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BenQ XL2420G G-Sync Monitor

2014-12-15
over the years my expectations have really changed for BenQ in the early days their stuff was cheap and I was basically pleased if the copy on the packaging was devoid of spelling errors and the display powered on but over the last few years BenQ has surprised me a number of times most notably with the XL 2040 a monitor that I declared to be the best gaming LCD that I had ever seen when I checked it out about a year ago and with their prices having risen along with their status as an incredibly well-regarded gaming monitor maker today's look at the XL 24 20 G will be from the perspective of a youtuber who really needs to see BenQ take things to the next level to really be impressed and who has a video coming soon about whether it's possible to fake the performance results of one CPU with another completely different one so stay tuned for all of that from December 13th to 20th 2014 you can save on select Intel CPUs knucks and SSDs with special holiday rebates from select retailers click now to learn more physically I hoped for more from the Excel 24 20 G just like every other excel Series gaming monitor it's got all the functionality you could want the base is adequately sturdy and wide enough that you can't tip it over there's a 2 port integrated USB hub there's a cable management hole through the stand to keep your desk tidy there's a headphone hook and a solid carrying handle that adorn the top of the stand on the back and it's got the full range of ergonomic adjustments height tilt swivel and pivot along with a toolless mechanism to detach the panel from the stand and screw it into a base amount should you so desire well that sounded great Linus what more could you want the answer lies in the just like every other XL series bit back there Ben Q is asking for a lot of money for this display only a couple hundred less than a Seuss's rog swift 27-inch monitor and it feels like they didn't invest in many improvements to the ID or really any at all even just thinner bezels and maybe upgrading the USB hub to USB 3 could have softened the blow a little bit here as far as the sticker shock is concerned but you could also argue that this monitor is not about the looks this is an eSports and competitive gaming targeted product and should be treated more like a tool than a fashion accessory to which I would reply Touche so let's get into the functionality then shall we at the front is a 24 inch 1920 by 1080 144 Hertz TN display with basically no input leg pixel response times in the 1 millisecond or less range support for 3d vision stereo gaming with optional active shutter glasses and shockingly strong performance when it comes to color vibrancy contrast and viewing angles especially horizontal viewing angles to the point where if I didn't let you tilt the monitor way down or way up you may not actually realize it's a TN panel so far so good on the performance front the on-screen menu can be navigated either with the included control module that snaps on to the side of the base with a magnet or with the on-screen touch buttons and contains basically all the options I'd expect from a high-end consumer grade monitor brightness contrast and color temperature including a custom mode with RGB adjustments and then there's also some fun stuff custom keys gives you one touch access to functions that you use most often black equalizer is basically a monitor level gamma boost to give competitive players an edge when trying to spot opponents in dark areas would suggest that casuals leave this one off for a more atmospheric gameplay experience it's got a low blue light node which theoretically works with the flicker free DC backlight to reduce eyestrain and finally the really cool stuff first is UL mb or ultra low motion blur mode it uses backlight modulation to fire bursts of light at the panel only when the pixels have finished transitioning to reduce smearing on fast-moving objects it works at 85 100 or 120 Hertz with pulse width adjustments to find your optimal balance between image clarity and screen brightness and it works so well that you can actually read next as you drag a window across the screen try that with your monitor right now good luck but it does have the drawback of reducing overall screen brightness and on my sample at least introducing a little bit of noise in dark areas of the image that look kind of like very faint scan lines or something with that said with how well this monitor performs in the fast gaming picture mode the only drawback of which is slightly subdued colors I didn't find it worthwhile to turn on you LMB due to the brightness trade-off and the fact that the second feature doesn't work at the same time and that second feature is g-sync if you need a primer on g-sync click here but if the summary is enough for you then basically it works with your modern Nvidia graphics card to get all the benefits of vsync so no ugly screen tearing with the benefits of vsync off so very low input latency and no stutters awesome and then finally the thing that really caught my attention about this monitor forcing me to revise my list of the only g-sync monitors that matter which previously contained only the asus rog swift and Acer xB 280 HK to include this one as well unlike other g-sync monitors the XL 24 20 G contains a normal display processor 2 which allows it through the use of their classic mode to enable some of Ben Q's usual modes that aren't supported by the g-sync module and to accept other inputs other than DisplayPort 1.2 specifically dual link DVI and dual HDMI a feature that is bound to be a must for anyone who doesn't have the space to set up their game console on a separate display somewhere else and wants to easily switch between multiple input devices Bravo Ben Q while this isn't a feature I personally need on my gaming monitor on my rig it's something that I recognize as the potential to be incredibly important to a great many other folks out there so this is a fantastic gaming monitor it's tremendously responsive but not only beautiful considering it's a high-speed TN panel that it's one of the best performers I've seen when it comes to motion blur even with a na turned off altogether they're in like sRGB mode and it's got a feature set that makes lesser displays tremble but it's not perfect the price is going to be a major turnoff for some shoppers because I have a hard time imagining much overlap between the Venn diagrams of folks looking for 1080p monitors and folks looking to spend this much on a display unless portability is a factor like if you would be regularly transporting your PC to Land's so that's the conclusion it's an awesome display but I think the number of shoppers interested in it will increase dramatically when g-sync module pricing comes down to knock a hundred bucks or so off the sticker price speaking of awesome displays you have a brand new sponsor on the show today HH greg comm HH greg is an appliance electronics and furniture retailer with locations across the US as well as an online store and they want us to let you guys know about a contest that they're running along with LG in which you could be the lucky winner of an LG 55 inch curved OLED smart TV or an LG 49 inch 4k HD I think we just mean 4k and it's like ultra HD actually it is exactly I'll trade here's what's called a TV or an LG 300 watt 2.1 channel sound bar once every hour on December 16 2014 all you have to do is head over to the link that's on screen and in the video description and use our code Lynas to enter they're also running a Twitter contest for a $500 h/h Greg gift card on December 15th and 16th so to enter that one you just follow @hh greg on twitter and use the hashtag om LG they will randomly select a winner from everyone who uses the hashtag over those two days and just one more thing to throw in here guys if you do sign up for the contest using my offer code again that's linus i get a chance to win a 4k TV as well so yeah it's good for everybody involved so head over to that link in the description and get your entries in now guys thanks for watching like this video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked leave a comment if your feelings are more complicated than this it's like a dance it's like the YouTube dance um where was I going with this right you also have a link in the description to support us you can give us both the contribution by a cool t-shirt like this one or or change your bookmark to one with our affiliate code for amazon.com so we get a small kickback whenever you buy stuff do not shoot me thanks for watching again and as always don't forget to subscribe you
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