Tuesday 3 March 2015

BenQ XL2430T Gaming Monitor

BenQ XL2430T Gaming Monitor

For all the money that is generated via professional competitive gaming one would imagine that gaming monitors would be at the forefront for many display vendors. This isn’t the case, even though we have many high scan rate monitors to choose from. Other than that particular aspect of gaming monitors, most vendors ignore or rather choose to walk a middle ground between competitive gamers and casual users.

With the BenQ XL2430T the focus is squarely on gaming. In fact, it is particularly competitive gaming. Not surprising given the vendor’s heavy investment into eSports and the deep product line up to match.

The BenQ XL2430T then is by all accounts a standard 24” full HD monitor, offering a 144Hz scan rate along with a 1ms GTG response time. Those properties are perhaps a sideshow to what the monitor is really about. Portability, comfort, configuration and providing endless hours of painless gaming is what this display is delivers.

Physically it is a large unit, primarily because of the vertical mounting arm where the monitor sits. It’s solid and is responsible for most of the weight. Besides offering a solid base for the screen, it also acts as a handle by which you are able to carry the monitor. It is responsible for the height adjustment system along with the equally wellbuilt rectangular base that in tandem with the arm are able to dictate the horizontal angle of the display as well. The monitor is in addition to the basic axis of adjustment able to tilt 20 degrees up or down. A very important feature when dealing with a TN panel of course.

With all the adjustments one is able to make, it would be very easy to forget what is optimal for your particular environment, especially if you’ll be transporting this monitor from location to location. To that end, it helps that BenQ has provided markers for each adjustment point. You’ll be able to line up the red markings, for at least tilt, height and swivel so you always know what the ideal configuration is for you.

In addition to the above, the XL2340T has a nifty headphone hinge that one may conceal within the monitor. You simply pull it out on the left and hang your headset on it and just slide it back in when you no longer need it. There is plenty to this monitor and BenQ has all their bases covered.

Moving on to the display quality, we found that the XL2340T performed as one would expect from a white LED backlit TN display. That is, looking at it from angles that veer too much from dead centre will result in colour distortion especially where whites are concerned. There was some banding from the bottom to the top of the screen going from a yellowish hue right up to a pale white, in very distinct gradients. This isn’t out of the norm though and it is witnessed in other high scan rate TN displays. With some adjusting one is able to configure the display just right to eliminate most issues that would detract from the image. With some dedication and tuning, you’ll manage to find the right settings for your environment and game.

The best thing about it all is that through the comprehensive software that BenQ provides, you can save multiple settings which can be switched between at a click of a button. If you are looking for an even more seamless transition between modes you may use the provided software to trigger a particular profile when you start a specific game. It is with such care and effort that BenQ has produced a feature packed monitor that has all the bells and whistles you would expect from a high-end full HD monitor today. If you’re worried about your stereoscopic gaming support, rest assured that this monitor supports 3D Vision as well (obviously at 120Hz maximum), thus you won’t have to sacrifice that in order to benefit from the XL2340T. Be advised however that some modes and settings are not available when using 3D Vision and in some cases, they will not produce the desired effect, so caution and experimentation is necessary. It is after all not officially supported on this model.

The XL2340T is expensive by 1080p monitor standards. That doesn’t mean it is not worth the price, because for a professional gamer, it most certainly would be. It is such a focused product, that it makes no compromises in that regard. It is not meant for design, or CAD work. It’s specifically for gaming and the plethora of options made available to you for tuning make this very clear. Gaming at a high scan rate is as always, a pleasurable experience. With all the buzz around frame-timing with FreeSync and G-Sync, one would think this is what all gaming monitors are likely to be selling. With such a monitor those technologies, while always welcomed, don’t make much of a difference. For the most part few games will be able to exceed the 144fps rate of this monitor and thus enabling v-sync reduces some of the tearing or judder that one would otherwise suffer from with a regular 60Hz display.

As far as gaming monitors go they don’t come much more focused and use-specific than the XL2430T. The great thing about many of the features on this model is that they are present on the other high-end models as well, thus you’ve little to no reason to leave the BenQ fold should you want a QHD display for example or perhaps even a UHD monitor. In our opinion, this is amongst the best gaming monitors that have ever been produced and it’s easy to tell just how much input came from professional gamers. Once again the price is steep, but you are paying for a high-quality premium gaming monitor here. It was never going to be cheap to begin with. Given that it can actually give you a competitive edge, it just may be worth investing in.

The XL2430T is one very serious monitor for the professional gamer and it performs admirably in just about every game you can throw at it. Should you be in the market, do consider this one as you’re unlikely to be disappointed. - Neo Sibeko

Fantastically built professional gaming monitorwith plenty of features and usability options.