Uber post incoming! Get ready!
The XL2420T was top of my list too because of the screen size, stand and positive reviews but the price was hard to justify...
That's exactly how I feel about it. However even with that said I haven't completely ruled it out of contention.
The Sammy came along at the right time and taking advantage of a VAT back offer from Samsung I was able to pick it up for approx. £180 including glasses...
That is awesome.
I could do with a similar kind of deal coming my way right about now.
I'm surprised there hasn't been more replies to this thread and it might be worth posting in the PC Gaming section.
Okay, thanks for the tip.
I'll give it a try.
The only thing I can really add is that if you don't have a high end card then you probably wouldn't want to look at anything above 1920x1080 res or 24"...
...a more mid-range card would quite likely struggle to maintain 60fps if you up the resolution
I've currently got an Nvidia Geforce 560Ti, so you're right, a 24" monitor with 1920x1080 res should probably be my limit.
I'm not the BenQ will satisfy the colour criteria, being a TN it'll almost certainly have inconsistent colours across the screen, particularly vertically, due to the sensitivity of the technology to the small changes in viewing angles between the edges of the screen.
Well, according to techradar -
'First up, the basic image quality kicked out by the BenQ XL2420T is truly exceptional. Thanks to rich and vivid colours, good contrast and relatively little evidence of colour compression on any of the scales, it might just be the best TN panel we've ever seen.' I was pretty impressed by this.
With regards to limited viewing angles, I view all my monitors straight on so that's not an issue for me.
It does sound like you're suffering from review overdose...
Yeah, ain't that the truth.
You won't get an LCD that does all of them well, you just have to decide what is good enough for you (or go for a different screen technology and accept a different set of flaws).
Wise words indeed, Endless. I appreciate the reminder. Thanks.
I guess this really depends on the OPs expectations and what to his mind constitutes 'good' colours. If he has only used TN panels in the past and has generally been happy with the colours and inconsistency than I doubt he'd be disappointed with the BenQ as it seems to be one of the better TN panels in this regard.
I've only ever used TN panels up until now. I've been gaming on both PC and consoles on a Viewsonic VX2260wm for the last three years, and the colours it produces have always been acceptable to me.
Of course I'm always happy to try new things, if budget allows
, and I've been curious enough to want to try out an IPS monitor to see how much better the colours they produce are compared to TN. However given I'm predominantly looking for a gaming monitor this pretty much rules out IPS because of their slower response times. Mind you the Dell U2412M does well in that regard and if it only had an audio out port I'd have snapped one up weeks ago.
That's a fair point. The average viewing distance is supposedly approx. 30 inches (the average adult male's arm length) which for me is just right for a 23"-24" monitor but to my eyes to close for a 27" at 1920x1080.
If the OP has the desk space then moving it back is of course an option.....although you could argue that if it looks exactly like a 24" monitor then he may as well pay less for a 24" and sit a bit closer.
To be honest the only 27" monitor I was considering was the Asus VE278Q, which reviews well. Sat on my desk I could sit back from it when console gaming, but not so much when PC gaming. Also I think that 1920x1080 res on a 27" monitor is a bit of a waste. Surely bigger monitors should come with higher res's?
A couple of things I've been thinking of that might help the OP. Whilst you can't do much about things like response times, colours etc. there are a couple of 'negatives' you can work around if you find a monitor that otherwise looks perfect for your needs:
i) add an after market stand (assuming the monitor supports VESA mounting)
ii) install a cheap sound card so you can hook up speakers, a 5.1 system or headphones
Thank you so much for pointing these things out to me, jellofund. I had never even thought about after market stands, so that's a great help.
As for a cheap sound card though, that would be fine if I was only going to be gaming on my PC. However I want to hook up my consoles to my new monitor too, so I really need that audio out/headphone socket on the monitor so I can get the sound through HDMI.