BenQ XL2420Z falls under an ultimate series of gaming monitor. With 144Hz refresh rate you won't be missing any enemy in FPS gaming. The monitor is built with a gaming point of view. That means maximum comfort of using, maximum features and amazing screen output. This matters a lot when you are spending a huge amount of a dedicated LCD panel for high end gaming. The monitor comes for Rs.29,100 (Snapdeal). It brings a very bright and accurate LCD panel with adjustable settings. Your eyes might take some time to adjust the screen brightness if you instantly switch from your old monitor to BenQ XL2420Z. This model falls under the XL Series by BenQ. You can find 22", 24" and 27". There is smaller one also available. 27-inch is the maximum widescreen size. But I think 24" is still more than enough. BenQ XL2420Z is a new additional Gaming series. Most of the features are identical here including the design. BenQ XL2420Z offers you full HD resolution with Nvidia 3D vision technology. Glasses are not included in the package. You have to purchase that separately. But if you go with the 27-inch screen then you can get one.
BenQ XL2420Z offers features like Motion Blur Reduction, Low BlueLight, Flicker-Free, GROM & DisplayPilot. All these four features can be essential for FPS gaming. In shooting or battle games where your major role consists of locating and shooting an enemy, you require an LCD panel that can offer accurate screen output. Blurry, extra dark or extra light can affect your vision and your gameplay speed. Keeping those things in mind you can find ample of adjustments in BenQ XL2420Z to make it better than others. Like keeping the refresh rate at maximum 144Hz puts minimum strain on your eyes. It is better to sit a bit far from the monitor so that the direct light or long hours of continuous gaming do not affect your eye. If you are professional gamer, then it can be a very helpful model. Most of these gaming monitors come with similar features. So here comparing other model is useless. We will be concentrating more on the features and performance of BenQ XL2420Z in this article. Before moving ahead, let's have a look on the features and specification.
Features:
- High Performance Gaming Monitor
- Motion Blur Reduction
- Low Blue Light
- Flicker-free Technology
- GROM – 100/120/144Hz
- Game Mode Loader
- S Switch for Swift Control and Navigation
- Display Pilot for On-Screen Display Navigation
- Smart Scaling
- 1ms GTG Response Time
- Exclusive FPS Mode
- Ultra-Flexible Height Adjustment Stands
Specification:
- Screen – 24"W TN Panel LED Backlit.
- Aspect Ratio – 16:9
- Resolution (max.) – 1920×1080
- Display Area(mm) – 531×298
- Pixel Pitch (mm) – 0.276
- Brightness ( typ.) – 350 cd/㎡
- Contrast ( typ. ) – 1000:1
- DCR (Dynamic Contrast Ratio) (typ.) – 12M:1
- Viewing Angle (L/R;U/D) (CR>=10) – 170/160
- Response Time(Tr+Tf) typ. – 1ms (GTG)
- MPRT (Motion Picture Response time) – No
- Display Colors – 16.7million
- Color Gamut – 72%
- Video Bandwidth (MHZ) – 330
- Input Connector – D-sub + DVI-DL + HDMIx2 + DP1.2/headphone jack
- Power Supply (90~264 AC) – Built-in
- Power Consumption (Base on Energy star ) – 24W
- Power Consumption (On mode) – 45W
- Eco Mode – <30W
- Power saving mode – 0.5W
- Power Consumption (Off mode) – 0.3W
- Dimensions(HxWxD mm) – 516x571x149
- Net Weight (kg) – 6.1
- Senseye – Senseye 3
- AMA – Yes
- PerfectMotion – No
- HDCP – Yes
- Color Temperature – Reddish / Normal/ Bluish /user mode
- OSD Language – 17 languages
- VESA Wall Mounting – 100x100mm
- Swivel (left/right) – 35/35
- USBHub – Donwstreamx3; Upstreamx1
- Tilt (down/up) – -5/20
- Dynamic Power Saving (DPS) – No
- Pivot – 90°
- High Adjustment (mm) – 130mm (able to pull down to the base)
- K Locker – Yes
- Smart Scaling – No
- 3D – Nvidia 3D ready
- Signal Cable – VGA cable, DVI DL cable, USBcable
Design:
BenQ XL2420Z is bit heavy. It is essential to take maximum care while lifting it up and placing it on the stand. The setup is divided into three parts. First the monitor, second the back stand that has a slider and lastly the bottom stand. Mounting BenQ XL2420Z on wall is also simple, as it supports VESA mount. But keeping it on stand is better. You can rotate that to landscape of portrait mode as per your need. Slider standing at the back makes adjustment easy. And you can also tilt the monitor front and back. It is essential that you lock the monitor stand from bottom screw. In the package you will get entire stand unit with S Switch. There are three cable which is power cable namely DVI-D cable, VGA cable and USB cable. The USB cable is used to turn on two USB ports on the monitor. There is CD that offers monitor Manual and DisplayPilot software. BenQ also provides a monitor cover.
Front:
At the front right towards bottom you will find the control buttons. This buttons work on the basis of IR sensors. Sometime it becomes difficult to use. But there is an S Switch with the monitor that can be also used for adjusting various monitor settings. To activate the buttons you have to move your finger on it and the lights on each of them glows. The power light remains on all the time. To switch off you have to press your finger on the power button for some second. And then do the same to turn it on. To adjust other settings move your fingers to the up-side. The first key from the bottom after Power key, is the Menu key. There are in total 5 keys. Once the menu key is activated you can see all other settings and navigate in them, like for example Blur Mode, Picture Mode, Display Mode and Menu. Menu gives you detailed settings for manual customization like reducing the brightness and controls, resetting the monitor settings, etc. BenQ XL2420Z has a thick black border. There are no other light on the front. This monitor supports 3D but an IR sensor to detect the 3D Glasses is not provided on it. You have to activate that from the Menu. In BenQ XL2420TX this sensor is provided on the top center which activates 3D automatically as it detects a 3D glass. In BenQ XL2420Z this is manual setting.
Stand is visible at the bottom with big BenQ log on it. I did not find this much impressive because BenQ logo is already marked on the bottom side of monitor border. Another big size logo on bottom platform is sometime disturbing.
Thanks to the simple adjustable stand you can increase and decrease the height of monitor easily. You can shift it up with simple push and also bring it down in the same manner.
To tilt you just have to press the monitor towards bottom from top. And to tilt up you have to do opposite of that. You can tilt upto 20 degree towards top and -5 degree towards bottom. You can also move tilt to the left and right side.
And you can adjust upto 90 degree from sideways. Switching from Landscape to Portrait mode can be done instantly. You can shift the screen 130mm up and down. If you wall mount the same, you won't be able to adjust height. It will remain fixed at one place.
Backside:
The backside reveals the stand more properly. This stand comes with cable management design. The stand has two more features. One is a handle on top to lift the monitor up and a Headphone hook. There is an audio port provided. You can connect your headphone to that and hang it on the backside. It is a smart feature.
All the ports are placed at the backside but faced downward. Accessing them is bit uncomfortable as you have to bend the monitor towards front. Starting from the left the first one is power port and then comes a port that will connect the S Switch with monitor. Next to that is a DisplayPort Socket. Next to that lays VGA and DVI-D Socket. Then there are two HDMI ports with another port that will connect the monitor USB with PC. There is a separate cable available for that or else two USB ports on the monitor at right side will not work. And the last one is a regular USB 2.0 Port.
Left/Right:
The monitor features a thick design with sturdy look. At the left side there are two USB 2.0 ports with an audio jack. You can also see the thickness here.
The overall design of BenQ XL2420Z makes it a high quality monitor. With big screen size it is fully functional. Most of the preset modes will make your job easier. But if you are a PRO then it also has enough settings to make the screen output proper.
I did not really like the IR buttons on the monitor which sometime does not work well. To overcome that issue the S Switch is bit more helpful. It is like a dedicated mouse to the monitor. It fits well with the bottom part of monitor stand and 4 keys with a clickable scroll wheel. The keys marked with numbers allow you to save your settings. You can press them to switch from one mode to another. The scroll wheel is for navigation. It is like a dedicated mouse for monitor.
Gaming Output:
Being a Gaming Monitor there are no doubts that BenQ XL2420Z will bring great features to use. Here while playing things that most matter is clear output and fewer eyes fatigue because gamers usually like to sit for long hours. And this affects the eye if a monitor does not own some specialized features that BenQ XL2420Z has. It is a great choice for FPS gaming. If you think the scene is more blurry then you can take benefit from Motion Blur Reduction technology. Just turn it on and the monitor will try to make things more accurate. This somehow does not help for multimedia files, but for gaming it is clearly visible. Especially when you are playing games like Sniper Ghost. When targeting something specific point matters the most. And when the object is moving it is hard to set target on regular monitors. In BenQ XL2420Z by turning on the Motion Blur you can see more accurately. Low Blue Light further can help you to reduce eye strain allowing you to play for longer period. It is also helpful when you are working. 144Hz refresh rate is enough for having a flicker free output. Viewing comfort allows you to adjust the monitor as per your need. You can sit wherever you want and adjust the monitor height and tilt angle. If you want this for working purpose then you can set it on portrait mode easily on the stand.
BenQ XL2420Z takes care about clear vision. But still I will not recommend you to sit very near to the monitor. Widescreen already gives you a large area to see. So you can maintain a distance of 1 to 2 feet to put minimum strain on your eyes from direct light. Or the best thing you can do is place a light on the backside of monitor to reduce the effect. Some modes are very bright and I am quite sure after playing for an hour or more, you will fell the strain. There are few display modes in this monitor as it is not a multimedia model. It is for gaming. So you won't be getting any movie mode or theater mode in this. BenQ offers you to download Game profiles from its official site. And you can use them on the monitor directly. There is a tiny application called a Display Pilot which can help you to configure the monitor settings easily. Like you can divide the screen into different partitions. You can calibrate the monitor by using the Wizard Mode if you think it is not much clear. Display Pilot is a helpful option for gamers to find ready to use profiles. And you also get 3D benefits in it.
Conclusion:
BenQ XL2420Z costs around Rs.29100. It is a bit pricy amount as per India, but if you check the features and output, you might keep the cost as secondary. Many of us believe to get a worth product for the amount we spend. Here the price can be reduced to some extent for those who do not need a 3D Ready monitor. But most of the high end gaming monitors come with that and this affect the price. We also do not get many games that come with pure 3D support. A few cons that make this monitor bit un-comfortable are the front IR buttons. Sometime it does not respond instantly. But we have the S Switch to overcome that. Adjust the screen by turning off the monitor. If you try to move the back power connector then it does not hold the cable tightly. From usage point of view BenQ XL2420Z is a really amazing product.
Pros:
- 144Hz refresh rate
- Smart features
- Amazing Gaming Output
- 3D Ready
- S Switch
Cons:
- No 3D Glasses in package
- IR Monitor buttons not much comfortable to use
- No Speaker
