scaler produced extra lag. I also tried it with AMA/overdrive on and off in order to view differences.

Here is what I found:
- On 45% of the photos, the monitor on port 2 was ahead by 1 frame (15ms) whether it was the V2400W or the G2400W
- On 40% of the photos the two monitors were even
- On 10% of the photos the monitor on port 1 was ahead by 1 frame (15ms)
- On 5% of the photos I couldn’t read the numbers
- Overdrive had no effect on lag
- The scaler had no effect on lag

I unfortunately don’t have a CRT to test against, but I know that the BenQ G2400W has very low input lag (under 5 ms), making it a good benchmark to test against. So if there are concerns about input lag, this test should put them to rest. If anyone wants photos of these tests, let me know. I am trying to obtain a CRT and will update if I get one.
I could not subjectively feel any input lag on the V2400W in clone mode with the G2400W.
Motion Blur and Ghosting: I have always been happy with the G2400W in this aspect. I see no issue with these two areas on the V2400W. The AMA/overdrive helps for high speed gaming, scrolling and quick turns in FPS games, and it can be enabled/disabled through OSD under “Picture Advanced”.

Here are some quickie shots from PixPerAn with AMA ON and OFF. There wasn’t much difference between best and worst shots:

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AMA Overdrive Artifacts
Overdrive disappointed me on the V2400W. I felt the overdrive/AMA was too strong and caused inverse/reverse ghosting. It wasn’t bothersome when gaming, but in general use it caused some weird effects that I could see without specifically looking for them. I suggest keeping it off for typical desktop use.
This “inverse ghosting” was apparent with certain combinations of color where a dark object moved across a brighter background. Just moving my mouse cursor across around presented me with the following shot:

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Notice the triple mouse cursor of two white and one black? Without overdrive you would see one, maybe two transparent black trailer images, with overdrive you see two inverse images which stand out more on darker backgrounds.

The following shot shows the inverse ghosting effect inside of a window that I moved around. I think you can tell I was moving it up.

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I would have preferred if BenQ could have applied overdrive/AMA more conservatively to minimize the inverse ghosting that occurs when enabled. It’s good that overdrive can be turned on and off through the OSD under the Picture Advanced menu, so the user can choose to turn it on and off.

Verdict: For general PC and movie use, disable the AMA, but for high speed multiplayer FPS enable it for the best of both worlds. It still produces some artifacts and inverse ghosting, but it does the job for gaming.

Scaling, Aspect Ratios and Different Resolutions on a PC:

Even though my preference has always been to use the video card to scale up lower than native resolutions, theV2400W’s scaling works well when required and does NOT add input lag.

There are three options: Aspect, Fill, 1:1 (for 1 to 1 pixel mapping)

Aspect: Scales the image but preserves the aspect ratio of 3:2, 16:9, or 4:3. Normally one side will be full length or height, and the other will have black bars around it.
Fill: This just scales the image to fill the entire width and height of the screen, no matter what the original resolution is
1:1: Uses one pixel on the screen to represent one pixel of the image.
The BenQ does all of these aspect ratios on DVI and HDMI with all supported resolutions.
Here are some examples:

-1280x1024@ 1:1

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-1280x1024@ Aspect

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-1360x768 @ 1:1

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-1360x768 @ Aspect

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-1440x900 @ 1:1

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-1440x900 @ Aspect

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I had to create 1360x768 as a custom resolution in nVidia Control Panel. The G2400W failed to do 1:1 pixel mapping with this resolution. It stretched it vertically while the V2400W handled it well. It seems there ARE some firmware updates after all with the V2400W :)

Verdict: The V2400W does PC resolutions at all aspect ratios extremely well. All the aspect ratio scaling works as expected. Very good. It is a top notch PC gaming monitor with overdrive on/off, little blur, and very low input lag.

PC Video

I didn’t notice a lot of sparkle or twinkling on PC video. Most twinkling was a result of compression artifacts, not monitor color limitations (banding). Twinkling usually shows up as a step or graining effect on movies like this sample from a 1080p video. The worst area is boxed off:

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Verdict:
The monitor does fine with what the PC gives it in terms of video

Console Gaming with PS3 and Xbox 360 and Blu-Ray Movie Watching on PS3

I have both the Xbox 360 and PS3, and used both HDMI and VGA (for Xbox 360) to test out connections. I was very happy with HDMI gaming and movies on the V2400W, but somewhat disappointed with VGA. I’ll show why in this section.

Gaming on HDMI with PS3 and Xbox 360

The HDMI port on the V2400W is able to handle up to full 1920x1200 resolution, and full range color from both the 360 and PS3. I set the PS3 to use “Full Range HDMI” and the Xbox 360 to use “Expanded Blacks” to test the monitor. I also tested aspect ratio scaling and conformance to ensure no stretching or overscan issues at various HD resolutions.

PS3
I used both HDMI to DVI and HDMI to HDMI connections with the PS3 as the connections were identical in both quality and capability. The only caveat to HDMI is that there is no Power Save mode. When the PS3 shuts down, the screen will turn a blanked out blue. There is no worry of image retention because no text is displayed, but blue pixels get exercised.

Gaming: PS3 gaming on this monitor is a treat because it is fast and accurately calibrated. PS3’s seeming lack of a scaler can make 720p games look a bit jagged on this or any display. Even my NEC monitor with its advanced scaler and smoothing cannot compensate for 720p on a 24” or 26” screen up close.
This is my new Rule: PS3 at 720p equals aliasing. Don’t blame the monitor :)

I used the following PS3 settings:
- Custom Display with 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p enabled
- Super White OFF
- Cross Color reduction Filters OFF
- Full Range HDMI

I used the monitor in sRGB and Standard picture modes with a setting of 51 brightness and 48 contrast and set the custom color mode to “normal”. I will explain in the “calibration” section why I did this a bit later.

What we are looking for in this image is that the circle in the middle is not oval, and the arrowheads in the corners are visible. Thanks to TigerDave for providing these useful images:

720P

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1080P

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Another perfect result from the V2400W with the test image. If these images are properly displayed, it’s a guarantee any BluRay at 1.78 or 2.35:1 aspect ratio will display perfectly, as well as games.

Call of Duty 4 and GT5 Prologue on look great:


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Verdict: The V2400W does Extremely well with PS3 over HDMI

Xbox 360 Gaming over HDMI


I had no issues with Xbox 360 over HDMI. Both color quality and pixel mapping were excellent. The colors were accurate and with intermediate or expanded blacks I was able to get good dark detail display without any in-game tweaking.
I won’t use the Tiger Dave images here because they worked very well as they did with the PS3. I’ll only show the different settings available:

Xbox 360 over HDMI @ 480P and 1:1 ratio setting:

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Xbox 360 over HDMI @ 720P and 1:1 ratio setting:

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The above image is 1:1 pixel mapping at its purest.

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Good result. The sides are being cut off at a very low 1% rate which is great. Other monitors sometimes cut off up to 5% of the image. I’m very happy with 1080p over HDMI here.

The 480P at 1:1 pixel mapping is so small it’s funny :) but the aspect ratio is a bit off. There is no cutting off of the screen, but the image is stretched vertically, so it's wrong. Instead of being 1.5 to 1 it's 1.35 to 1 causing things to look tall. Thanks to Albovin for pointing that out.

Verdict: The V2400W works VERY well with the Xbox 360 over HDMI at 720P or higher.

Xbox 360 over VGA


My results with Xbox 360 over VGA on this monitor were mixed. My recommendation would be to use a resolution such as 1360x768 or 1280x768 with the 360 over VGA. 1920x1080 does not work properly over VGA on this monitor, nor did it work properly on the G2400W. Both monitors stretch it to (1920x1200) 16:10 aspect ratio and the OSD does not allow it to be changed because the "Display Mode" adjustments is grayed out.

Here is Xbox 360 over VGA at 1280x768:

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The last suggestion would be to use “intermediate” blacks. VGA does not seem to resolve below 8,8,8 R,G,B levels. This will give good blacks with good quality dark details. I also had this problem with my Dell 2005FPW over VGA and intermediate blacks worked well there too, so it's not just a V2400W issue.

Verdict: The V2400W with Xbox 360 over VGA is average at best. No better or worse than the G2400W and slightly inferior to many competitors. It seems like only standard VGA resolutions work properly here, and a couple extras like 1360 and 1280x768. Even my old 1680x1050 resolution Dell 2005FPW can properly downscale 1920x1080 through VGA. The screen is washed out and overly bright, but it can be done with a 2.5 year old display, so why not a brand new one? Funny enough, BenQ has been able to do this correctly with the FP241W/VW series with the last firmware revision of June 2007 or later, which tells me they can do it. I can post these photos for comparison to prove this point.

PS3 BluRay at 1080p

Having used the G2400W, I was never satisfied with the blacks I received from PS3 with BluRay. I also tried it on two other monitors (NEC LCD2690Wuxi, Westinghouse L2410NM) with unsatisfactory results, but this allowed me to isolate the issue to the PS3.

The PS3, even when set in the XMB “Display Settings” to use “Full Range HDMI”, has an issue on any monitor in that it attempts to auto-detect Blu Ray video settings. It does so incorrectly.

Initially I received this image with BluRay over the V2400W:

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You can see the black areas are more grey than black around Kate Beckinsale’s face. Also notice the pop up menu showing Video Output > “RGB” and “Limited Range”. I changed the “Video Output” setting from YPrPb (component) The YPrPb setting did not allow the RGB “Full Range” setting to be changed. I then changed to “RGB” and “Full Range” and the following image was seen:

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Notice the difference on the image. The blacks are deeper and the image seems more dynamic.

To change these settings, hit the “triangle” button on the GamePad or remote control for PS3 and select “AV Settings” from the list of "buttons" when playing a Blu Ray.

Select the following:

- Video Output Format: RGB
- RGB Full Range: Full

Using these settings I was more than satisfied with PS3 Blu-Ray on the V2400W.

Verdict: Good to Very good for Blu Ray with the right settings on the PS3. While it is understood that, as a TN, this monitor would be limited in viewing angles, it still can be used as a good PS3/BluRay monitor/screen on anyone's desktop.

1080P and the Black Border Lines

A number of users here have been concerned with the pulsing dark grey lines at the bottom of the G2400W image with 1080P. The V2400W also has these lines. They appear both top and bottom in the black bar area around the 1080p image on these two BenQ monitors. I would prefer that BenQ include an option to “black out” this area when using 16:9 1080P content on this 16:10 monitor, though they have never bothered me. I have watched dark movies with the lights out, and after a few minutes these lines seem to stop pulsing and stabilize. The reason the bottom lines are visible is because TN LCD technology brightens when viewed from above, making them more visible at the bottom.

I will show these lines as accurately as possible. You be the judge on whether or not they are a nuisance to you:

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The lines do not occur over any other resolution (not even 1080i). At one point I was playing Grand Turismo 5 Prologue and the lines disappeared at 1080p and the borders were pure black. After I left and re-entered the game, they returned. I'm one to believe they are some sort of HDCP by-product, since they only happen at 1080p. They also occur on Xbox 360 over HDMI, but only with 1080p here too.

Continued in Part 3!
 
Colors, Calibration and Contrast

Good monitors will allow you to change brightness without the colors shifting or changing. For me it is important that I can change the brightness of a monitor from the generally overly bright factory settings to a level more comfortable to my eyes. I generally prefer adjusting brightness to somewhere between 120 and 180 cdm/2. It is often seen with new monitors rated at 400+ cdm/2 brightness that the minimum brightness is too high. Thankfully the V2400W does not suffer from this from this “feature”. Another common issue I’ve seen is when the whites begin to turn pink, red, yellow, or bluish as brightness is lowered. This is an issue I've experienced to a small extent with my G2400W.

Another issue is loss of contrast with reduction of brightness. Some monitors are rated at 1000:1 but quickly lose contrast when brightness is reduced, and users are faced with the choice of eye searing brightness and good contrast, or lower brightness and washed out colors or crushed dark details. This is known as contrast stability. Contrast is usually defined as the difference in brightness between RGB of 0,0,0 (black) and 255,255,255 (full white).

I tested these attributes by measuring the lowest black point and highest white point of the V2400W at different brightness settings. I also tested the white point color temperature at these brightness settings to ensure the white did not change at these specific points of brightness. I performed this in sRGB mode and did not enable “Dynamic Contrast”. I used BasicColor 4.1.8 for Windows to measure these areas with my Eye One Display 2 colorimeter hardware.

Here are those results with Contrast set at 50:

2578642950_7807720814_o.jpg


You’ll notice the contrast ratio never fell under 900:1 and the white point didn’t shift much at these settings from the IDEAL 6500K (daylight temperature). This indicates good contrast and contrast stability, and good white point color integrity throughout the brightness range. It also shows deep blacks displayed within the color measurement window (near the middle of the screen).

This is also what convinced me that the V2400W uses a different panel than the G2400W. Using this same method the G2400W could never reach over 700:1 contrast ratio. As the brightness was lowered, the contrast ratio went down.

Additionally, the G2400W needed the contrast set to 66 to achieve it's highest brightness of 232 cdm/2. The V2400W achieved its highest brightness of 230 cdm/2 with contrast at 50 and it didn't go measurably higher with increase in Contrast. This wouldn't bother me, but around 62 contrast the G2400W starts to increase color brightness so much that it blows out bright colors into white. The V2400W doesn't do this.

I also found that the V2400W's lowest black level was darker than the G2400W. The G2400W could not go below 0.15 cdm/2 while the V2400W reached 0.09 which I think is very good.

Color calibration Out of Box and After Adjustment

Earlier on I mentioned that factory calibration of the V2400W is good. This is more important for a multi input monitor as I don’t know of any calibration software for PS3s, Xbox 360s, or BluRay players, and the Windows color profile management system does not change the monitor’s internal color calibration. Calibration software only adjusts the computer’s video card color tables to display more accurate colors through gamma adjustments in relation to a specific display.
There are some high-end monitors that allow internal hardware color calibration, but the least expensive examples such as the excellent NEC LCD2490WuXi-BK cost over $1000.00 U.S. and are targeted at professional users.

I procured BasicColor 4.1.8 for Windows under trial licensing to validate calibration settings with my Eye One Display 2 colorimeter from my SpectraView II calibration bundle. I reset the monitor to factory settings of 90 brightness and 50 contrast, and put it into Standard, and then sRGB picture modes. I also then re-set the associated color profile to the standard Windows XP sRGB ICM profile.

I was happy with the V2400W’s out-of-box color calibration. BasicColor uses 24 color patches to verify calibration as opposed to the 16 of other software, which I believe makes these reports even more pertinent and accurate.

Under the V2400W’s standard mode I obtained the following in comparison to the sRGB standard:

2578643108_3c5ec071a5_o.jpg


The V2400W showed an average “delta E” of 1.30 which is considered a good result. Anything under “delta E” of 2 is good, and under 1 is considered nearly perfect.

Even better was the sRGB mode:

2578643042_d8648069fd_o.jpg


The average “Delta E” of 1.16 is even better than the Standard mode.'s 1.30 Delta. "Delta" is simply a shorter way of saying difference. The higher the Delta, the bigger the difference.

While I cannot honestly consider a TN panel to be optimal for hardcore Photoshop or photographic editing due to vertical angle brightness shifts, the average user doing a touch up here or there can have confidence they will see colors closely following the sRGB color standard. For a wide gamut display you will have to look elsewhere.

I did not test the other picture modes as they yield shifts in brightness, contrast and color. Unlike the older BenQ FP241xx series, all of the modes are very usable, and I would recommend exploring them to find which ones work to your liking.

Afterwards I set BasicColor to perform software calibration and create an ICM color profile to optimal values based on the following settings:
- 6500 kelvin white point
- 140 cdm/2 brightness
- Gamma 2.2
- sRGB profile

BasicColor performs a pre-calibration by showing a display with some simple instructions to adjust R,G,B, brightness and contrast of the display. It shows a number of test colors and four sliders to the right representing red, green, blue, and luminance (brightness) values. As it flashes the colors these sliders change. The aim is to get the best uncalibrated settings prior to the calibration step by getting the sliders to be as close to the middle as possible.
With the V2400W I adjusted the brightness to 51, and did not have to change RGB values in the OSD at all. This achieved the desired brightness/luminance of approximately 139.7 cdm/2. I also reduced contrast slightly to 48 which yielded even more consistent results.

After calibration here is what I found when I validated the profile in BasicColor:

2577810173_0264dc922c_o.jpg


This is an excellent result with an average “Delta E” of 0.60. Remember, anything under 1 is considered excellent or nearly perfect.

Verdict: Color calibration is good to very good on the V2400W out-of-the-box and excellent after calibration. Subjectively everything is as it should be. The greys were quite neutral and did not have much color cast when they went to their darkest. Pictures looked quite nice and vibrant, and didn't lack detail, and after calibration I didn't notice much of an increase in grey or color banding (which sometimes happens horribly after calibration).


Ultimate Conclusion

Ain't broke, so don't fix it

PC Gaming, Xbox 360 and PS3 over HDMI. It has good color calibration, low input lag, good response time, and a generally high-quality feel to it.

It goes bright enough and dark enough and has a snazzy design to boot. It fixes some of BenQ's G2400W stumbles and uses what I consider a very good TN panel with good contrast and good controls. It is a solid gaming display with low input lag and good responsiveness.

The geek in me also likes the 900:1 and higher NATIVE contrast ratio, and contrast and color temperature stability over the entire brightness adjustment scale.

Broke, so fix it

The VGA connection with an Xbox 360 is no better than the G2400W's (which was fairly poor in capability). Get 1920x1080 to work in 1:1 pixel mapping and I'll be happy, as will most old Xbox 360 users. The overdrive could be a little bit better tuned for less inverse ghosting.


So would I buy this monitor or suggest it to friends? I definitely would for the average PC user, gamer, or HDMI console owner.

The only target users I would not recommend it to are people who do color imaging for a living due to it being a TN design, or as mentioned above, old Xbox 360 owners.

Ultimately, the last question I would expect is whether or not it warrants upgrading the G2400W? I would probably say "maybe". The G2400W has the advantage of the removable stand and VESA mounting capability. If the G2400WD is the replacement, then those who are less enthused with the aesthetics of the V2400W would be likely well served with the G2400WD if it is less expensive.

Regards,

10e
 
Awesome review mate,
thanks a lot. I might pick one up next week
 
Awesome review 10e! Since I don't have monitor calibration hardware like you I'll just direct that portion of my review to yours. :p
 
Thanks.

I hope you're enjoying the "V" GTO. Nice photos by the way.

Cheers,

10e

Awesome review 10e! Since I don't have monitor calibration hardware like you I'll just direct that portion of my review to yours. :p
 
Fantastic review 10e!

I am impressed by the lack of bleed, panel uniformity, black levels and the low brightness contrast, which seems to blow away every other monitor on the market regardless of technology. I consider one of these as my next panel. I may even get this instead of an NEC 2490 because I am so fed up with overly bright back lights.

This should be a message to manufacturers. Here is nearly the ideal brightness range. When you got with this you get full contrast as low as 82cd/m2. Save power, produce less heat. That is a actually comfortable level for dim computer rooms. 230cd/m2 is plenty bright for any kind of normal bright lighting. Enough with 400-500cd/m2 madness.

I also applaud the standard gamut panel and sRGB accuracy. Average DeltaE of 1.16 out of the box is not good. It is Phenomenal! I think you would have a hard time finding a monitor this good out of the box under $1000. With a very accurate sRGB panel, you don't need to calibrate this panel. You plug it in and everything will just look right.

Great Review 10e. Great design decisions Benq.
 
Brilliant review 10e, thanks.

The G2400WD isn't available in the UK yet but it seems to have the same specs as the V2400W but in the G2400W case. Do you know if the G2400WD uses the same panel as the V2400W?
 
How does this panel look in your opinion with 1024x768 upscaled by the video card? Im looking for a couple monitors to complete my 3 panel setup (42" Westinghouse is monitor 1) ... the thing is that my desk is kind of odd and the monitors will have to sit about 3-4 feet away from myself/fiance so we will need to be using some lower resolutions (especially her with bad eyesight)... does 1024x768 and 720p look about the same as the G2004W or better?
 
10e - Awesome review, I'm using this monitor and it's all that and a bag of cool ranch. The button issue is resolved on mine!
 
10e, thank you for the great job.
Bright and nice like music.
IMO a couple of slightly not clear sounds in this symphony though.

I'd like to take a quick sec and thank ..BenQ America
What does it mean?
This unit is not from a store shelf?
Hopefully it's a regular item from a store.

The only target users I would not recommend it to are people who do color imaging for a living
I believe you decided to conclude this excellent review with a good joke.
My friend, people who do color imaging for a living do not need your, or mine, or somebodyelse's recommendations to know what TN monitor is good for, believe me. :) Just don't loose the contact with the ground and everything will be perfect.

A note for the readers.
Giving the first lesson of color accuracy measurement, the teacher told us that "it's to some extent an artificial estimation as for a colorimeter eye even a TN may come up with the best dE, don't be surprised. But in reality..." So I'm not surprised.
I applaud the BenQ V2400W in this regard but this should not fool anyone. Subjective observations.

10e, thank you for giving a good insight. I like what the review says about value of black, range of brightness regulation and video support.
I will recommend potential TN users from other forums to pay attention to this monitor.

A question. Did you find out if backlight flickers at low brightness level?
My concern is that for brightness regulation like this - it's typical to have bad flickering.
 
10e, nice review :)

I'm not sure if I missed it with my quick read thru, but how do viewing angles compare to the G2400W?
 
Ugh! Please don't quote "Trusted Reviews", a misnomer if there ever was one. They have by far the most worthless reviews of monitors I have read. They make CNET full of detail and insight.

I know. That's why I say "subjective observations", not more.
But it's worth doing too - to put the colorimeter off, step back and look at the BenQ V2400W screen:

"Viewing angles are typically poor, with strong loss of contrast and brightness and some colour shift at anything even approaching the quoted 160 degree angles. In grey-scale tests, the V2400W was not very adept at distinguishing whites or blacks at either end of the scale, with a brown/yellow tinge creeping into some grey shades. One area worthy of particular mention, though, is the predominately low level of backlight bleed. Only a small amount of bleed was noticeable from the bottom right corner and lighting across the panel was largely clean and even."

This what they subjectively observe, and it sounds very reasonable.
 
Thanks for an absolutely great review 10e. I have one quick question though, how does 1080p work over HDMI to DVI for the Xbox 360? Does have that 1% problem like the HDMI? Either way, I am going to to purchase this monitor soon, but I was just wondering. Thanks a lot in advance!
 
Ok, this is going to sound really dumb as I'm somewhat of an LCD nubtron. I know about all of the panel types and their pros and cons etc; however, aspect ratios and hd gaming confuse me.

1) I understand that at 1920x1200 your graphics card will be stressed at high level games (Crysis); however, can you just dumb them down to say 1680x1050 and play like you are on a 22" monitor and thus not stress you card as much? Or does the native res kill that option?

2) Also, most games are not WS at all and look really odd in 6:10. So if I wanted to play WC3 in 4:3 I could due to the 1:1 pixel mapping right? What would that res be? 1920x1440?

3) I understand you can play via HDMI PS3/X360 in 1080p thanks to the high res. So if you have a 22" monitor like the Samsung 2253BW (which I'm considering) what are you options. You can't do full HD, but can you run like 720p or something?

Basically I will pay the extra $100 for the Benq 24" over the Samsung 22" as long as it doesn't completely destroy my graphics power and it's the only way to rock PS3.

Thanks for your time, I already warned you about being a nub.

Great review 10e
 
I know. That's why I say "subjective observations", not more.
But it's worth doing too - to put the colorimeter off, step back and look at the BenQ V2400W screen:

"Viewing angles are typically poor, with strong loss of contrast and brightness and some colour shift at anything even approaching the quoted 160 degree angles. In grey-scale tests, the V2400W was not very adept at distinguishing whites or blacks at either end of the scale, with a brown/yellow tinge creeping into some grey shades. One area worthy of particular mention, though, is the predominately low level of backlight bleed. Only a small amount of bleed was noticeable from the bottom right corner and lighting across the panel was largely clean and even."

This what they subjectively observe, and it sounds very reasonable.

It's on here: http://www.digitalversus.com/duels.php?ty=6&ma1=48&mo1=141&p1=1562&ma2=48&mo2=365&p2=3386&ph=12

And I'd say the review is somewhat accurate going off of what I can see on this site.

Seems to be a ghosting problem with it too. I dropped it off my consideration a while ago.
 
Ok, this is going to sound really dumb as I'm somewhat of an LCD nubtron. I know about all of the panel types and their pros and cons etc; however, aspect ratios and hd gaming confuse me.

1) I understand that at 1920x1200 your graphics card will be stressed at high level games (Crysis); however, can you just dumb them down to say 1680x1050 and play like you are on a 22" monitor and thus not stress you card as much? Or does the native res kill that option?

2) Also, most games are not WS at all and look really odd in 6:10. So if I wanted to play WC3 in 4:3 I could due to the 1:1 pixel mapping right? What would that res be? 1920x1440?

3) I understand you can play via HDMI PS3/X360 in 1080p thanks to the high res. So if you have a 22" monitor like the Samsung 2253BW (which I'm considering) what are you options. You can't do full HD, but can you run like 720p or something?

0e

1....by the looks of it, you can either play it at a lower res but full screen it[aspect}, or 1:1 it with black bars accordingly.
I say this all the time....if a game doesn't look good at 16x10, it won't look good at 1920x1200....16x10 is heaps of res on tiny 24in screens.

2....probably 1600x1200.

3....yeah, if the Samsung has a HDMI, it will accept a 720p signal and upscale it to 1680x1050 on your 22, or aspect it to 16:9{WS with letterboxing}.
 
I'll just reply directly to everyone.

I'm really glad you all liked it.

ButtZeX: There doesn't seem to be a way to wall mount it like the G2400W.

Snowdog: Glad you liked it. Some of the review was targeted for you and the legions of people who hate super bright, inaccurate monitors. And unlike the FP241 series the other modes are usable.

Mysterlee: Likely the G2400WD will use this slightly newer revision of the panel. It won't be "sexy" but it will still do the job nicely.

wxkid23:When the video card does the upscaling, the text looks overly smoothed and anti aliased, which is characteristic of the video card. If the display performs the upscaling the text will be sharper. For games I use the video card to scale, for text I use the monitor.

Nearsite: Glad you like the monitor. I know you were waiting for reviews before you pulled the trigger, so I'm relieved you are happy. Though I kinda knew you would be :)

Albovin: That monitor is not available to us here in Canada yet, so it was shipped directly from BenQ America for 5 HardForum users to review. I was just luckiest that I received it first. Two other users have made it known (CopyCat and GTOViper) that they also are reviewing it.

- Subjectively the G2400W/V2400W have the same viewing angles which while no miracle, are as good as TN is right now at this size. 24" is my hard limit for TNs. After that I don't recommend them. Funny how Trusted Reviews says this about the V2400W, but "glosses" over the viewing angles on the TN-based HP W2408H which is more expensive in North America. Find the pun in that paragraph. Subjectively colors are fairly good though.
- No flickering backlight at low brightness when viewed by the eye.

Trent: Viewing angles are basically the same. At extreme angles from above the G2400W turns a bluish and the V2400W turns a pinkish but it is a bit stronger on the V. This is at very extreme viewing angles though.

Daisama: The 1% problem was just to show what overscan ON was about. The V2400W has no issues at all over HDMI or DVI with overscan OFF. I used that example on the 360 over HDMI because I had already shown with the PS3 that there is no overscan with 1080p.


Thanks for the taking the time to read y'all.

Regards,

10e
 
Daisama: The 1% problem was just to show what overscan ON was about. The V2400W has no issues at all over HDMI or DVI with overscan OFF. I used that example on the 360 over HDMI because I had already shown with the PS3 that there is no overscan with 1080p.
Oh, ok. Thanks!

EDIT: Also, how easy is it to switch between different inputs?
 
Thanks for the review, 10e!
I'd wellcome, if you use (also) metric system ;) AFAIK Canada is trying to converrt to the system :)
 
Glad you enjoyed it. Comments are inline with your questions.

Ok, this is going to sound really dumb as I'm somewhat of an LCD nubtron. I know about all of the panel types and their pros and cons etc; however, aspect ratios and hd gaming confuse me.

1) I understand that at 1920x1200 your graphics card will be stressed at high level games (Crysis); however, can you just dumb them down to say 1680x1050 and play like you are on a 22" monitor and thus not stress you card as much? Or does the native res kill that option?

Yes, you can set your game to whatever resolution you want and use the video card's control panel to enable video card scaling. This will scale up the resolution of the game using the hardwaer scaler on the video card so you get lower resolution performance and almost higher resolution quality of visuals

2) Also, most games are not WS at all and look really odd in 16:10. So if I wanted to play WC3 in 4:3 I could due to the 1:1 pixel mapping right? What would that res be? 1920x1440?

1600x1200 works very well on this screen and it will be 1:1 pixel mapped so you will have black bars left and right. There is also 1280x1024 but you wouldn't want 1:1 mapping here, you would want to use aspect scaling of the video card or monitor.

3) I understand you can play via HDMI PS3/X360 in 1080p thanks to the high res. So if you have a 22" monitor like the Samsung 2253BW (which I'm considering) what are you options. You can't do full HD, but can you run like 720p or something?

You can try 720p and the screen should theoretically scale it to 1680x945 (16:9 aspect rez) but it may blow it up to 16:10 aspect and 1680x1050 which would make everything tall. I haven't had a chance to check out 22" monitors, but I may do so soon. My preference is 1920x1200 screens as it is "Full HD" or higher resolution.

Basically I will pay the extra $100 for the Benq 24" over the Samsung 22" as long as it doesn't completely destroy my graphics power and it's the only way to rock PS3.

Thanks for your time, I already warned you about being a nub. :)

Great review 10e
 
Ok OK ;)

Yes I use kilometers all the time:)

I don't think Canada will ever fully convert with our Southern neighbors firmly entrenched in imperial.

Cheers,

10e

Thanks for the review, 10e!
I'd wellcome, if you use (also) metric system ;) AFAIK Canada is trying to converrt to the system :)
 
10E thanks for the info. Text would be the main usage here ... could you list all the resolutions that the monitor itself will scale? It seems some monitors are picky and won't scale some resolutions themselves. I know that my Westinghouse only scales 1024x768 and 800x600 outside of native 1080p... it would be nice if the BenQ would scale others like 1280x800 etc..
 
It seems like it scales well almost ALL resolutions:

1280x720, 1280x800, 1360x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050.

The G2400W has trouble with 1280x720 and 1360x768 but the V2400W does not. Maybe I'll create a table later, but it seems to scale everything very well. Impressive.

Which Westy is it? Desktop monitor or LVM? I had the L2410NM and it was good at 1920x1200, 1920x1080 and 1600x1200 but the rest of the resolutions I had to use video card scaling.

Regards,

10e

10E thanks for the info. Text would be the main usage here ... could you list all the resolutions that the monitor itself will scale? It seems some monitors are picky and won't scale some resolutions themselves. I know that my Westinghouse only scales 1024x768 and 800x600 outside of native 1080p... it would be nice if the BenQ would scale others like 1280x800 etc..
 
If you are coming from CRT, ghosting may be an issue, or more specifically the downgrade to 60hz refresh rate would be, but in comparison to other monitors ghosting has never been a big issue with the G2400W or V2400W.

I mention the overdrive inverse ghosting because it is apparent on the desktop, but in gaming it has not caused me any problems yet. Comparing the FP to the G or V I can honestly say the FP has more ghosting especially with dark colors. I see a lot more dark color smear on the FP241VW than I do on the G or V2400W.

Regards,

10e

It's on here: http://www.digitalversus.com/duels.php?ty=6&ma1=48&mo1=141&p1=1562&ma2=48&mo2=365&p2=3386&ph=12

And I'd say the review is somewhat accurate going off of what I can see on this site.

Seems to be a ghosting problem with it too. I dropped it off my consideration a while ago.
 
Alright, after going to best buy and actually looking at the T220 (the 22" monitor I was considering) I've made my decision based on the following conclusions.

1) I am still at a loss that viewing angle is such an issue to some. My head never moves more than a foot off center @ ~2.5 feet away unless I'm gangster leaning or something. I can understand this being an issue if you are watching TV on a couch or something and have people at different angles, but other than that it seems that TN angles are fine for me as I had to go on an EXTREME angle to get dis-coloration at BB.

2) The fact that I can scale down to different resolutions gives me the best of both worlds. I can watch full 1080p with no scaling issues, AND if I want to play a demanding game like Crysis at higher levels I can drop down to a different resolution. ALSO I can play other games like WC3 and SC @ 1600x1200 with bars instead of stretching.

Now that I've concluded that I want a 24" and everyone seems to have loved the G2400WD, the V2400W looks like a good bet to me. Styling is VERY important to me (I could not buy the G series as it looks very plain imho). Also I want 2ms and low input for gaming (which this has). Finally, it's on sale for $409 (before shipping) until the 30th!

Ordering it tonight! Thanks so much ya'll
 
Alright, after going to best buy and actually looking at the T220 (the 22" monitor I was considering) I've made my decision based on the following conclusions.

1) I am still at a loss that viewing angle is such an issue to some. My head never moves more than a foot off center @ ~2.5 feet away unless I'm gangster leaning or something. I can understand this being an issue if you are watching TV on a couch or something and have people at different angles, but other than that it seems that TN angles are fine for me as I had to go on an EXTREME angle to get dis-coloration at BB.

2) The fact that I can scale down to different resolutions gives me the best of both worlds. I can watch full 1080p with no scaling issues, AND if I want to play a demanding game like Crysis at higher levels I can drop down to a different resolution. ALSO I can play other games like WC3 and SC @ 1600x1200 with bars instead of stretching.

Now that I've concluded that I want a 24" and everyone seems to have loved the G2400WD, the V2400W looks like a good bet to me. Styling is VERY important to me (I could not buy the G series as it looks very plain imho). Also I want 2ms and low input for gaming (which this has). Finally, it's on sale for $409 (before shipping) until the 30th!

Ordering it tonight! Thanks so much ya'll

I have never understood the viewing angle stuff either unless you move around a lot. Im going to go ahead and purchase one of these tonight or tomorrow and then i'll have to save up to buy the other later this fall to complete my 3 monitor setup. Im just basically getting this for browsing/text viewing (stock charts) but style and quality of the monitor (low input lag etc are very important) .... im the type that doesn't like dealing with input lag even when not gaming.
 
It seems like it scales well almost ALL resolutions:

1280x720, 1280x800, 1360x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050.

The G2400W has trouble with 1280x720 and 1360x768 but the V2400W does not. Maybe I'll create a table later, but it seems to scale everything very well. Impressive.

Which Westy is it? Desktop monitor or LVM? I had the L2410NM and it was good at 1920x1200, 1920x1080 and 1600x1200 but the rest of the resolutions I had to use video card scaling.

Regards,

10e

It's the LVM-42W2.... I have had it for over two years now and it has been nothing short of fabulous. Decent contrast... low input lag (around 25-30ms which isn't bad for a large monitor) and it's huge. The V2400's will look like shrimp next to it lol.

Im not sure why it won't scale any other resolutions itself. It will accept 720p from the 360 and scale it but if you send it 1280x720 or 1366x768 it will force the video card to scale. I wonder why that is? The video card scaling looks OK.. it has the "foggy glass" effect but you get that with video card scaling and it isn't that bad. My girl is the only one that uses lower resolutions (1280x720 or so) and it doesn't bother her or myself when I have to game at a lower rez.
 
Albovin: That monitor is not available to us here in Canada yet, so it was shipped directly from BenQ America for 5 HardForum users to review. I was just luckiest that I received it first. Two other users have made it known (CopyCat and GTOViper) that they also are reviewing it.
- No flickering backlight at low brightness when viewed by the eye.
10e

That monitor ... was shipped directly from BenQ America

This is disappointing.
Reviews have more value when a regular item is tested, not that selected by a manufacturer. In this case you are at risk of being involved in manufacturer promotion campaign.


- No flickering backlight at low brightness when viewed by the eye.

Did you check it with a photo camera set to an appropriate mode?
In this video you can see moderate flickering (NEC 2490) next to terrible flickering (Dell 2407-HC) at the same lower brightness.

Less reliable but simple check can be done with a long pencil. Set brightness to zero. Move a pencil quiclky in front of the screen as it is seen in this picture. If you see nothing but plain shadow of the pencil - it's OK.
If you see something like what you see in this picture - a comb brush - flickering is bad.


Backlight flickering may not be visible but it slowly undermines your vision.
 
This is disappointing.
Reviews have more value when a regular item is tested, not that selected by a manufacturer. In this case you are at risk of being involved in manufacturer promotion campaign.

I had a chance to work with "specially selected" HP monitor. Complete crap, it was clearly broken, but people in HP mysteriously failed to find it, heh, heh.
 
10e: No offense but I have seen that HP W2408H in store and the viewing angles are not what you'd expect from a TN, it is one I was actually considering even though I wanted a non-TN. And that my friend might explain why the price is higher. As these days, you do get what you pay for (aside from the Dell 24" which is a pile of overpriced junk).
 
I don't take offence to anything here. I use the forum as a learning tool, nothing more, nothing less.

I didn't find the HP's angles to be exemplary, nor superior to the BenQs or Samsungs I've seen at this size. I like to compare apples to apples. My big issue with the W2408H is the price vs value. Up here in Canada the HP retails for $529.99 with a one year warranty. The BenQ G2400W is $375.00 on average, and the V2400W is in the low $400 range. Both come with 3 year warranties. Also keep in mind the W2408H uses either a Samsung or LG panel with a glossy coating.

Where the HP excels is in providing USB ports and a superior stand to the BenQ, though the Samsung is just as functional for less money ($449.99 for the 2493HM and $379.00 for the 245BW). The 2493HM also provides USB ports and an equivalent stand.

If you need a glossy panel the W2408H is the way to go, but I don't, so for me the value is somewhat reduced.

Based on the good review from Prad.De I would consider the HP to be good, but I still have difficulty with the price.

Regards,

10e

10e: No offense but I have seen that HP W2408H in store and the viewing angles are not what you'd expect from a TN, it is one I was actually considering even though I wanted a non-TN. And that my friend might explain why the price is higher. As these days, you do get what you pay for (aside from the Dell 24" which is a pile of overpriced junk).
 
Yes, but there was nothing about this monitor that showed me that it was the cream of the crop or some "golden egg". Certain caveats that existed with the G2400W (especially over VGA) are still there. I guarantee you there was nothing overly special about the monitor, and I doubt it differs from the retail model at all.

If I had seen as such I would have reported it. I'm no fanboy for anyone, I just know what I like.

I will check it vs the LCD2690WuXi tonight and my camera set to a fast shutter speed. I didn't see anything largely out of the ordinary as I went through the brightness levels.

Can I use a pen? :)

10e


This is disappointing.
Reviews have more value when a regular item is tested, not that selected by a manufacturer. In this case you are at risk of being involved in manufacturer promotion campaign.




Did you check it with a photo camera set to an appropriate mode?
In this video you can see moderate flickering (NEC 2490) next to terrible flickering (Dell 2407-HC) at the same lower brightness.

Less reliable but simple check can be done with a long pencil. Set brightness to zero. Move a pencil quiclky in front of the screen as it is seen in this picture. If you see nothing but plain shadow of the pencil - it's OK.
If you see something like what you see in this picture - a comb brush - flickering is bad.


Backlight flickering may not be visible but it slowly undermines your vision.
 
Did anybody find a good place to buy this from in the US? I found it for $409 at the Benq store but they charge $33 for shipping. Is there a better deal out there?
 
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