BenQ V2400 Eco

Design and features

The 24-inch BenQ V2400 Eco has a completely white chassis, including a white power cord and a white VGA cord. The bezel is 20.32mm wide all around, while the screen itself is only 19mm thick.

The screen has a matte finish, yet despite the wide foot stand it wobbles considerably when pushed.

Unfortunately, you can't adjust the screen height, and there isn't a screen rotation or pivot option for portrait mode. The capability to tilt the screen back 20 degrees is the only included ergonomic feature. Above the foot stand is a small round pocket that looks almost like a cup holder. In it, BenQ has placed a removable small white cup and in that, plastic green grass. According to BenQ, the spot is perfect for "small keepsakes or mini plant pot"; however, we don't advise planting anything that would require pouring water into your AU$399 monitor.

Video connection options are limited to VGA and HDMI, and unfortunately, BenQ only includes a VGA cable for connections. Both connections are on the back of the monitor on its right side, and are easy to access since they're not obstructed by the foot stand's neck. The monitor includes a headphone jack on the left side of the panel.

The on-screen display (OSD) button array is located along the right edge of the panel and consists of five buttons aligned vertically: a Menu button, an up and down button, an Enter button, and an Auto button. Each button has a small knot on it so that you can easily distinguish them by touch. The menu consists of the usual brightness, contrast and colour options. The latter allowing you change its red, green and blue values individually as well as adjust its colour temperature. The OSD includes six presets: Movie, Game, Standard, Photo, sRGB and Eco. The Eco preset caps the brightness at 43/100. Navigating the interface is not as intuitive as Dell's recent offerings or even the Samsung SyncMaster Xl2370.

The BenQ V2400 Eco's 16:9 aspect ratio supports a "Full HD" 1920x1080-pixel native resolution. This continues the trend of more and more monitor vendors moving toward 16:9 from 16:10 — while this is passed off as being better suited for movies, the primary reason is 16:9 panels are simply cheaper to produce.

Performance

We tested the BenQ V2400 Eco with its HDMI connection, using an HDMI to DVI cable (not included with the monitor). The display posted a composite score of 93 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests, lower than the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370's 96 score and higher than the Dell SP2309W's 90 score. In our dark screen test, the V2400 Eco showed only a small amount of backlight bleed through, less than the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370.

The XL2370 achieved a brightness score of 228 candelas per square metre (cd/m²) — much lower than the Xl2370's 344cd/m² and the Dell SP2309W's 297cd/m². The difference between the monitors is readily apparent as the V2400 Eco's screen looks dim in comparison. When we set the brightness of the V2400 Eco and XL2370 to 100 and 75 respectively, we found that when looking at the same image, the XL's whites were noticeably brighter without compromising the dark detail and deep blacks of the image. The V2400 Eco displayed whites that looked almost blue in comparison.

We used the V2400 Eco's Movie preset to check out Kill Bill: Vol. 1 on DVD and a number of 1080p movie files from Microsoft's WMV HD Showcase. We noticed the same bluish-white problem we mentioned, and as a result, other colours didn't have the same pop as they did on the XL2370.

We looked at World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament 3 and noticed no signs of input lag or any streaking or ghosting during fast movement. We found that the Standard preset was the best all-around setting for games. The Game preset's picture is over-tuned to the point that polygonal models show more aliasing than when in standard mode. Again, like in movies, colours in games didn't have the same pop as the XL2370, thanks to the V2400 Eco's relatively low brightness.

Most monitors use cold cathode fluorescent lamp-based backlights — several fluorescent tubes stretched horizontally across the screen. The BenQ relies on individual LEDs all over the back of the screen that turn off or on independently, giving the display more precise control over the amount of light that comes through. The purported advantages of an LED backlight are better energy efficiency, more accurate colour reproduction, a conceivably thinner panel design and a higher potential brightness level. Unfortunately, BenQ doesn't use these features as well as Samsung did with the XL2370.

The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the screen's distance down from the top. At this angle, you're viewing the colours and gamma correction as they were intended. Most monitors are not made to be viewed at any other angle. Depending on its panel type, picture quality at non-optimal angles varies. Most monitors use TN panels, which get overly bright or overly dark in parts of the screen when viewed from non-optimal angles. The BenQ V2400 Eco uses a TN panel, and when it is viewed from the sides or bottom, we perceived the screen to darken about 101mm off from centre and we noticed that from the left, right and top, the display darkened and colours shifted quicker than the SyncMaster XL2370. Of course, when viewed from the optimal angle, we had no problems.

Via CNET.com