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I was chosen to review the BenQ E2200HD by BenQ. I received the monitor on Monday the 20th and I have been tinkering with it for quite a bit. For this first part of my review, I'll post some pictures of the packaging and of the general aesthetics of the monitor. I'll also post my what I have noticed about the menu, build quality, and style. For testing, I used:
Xbox 360 (VGA)
PS3 (HDMI)
Computer
Sorry if some of the pics are blurry. I was a bit too excited.
To start off with:
E2200HD
Screen Size 21.5" Wide
Product Color Glossy Black
Resolution 1920x1080
Pixel Pitch 0.248
Brightness 300 cd/㎡
Contrast Ratio 1000:1 (DCR:10000:1 )
Response Time 5ms/ 2 ms(GTG)
Display Area 476.64x268.11 (mm)
Display Color 16.7 million
Viewing Angle 170/160 (L/R;U/D) (CR>=10)
Input Signals D-sub / DVI-D/ HDMI1.3 / Audio in / Headphone Jack
Horizontal Frequency 30~ 83 (KHz)
Vertical Frequency 50 ~ 76 (Hz)
Video Bandwidth 25 ~ 205 (MHz)
Color Temperature Reddish / Normal/ Bluish / user mode
Power Consumption 45W(max)
Power Supply Built-in
Speakers 2 x1W
Features Senseye+Photo
AMA
HDCP Support
OSD Language : 17 languages
Adjustments Tilt -5/20 (down/up)
Dimensions 522.8x407.8x186.8 (mm)
Weight Net Weight 4.8 kg
The box it came in:
Comes with a nifty handle:
The packaging inside was quite nice. Two foam supports on either side kept the monitor snug. The base came unattached.
Foam paper surrounds the monitor and the base. Quite a lot of foam paper actually.
Comes with 3 paper "manuals". There is not much on them. One has the box contents listed, the other has service information, and the last one has important safety instructions. The CD has a PDF manual, which explains everything else about the monitor.
The speakers on this monitor are not the best I have ever used by far. To get a decent volume, you need to put it at around 75-80, but even then it is hard to hear. As with all built in speakers, they aren't great, but if you aren't planning on buying separate speakers, these are just ok.
Here is a picture of the VGA, DVI, and HDMI ports.
Another of the power and audio jack:
Profile of the monitor. There is also a headphone jack on this side:
I believe the website says it is wall mountable: VESA wall mounting 100 x 100 mm
Here is a picture of the back of the panel.
A picture of the monitor. It has a matte screen, the menu buttons are on the right side. Top to bottom: Auto, Menu, Volume Up/Menu Up, Volume Down/Menu Down, Enter. On the bottom right there is the power button.
Power button. It glows green when on, but its not very bright so as not to annoy you. Its exactly as bright as the 360 lights are.
Back of the monitor. When I opened it, it came with the plastic around the edges and the shiny parts of the monitor. Also, you can see on the base a "cable clip", which you can route your cables through for a neater appearance.
Here is how the back of the monitor looks without using the cable organizer:
Front of the monitor without using it:
Back of the monitor using it:
Front of the monitor using it:
Its very easy to use. You squeeze the thin gray plastic clip off, then you route your cables, and then you put the clip back on. A very simple add on that helps with wire management. Its a very nice addition to an overall plain base. One thing you may want to consider: The HDMI port is quite close to the base, and you will most likely have to bend it to get it to fit. There is also no height adjust, only tilting back and forth.
Overall, the packaging was quite nice. The box was very sturdy, and everything was packaged neatly. Included with the montior was the base, a VGA cable, an audio cable, a couple of paper manuals, and a CD with a PDF manual and drivers.
Menu Impressions: In the menu, youll find the following, taken from the PDF manual. This is the first OSD menu, the Display menu.
The menu is very straightforward. Nothing very special here. Its all your standard stuff. In the Picture menu, you'll find Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color, and Dynamic Contrast Options.
In the Picture Advanced Menu, you'll find Picture Mode, Senseye Demo, Display Mode (Full, Aspect Ratio, Overscan), and AMA.
In the Audio menu, there is Volume, Mute, and Audio Select.
Finally, in the System Menu, there is Input, OSD Settings, DDC/CI, Information, HDMI AutoSwitch, and Reset All.
Let me take a little while to explain some of the menu options. In Picture mode, you can choose from the following options: Normal, Reddish, Bluish, User Mode (you set RGB values),
Turning AMA supposedly improves the gray to gray response time of the monitor, but I haven't seen a discernible difference with it on or off.
In the Picture mode menu, you can choose between Standard, Movie, Dynamics, Photo, and sRGB. I will get into this later in my review.
There are some "shortcuts", which do not require going into the menu, such as switching inputs, changing volume, and muting volume. To switch inputs, press the enter button until you get to the desired input. It takes about 5 seconds to switch. To change the volume, press up/ down on the volume control buttons (up/down buttons on the menu). To mute the monitor, all you have to do is press the volume up button for 3 seconds.
I'll have the next part of my review ready for you guys hopefully by Friday. I have a lot of work to do this week, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the rest done by then. It'll be up Sunday at the latest. You can ask whatever questions you want in the mean time, and I'll try my best to answer them.
Here are some off-screen screenshots I took:
Mirrors Edge Demo:
Banjo Kazooie Demo:
Mass Effect:
Call of Duty 4:
Oblivion
Part II: Picture
First on our list is the viewing angle. As you all know, this is a TN panel, and that means mediocre to bad viewing angles. I have owned many TN panels and all of their viewing angles were not that great. This monitor's viewing angles are a little better than those that I have tried. The horizontal viewing angle changes noticeably at around 45 degrees, and the vertical changes at around 10 degrees. I have included some photos for reference.
Next is picture modes, which include Standard, sRGB, Photo, Dynamics, and Movie. Each changes the picture in a certain way. Standard is a little more dull. The colors are not as pronounced as the others and is a little hazy. Its also more red than the other ones. sRGB is a little darker than standard, and the colors are a little better. Photo is more vivid, and brighter. It also is bluer than the other settings. Dynamics looks similar to photo, but the brightness and contrast changes to best fit the picture (never really liked this mode). Movie makes the blacks a little blacker and causes the picture to be a little less bright than photo.
Standard
sRGB
Photo
Dynamics
Movie
Now, as you know, this is a TN panel. I could not find any ghosting while playing any games or watching movies. Same for input lag. It was very responsive and there was no discernible lag (I used to play on a CRT before using this LCD, but sadly it broke during the summer).
Now for color: My favorite mode to use was sRGB as I found it very easy to look at. I have no way to measure color accuracy, so I can't be a 100% sure how this monitor would fare for color critical jobs, but then again, if your job depends on colors being accurate, you shouldn't be looking at a TN panel. They black level was decent (as this is an LCD). I was looking trying to find some way to measure color accuracy, and I came upon AnandTech's review of this montior which they just posted today. Maybe you guys could take a look at it. It covers a few things I don't have the equipment to. Here it is : http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=3449&p=11
Resolution Scaling:
This monitor has 3 options to chose from for resolution scaling: Overscan (on/off), Full, and Aspect.
Overscan slightly enlarges the image, Full stetches it to fill the screen, and Aspect keeps the aspect ratio correct, and "stretches 16:9 images to fill the screen horizontally and 4:3 images vertically" as stated in the BenQ manual. There is no "1:1 pixel mapping" option. The monitor does get 1680*1050 correctly, as well as 1920*1080 (of course), but the other resolutions I tried aren't going to look like monitors that do 1:1 pixel mapping. I tried 1680*1050, but that was the only resolution that displayed correctly other than 1920*1080. All of the lower resolutions did not.
For example:
1680*1050 (doesn't show the option for "Aspect" it is displayed correctly)
1280*1024 Full
1280*1024 Aspect (notice it is stretched vertically)
1440*900 Aspect
4:3 resolutions are going to be stretched to fill vertically if you use the Aspect option. You can also choose to use the Full option, but that will stretch it to fill almost the entire screen. It doesn't look too bad in Aspect mode, although it is a little fuzzy .This may not be the best monitor for you if you want anything under 1680*1050 to display correctly. The resolutions can be made to look better if you play with your graphics card options.
Conclusion:
If you can find this monitor for around $225 or so, it would be a great deal. The picture is nice, it has HDMI, VGA, DVI, and built in speakers (although they aren't great). They picture is nice and bright. You can change the colors to your liking and the monitor itself looks nice. Overall, it is one of the nicer monitors I have had for this price range (probably the best "bang for the buck"). It is also 1080p, and it only costs a little higher than the 22" inchers that are less than that res. My only complaints are that it doesn't come with a DVI/HDMI cable, the stand isn't height adjustable, and that the menu is a little slow. Other than that, its a perfectly good monitor for the price.
I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Suggestions/recommendations are appreciated.
Xbox 360 (VGA)
PS3 (HDMI)
Computer
Sorry if some of the pics are blurry. I was a bit too excited.
To start off with:
E2200HD
Screen Size 21.5" Wide
Product Color Glossy Black
Resolution 1920x1080
Pixel Pitch 0.248
Brightness 300 cd/㎡
Contrast Ratio 1000:1 (DCR:10000:1 )
Response Time 5ms/ 2 ms(GTG)
Display Area 476.64x268.11 (mm)
Display Color 16.7 million
Viewing Angle 170/160 (L/R;U/D) (CR>=10)
Input Signals D-sub / DVI-D/ HDMI1.3 / Audio in / Headphone Jack
Horizontal Frequency 30~ 83 (KHz)
Vertical Frequency 50 ~ 76 (Hz)
Video Bandwidth 25 ~ 205 (MHz)
Color Temperature Reddish / Normal/ Bluish / user mode
Power Consumption 45W(max)
Power Supply Built-in
Speakers 2 x1W
Features Senseye+Photo
AMA
HDCP Support
OSD Language : 17 languages
Adjustments Tilt -5/20 (down/up)
Dimensions 522.8x407.8x186.8 (mm)
Weight Net Weight 4.8 kg
The box it came in:
Comes with a nifty handle:
The packaging inside was quite nice. Two foam supports on either side kept the monitor snug. The base came unattached.
Foam paper surrounds the monitor and the base. Quite a lot of foam paper actually.
Comes with 3 paper "manuals". There is not much on them. One has the box contents listed, the other has service information, and the last one has important safety instructions. The CD has a PDF manual, which explains everything else about the monitor.
The speakers on this monitor are not the best I have ever used by far. To get a decent volume, you need to put it at around 75-80, but even then it is hard to hear. As with all built in speakers, they aren't great, but if you aren't planning on buying separate speakers, these are just ok.
Here is a picture of the VGA, DVI, and HDMI ports.
Another of the power and audio jack:
Profile of the monitor. There is also a headphone jack on this side:
I believe the website says it is wall mountable: VESA wall mounting 100 x 100 mm
Here is a picture of the back of the panel.
A picture of the monitor. It has a matte screen, the menu buttons are on the right side. Top to bottom: Auto, Menu, Volume Up/Menu Up, Volume Down/Menu Down, Enter. On the bottom right there is the power button.
Power button. It glows green when on, but its not very bright so as not to annoy you. Its exactly as bright as the 360 lights are.
Back of the monitor. When I opened it, it came with the plastic around the edges and the shiny parts of the monitor. Also, you can see on the base a "cable clip", which you can route your cables through for a neater appearance.
Here is how the back of the monitor looks without using the cable organizer:
Front of the monitor without using it:
Back of the monitor using it:
Front of the monitor using it:
Its very easy to use. You squeeze the thin gray plastic clip off, then you route your cables, and then you put the clip back on. A very simple add on that helps with wire management. Its a very nice addition to an overall plain base. One thing you may want to consider: The HDMI port is quite close to the base, and you will most likely have to bend it to get it to fit. There is also no height adjust, only tilting back and forth.
Overall, the packaging was quite nice. The box was very sturdy, and everything was packaged neatly. Included with the montior was the base, a VGA cable, an audio cable, a couple of paper manuals, and a CD with a PDF manual and drivers.
Menu Impressions: In the menu, youll find the following, taken from the PDF manual. This is the first OSD menu, the Display menu.
The menu is very straightforward. Nothing very special here. Its all your standard stuff. In the Picture menu, you'll find Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color, and Dynamic Contrast Options.
In the Picture Advanced Menu, you'll find Picture Mode, Senseye Demo, Display Mode (Full, Aspect Ratio, Overscan), and AMA.
In the Audio menu, there is Volume, Mute, and Audio Select.
Finally, in the System Menu, there is Input, OSD Settings, DDC/CI, Information, HDMI AutoSwitch, and Reset All.
Let me take a little while to explain some of the menu options. In Picture mode, you can choose from the following options: Normal, Reddish, Bluish, User Mode (you set RGB values),
Turning AMA supposedly improves the gray to gray response time of the monitor, but I haven't seen a discernible difference with it on or off.
In the Picture mode menu, you can choose between Standard, Movie, Dynamics, Photo, and sRGB. I will get into this later in my review.
There are some "shortcuts", which do not require going into the menu, such as switching inputs, changing volume, and muting volume. To switch inputs, press the enter button until you get to the desired input. It takes about 5 seconds to switch. To change the volume, press up/ down on the volume control buttons (up/down buttons on the menu). To mute the monitor, all you have to do is press the volume up button for 3 seconds.
I'll have the next part of my review ready for you guys hopefully by Friday. I have a lot of work to do this week, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the rest done by then. It'll be up Sunday at the latest. You can ask whatever questions you want in the mean time, and I'll try my best to answer them.
Here are some off-screen screenshots I took:
Mirrors Edge Demo:
Banjo Kazooie Demo:
Mass Effect:
Call of Duty 4:
Oblivion
Part II: Picture
First on our list is the viewing angle. As you all know, this is a TN panel, and that means mediocre to bad viewing angles. I have owned many TN panels and all of their viewing angles were not that great. This monitor's viewing angles are a little better than those that I have tried. The horizontal viewing angle changes noticeably at around 45 degrees, and the vertical changes at around 10 degrees. I have included some photos for reference.
Next is picture modes, which include Standard, sRGB, Photo, Dynamics, and Movie. Each changes the picture in a certain way. Standard is a little more dull. The colors are not as pronounced as the others and is a little hazy. Its also more red than the other ones. sRGB is a little darker than standard, and the colors are a little better. Photo is more vivid, and brighter. It also is bluer than the other settings. Dynamics looks similar to photo, but the brightness and contrast changes to best fit the picture (never really liked this mode). Movie makes the blacks a little blacker and causes the picture to be a little less bright than photo.
Standard
sRGB
Photo
Dynamics
Movie
Now, as you know, this is a TN panel. I could not find any ghosting while playing any games or watching movies. Same for input lag. It was very responsive and there was no discernible lag (I used to play on a CRT before using this LCD, but sadly it broke during the summer).
Now for color: My favorite mode to use was sRGB as I found it very easy to look at. I have no way to measure color accuracy, so I can't be a 100% sure how this monitor would fare for color critical jobs, but then again, if your job depends on colors being accurate, you shouldn't be looking at a TN panel. They black level was decent (as this is an LCD). I was looking trying to find some way to measure color accuracy, and I came upon AnandTech's review of this montior which they just posted today. Maybe you guys could take a look at it. It covers a few things I don't have the equipment to. Here it is : http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=3449&p=11
Resolution Scaling:
This monitor has 3 options to chose from for resolution scaling: Overscan (on/off), Full, and Aspect.
Overscan slightly enlarges the image, Full stetches it to fill the screen, and Aspect keeps the aspect ratio correct, and "stretches 16:9 images to fill the screen horizontally and 4:3 images vertically" as stated in the BenQ manual. There is no "1:1 pixel mapping" option. The monitor does get 1680*1050 correctly, as well as 1920*1080 (of course), but the other resolutions I tried aren't going to look like monitors that do 1:1 pixel mapping. I tried 1680*1050, but that was the only resolution that displayed correctly other than 1920*1080. All of the lower resolutions did not.
For example:
1680*1050 (doesn't show the option for "Aspect" it is displayed correctly)
1280*1024 Full
1280*1024 Aspect (notice it is stretched vertically)
1440*900 Aspect
4:3 resolutions are going to be stretched to fill vertically if you use the Aspect option. You can also choose to use the Full option, but that will stretch it to fill almost the entire screen. It doesn't look too bad in Aspect mode, although it is a little fuzzy .This may not be the best monitor for you if you want anything under 1680*1050 to display correctly. The resolutions can be made to look better if you play with your graphics card options.
Conclusion:
If you can find this monitor for around $225 or so, it would be a great deal. The picture is nice, it has HDMI, VGA, DVI, and built in speakers (although they aren't great). They picture is nice and bright. You can change the colors to your liking and the monitor itself looks nice. Overall, it is one of the nicer monitors I have had for this price range (probably the best "bang for the buck"). It is also 1080p, and it only costs a little higher than the 22" inchers that are less than that res. My only complaints are that it doesn't come with a DVI/HDMI cable, the stand isn't height adjustable, and that the menu is a little slow. Other than that, its a perfectly good monitor for the price.
I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Suggestions/recommendations are appreciated.
