BenQ BL2411PT: BenQ’s first IPS-panel monitor impresses

Performance

Before testing the monitor, we used it for a couple of hours – working on it, gaming, watching a movie – to set in the burn-in. We used the Spyder3Elite Colorimeter to calibrate the display. We set the brightness setting at 100 percent and contrast settings at 75 per cent and got a contrast ratio of 467.4:1 with a black level of 0.43, whereas at 50 percent brightness setting we got a contrast ratio of 574.1:1 with a better black level of 0.31. Although in both cases, the black levels aren’t the best, but at lower brightness levels, the picture quality was much better.

Thankfully, there isn’t any visible bleeding around the edges, the way it was with the ASUS PB278Q, but you do notice some amount of backlight bleed in a completely dark scene.

We ran the Lagom.nl group of tests which has a battery of tests to check for colour banding, colour transition and even flicker. In the Contrast test, all the colour bands are distinguishable from each other even at the brightest red and blue ends. In the Black level test, the black boxes only tend to merge in the first row. With the other rows, you can differentiate each box. With the white saturation test, we could clearly see all the nine chequered boxes which is a good indicator of the monitor’s ability to separate different levels of whites. In the gradient banding test, there was a smooth transition from black to white levels and we did not notice any banding or colour tinging. In the Inversion (pixel walk) test which has a 11 different screens of varying pixel arrangements, we noticed only a mild bit of flicker in one screen which is a great validation of the BenQ’s flicker-free backlight claim.

While watching movies such as Avatar and Iron Man 3 on the user mode, which we had calibrated, the colours appear a bit more vivid, which can be adjusted by moving the colour sliders to your liking. Overall video quality was great and darker scenes showed only a minor amount of backlight bleeding. Thanks to the matte finish on the monitor, lights behind you are not an issue.

The Standard mode is quite balanced as compared to the other modes. The Movie mode tends to over-compensate skin tones and fine details, specially in the shadow regions. The Eco mode dims the overall brightness and adds a warm cast. The Photo mode tends to make the screen appear cooler or with a bluish cast. M book, which is expected to simulate the look of a MacBook screen, looked like a high contrast mode where in there was very little detail in the shadows and highlights. If you are not going to be calibrating the monitor regularly (User mode), the preset modes to go for are Standard and sRGB which are quite decent as compared to the other modes.

Reading on the BenQ BL2411 was easy on the eyes. Its 1920×1200 resolution is great for working on office documents giving you that extra vertical real estate for excel sheets. Even for image editing suites such as Lightroom, we found the screen to be quite good.

Thanks to the IPS panel, the viewing angles on the BL 2411T are quite good in a well-lit scene. You will barely notice any sort of colour shift when seen from the sides or from the top. In darker scenes though you may see the backlight if you view the screen along either edges, but only at extreme angles.

Verdict and Price in India

BenQ BL2411PT has good colour output, has enough user-customisable options for home or office users, sturdy build quality, great flicker control, optimum viewing angles and so on. Although the contrast ratio is not the highest, we didn’t find that to be an issue while working. We didn’t really find many issues with the monitor except perhaps the preset modes, which don’t really add any value to the overall colour reproduction. Actual physical buttons in place of touch-sensitive buttons would have been a better touch for usability.

It comes at a price of Rs 21,000 which puts it in the same bracket as Dell’s UltraSharp U2412M which is retailing for around Rs 19,000 now. Both monitors perform quite well but the BenQ BL2411PT offers better control over flickering, an issue which has plagued the U2412M. We would ideally like to see the BenQ BL2411PT selling under Rs 20,000. We agree that this is a high price for a home monitor, but then this is meant only for those who are looking at a high quality IPS panel monitor. For that TN panel-based 24-inch monitors from BenQ and Dell are still ideal as they retail for much lower than Rs 20,000 and also have full HD resolution.