![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
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
Box and contents:
The V2400W box is nice, silkscreened, and MUCH BETTER than the G2400Ws. 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.
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.
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 didnt 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 monitors 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: Its 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.
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 Samsungs 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!
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 didnt 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.
With the small vent holes in the back of the panel, any noise that could come out is blocked but this isnt an issue regardless. The panel produces zero noise at all brightness levels. I couldnt hear anything even with my ear glued to the vents while changing brightness.
OSD Buttons and Power LED: The V2400Ws 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:
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 Ill explain why I dont think its 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).
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:
To make it even more apparent I set the camera to a FULL ONE second exposure for the following photo:
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. Im 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 dont believe in 75 degree off angle photos. They show me nothing useful, so I try them at 45 degrees (estimated) max:
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
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
Box and contents:
The V2400W box is nice, silkscreened, and MUCH BETTER than the G2400Ws. 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.
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.
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 didnt 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 monitors 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: Its 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.
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 Samsungs 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!
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 didnt 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.
With the small vent holes in the back of the panel, any noise that could come out is blocked but this isnt an issue regardless. The panel produces zero noise at all brightness levels. I couldnt hear anything even with my ear glued to the vents while changing brightness.
OSD Buttons and Power LED: The V2400Ws 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:
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.comIt looks to be the same panel with added overdrive/AMA and dynamic contrast, but it's likely not. Later on Ill explain why I dont think its 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).
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:
To make it even more apparent I set the camera to a FULL ONE second exposure for the following photo:
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. Im 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 dont believe in 75 degree off angle photos. They show me nothing useful, so I try them at 45 degrees (estimated) max:
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
