BenQ XL2730Z Black-Red 27" 1ms (GTG) WQHD Widescreen 2560 x 1440 LED Backlight TN Panel Adaptive-Sync (Free Sync), Auto Game Modes, Ergonomic Professional Gaming Monitor

Pros: Hey everyone! as a Neweggspert, I review a lot of hardware on this site. Prior to buying this monitor I played around with an LG 24” GM77 144hz gaming monitor. With that monitor I learned how nice a fast refresh rate is, when you have a dual R290 gaming rig, but I was disappointed with it's overall quality. So I did tons of research on 27” and 34” monitors, and became excited to see freesync in action. I “settled” on this monitor for use over the next 5 years. I am going to give you guys some pointer on how to set up your monitor, in case you maybe feeling frustrated. I am going to spread my review over the different sections, but there are no cons to this monitor, except it only comes with 6ft display cables. There are many factors that come into play, when it comes to smooth game play. To keep it simple lets look at just playing single player FPS's, which is where you get the MOST benefit with a high refresh monitor. Currently, you NEED to have two video cards to enjoy above 60fps in most current games (100 FPS = 100hz). Game play messes up when either the monitor or the video cards are not running at close to the same rates (in sync). Freesync cures tearing and studdering, by telling the monitor when to refresh, allowing for “on the fly” adjustments of the refresh rate. There are a couple of very important factors to enable freesync. 1) You need the BETA drivers (14.502.1002-141223a-179058C) they are a 15.x version which I could NOT find on AMD's website I found them at GURU3D. 2) You must use display port, and load the BenQ monitor's driver's from the CD. 3) A good display port cable 4) To check the freesync box in the Catalyst “My Digital Flat Panels” tab, at the bottom. If it is not there, you have the wrong driver version. 5) It currently only works with one video card, no crossfire yet (in April). Performance of a 1440 monitor vs. 1080, is I only took about a 25% performance hit for about 50% increase in resolution, so I am happy about that! Freesync is amazing! In a nutshell, it keeps your display smooth, even at as low as 20 fps, all you notice is lack of smoothness from things moving. Like if a cartoon slowed way down (you would see the action skipping) and everything else stays rock solid. It makes a huge difference when you experience it. Your eyes see smooth motion at anything above 30 fps so anything above that just becomes amazing. If your video cards can do above 60 fps consistently then game play will be extremely smooth and sharp with minimal blurring. So why go up to 144hz. It is simple.. the future!! Because you will grow into this monitor for many years. I am not an AMD fanboy at all, but I love this technology because it gives a real tangible improvement to game play! WHY? did they not come out with it years ago?

Cons: Ok onto the monitor itself. If laptops used this display type, they would sell millions more laptops. This is hands down the BEST TN panel I have ever seen. Here is why! 1) the blacks are very good and even in all parts of the display. 2) Viewing angles for a GAMING monitor are pretty awesome, sitting square, all corners are uniform in colors and lighting. 3) THE COLORS!! they are not washed out at all, use the standard mode for the average player. 4) This monitor is so CRISP, from text to showing rendered details. It is the perfect resolution for a 27” monitor. 5) The stand is perfect, and adjusts to however you need it. 6) I love the easy menu system, using the side buttons and dongle. Honestly, this is my first BENQ monitor and I am completely blown away!! I have had some pretty decent monitors over the years, and a few terrible ones. This BENQ monitor has met every expectation as a GAMER that I could ever have. If you are not a serious gamer you may not be happy with TN panel, because you need to be centered and squared to it! Not to the side, or above, you need to be close to CENTER. The text is so crips and clear! I do not have to strain my eyes to read. You have ever adjustment you will need to professionally calibrate this monitor. You can also download profiles for the monitor as well, which makes it much easier if you aren't good at calibration. The colors are so good, I can put it next to my ASUS IPS panel, and it is pretty darn close. More than good enough for me, and I am a cinemaphile! They are deep and rich! It has the TRUEST calibration, in standard mode, that I have EVER encountered with a display or TV out of the box. That really says a lot about how much BENQ really cares about the quality they are putting on the market. Next BENQ needs to build TV's! And I'm in. I understand now, how BENQ became the standard for GAMERS in competitive arenas for tree years straight. Since I do modding for games too, the display pilot partitions are really awesome and make it quick for me to snap windows into place. The software overall seems well done to me. I have not experienced the slow downs others are talking about.

Overall Review: The LG I was using before was doesn't even rate a 5 compared to this monitor. BENQ has set a new standard that will be hard to beat, and the quality of design makes them worth every penny! When I set my computer up with the new monitor, and had originally downloaded the 14.12 AMD drivers I had MANY issues, even though I cleaned out all driver remnants with DDU. Catalyst also kept telling me there is something “wrong” with my display port, and it was downgrading it. I believe it was because I cannot “multi-stream” but I am not sure. I tested everything multiple times and I can verify there is nothing wrong with my setup. If you are a GAMER, get off the fence and do not even hesitate to buy this monitor! Even without freesync it is completely awesome and you will not regret spending more moo la for the extra real estate and resolution! I came out of this a BENQ fanboy though! BENQ I want a 21:9 curved monitor that is 34” wide and made with your quality. Be proud of yourselves, you have made a real flagship product here, NEVER compromise! and you will keep me as a customer.

Pros: This monitor has it all for gamers! 1) 27" - This is the perfect size to enjoy games reclined or to be able to pick out the tiniest details in-game. Check. 2) 1440p - This is such a great improvement for a 27" screen. Everything, including objects in games, is noticeably better defined with higher resolution. Check. 3) 144hz - The hype IS REAL. Your average 60hz monitor belongs in an work office. You just have to see it to believe it. Don't listen to anyone who says that 60hz looks the same. It's a night and day difference. Check. 4) Blur-Reduction (note: not usable with Freesync) - Takes 144hz to the absolute next level of clarity. If you play CS:GO like me, Blur-Reduction seems imbalanced in the perfect way. Flick shots are made so much easier (must still practice). Check. 5) Blur-Reduction Intensity Slider - Completely removes any issue with low-brightness due to the Blur-Reduction monitor strobing. This seals the deal. Check. 6) PREMIUM AMA setting - This massively reduces the issue of seeing ghosting/crosstalk when Blur Reduction is on (and off). Normally, ghosting/crosstalk becomes much more revealed by strobing blur-reduction, but with PREMIUM AMA and Blur-Reduction, ghosting/crosstalk isn't even noticable in-game. Check. 7) Brightness slider - Can use decreased brightness for normal monitor usage. However, along with Blur-Reduction's intensity slider and the various gamma settings, the brightness slider can be increased to counter-balance Blur Reduction's natural decrease in brightness. Check. 8) Color Vibrance slider - Can increase to counter balance Blur-Reduction's natural decrease of color vibrance. Check. 8) Freesync (note: not usable with blur-reduction) - Firstly, understand that Blur-Reduction is useful for games like CS:GO, which rely on visual clarity while spinning in circles at twitch-speeds- and these games have to run at very high frame-rates for Blur-Reduction to work properly. Alternatively, Freesync improves the smoothness of more modern, hardware intensive games that run at a lower framerates (between 40-144ish) - forces Monitor's hz to dynamically == game FPS for a silky smooth gameplay experience, even at a low FPS. 9) Beautiful colors once calibrated. My favorite settings below.

Cons: 1) Out of the box color calibration is just wonky, with Black eQualizer way too high, and other odd color settings, but this is quickly and easily remedied using the color settings below - consider it an excuse to learn how to navigate the monitor's OSD. 2) Maybe it was my bad luck or maybe the BENQ quality control missed a couple of bad monitors, because I got two bad monitors before my 3rd one actually worked 3) This isn't really a problem with the monitor itself, however, I recommend a good computer to be able to enjoy 1440p resolution and decent frame rates.

Overall Review: My favorite color calibration (with blur-reducton OFF): Brightness: 75 Contrast: 50 Color Vibrance: 12 Gamma: 3 Black eQualizer: 0 Instant Mode: On Sharpness: 8 AMA: OFF Color Temp: Custom (R: 95,G: 95,B: 100) Blur Reduction: OFF My favorite color calibration For extremely high FPS gaming, like CS:GO (with blur-reduction ON): Brightness: 100 Contrast: 50 Color Vibrance: 15 Gamma: 1 Black eQualizer: 2 Instant Mode: On Sharpness: 8 AMA: PREMIUM Color Temp: Custom (R: 95,G: 95,B: 100) Blur-Reduction: ON - Intensity: 5 (Values 1-20; 5 my preference, lower value == brighter == supposedly less blur reduction, but every value appears equally blur-reduced to me) - Area: 10

Pros: Saying this screen is pretty is like saying bacon is good. It's not a lie, but it doesn't convey the entire truth either. I've had this monitor for about 5 months now, and I still love it like day 1. 144hz is a significant and noticeable upgrade from 60, but the real shining star is the 2560x1440 pixel density. Freesync works like a charm (make sure you've updated your drivers, you should get a prompt to enable freesync [it's not on by default] when you first turn it on. Speaking of Freesync,, I believe this monitor is rated to 40hz for freesync but (and this is some serious 'bro-science' coming at ya) I rarely notice tearing even into the 20's (fps)

Cons: Not so much a Con, but someting you should consider; -2560*1440 is a Lot more pixels than a 1080p screen. if you're expecting to run games at full quality (or higher with moded textures) AND want to take advantage of 144fps, you better have a rig forged in the fires of Hades. That said, you don't have to use it to it's maximum potential every moment to enjoy it. -You're gunna wanna turn the brightness down when ya first get it, it's like a car headlight in your face.

Overall Review: This was more than I wanted to spend on a Monitor frankly, but when you consider it's the part of the computer you interact with the most I feel it was a worthwhile investment.

Pros: Good color depth, easy to set up, like the side-mounted USB ports.

Cons: Monitor display suddenly started flickering like mad recently. Needs to be RMA'd

Overall Review: A monitor less than a year old should not be failing like this so soon. Poor quality control, BenQ.

Pros: - price was reasonable

Cons: - buggy firmware (see below) - images look washed out so it probably needs to be calibrated - there are thin but visible lines running up/down and from left to right, so all images look grainy even at 2560x1440

Overall Review: BEWARE when buying this monitor from Newegg Canada. The monitor I received still has the buggy firmware and AMA (blur reduction) doesn't work. They recalled this monitor in Europe for this reason. Supposedly all monitors sold after July should have already fixed the issue but apparently not in Canada. I bought it on 8/16. Will try to get it RMA'd and will update this review accordingly.

Pros: -Flicker free (see other thoughts) -144hz -2560x1440 -Build quality -Picture -Extras Received this monitor in the box it comes packaged in, typical of monitors. Everything inside the box was packaged well and there was adequate padding to protect the panel. The stand weighs more than I expected, it's very weighty and has adjustments (along with markers for those adjustments) for height, pivot, swivel, and rotation. The panel itself is also solidly constructed. The whole package makes other expensive monitors I've purchased this year seem cheaply made in comparison. The 144hz, 1ms response time means that even without the blur reduction feature on games have amazing motion clarity. Playing GTA5 on a 4K 60hz monitor and going to this, even though it's less pixels, is a much better experience overall due to the smoothness of gameplay. The colors, after tweaking, are right up there with the two IPS panels I own. The blacks are nice and deep, colors are vibrant and can be made to be quite accurate. I've heard it's a true 8 bit TN, and compared to the 10 bit* (8 bit + FRC) IPS panels I've been using it's very, very close. The monitor I received also had zero backlight bleed and no dead pixels. The headphone arm frees up a bit of desk space, not necessary by any means but is a nice feature to have built into it, and the remote for controlling the onscreen display is a nice extra as well.

Cons: The matte coating may be a little too matte for some. On websites with white backgrounds you can see some light swirling but it's not the most aggressive matte coating I've ever seen. Because it's a TN panel, colors do shift with viewing angles but it's really not that bad for a TN panel. Horizontal shifts are pretty minimal and as long as you're looking at the monitor straight on, vertical shifts aren't an issue either.

Overall Review: The monitor uses flicker free screen dimming, but any type of blur reduction strobes the backlight and does introduce a flicker. If you're sensitive to backlights that use PWM to dim the screen like I am, you may have to keep blur reduction turned off. It still looks amazing without it, however. And, owning two GTX 980s, I cannot speak to how well FreeSync works, but honestly I'm happy with it without adaptive sync. Unless this monitor implodes in the next week or so, I don't understand how anyone can justify the $200 upcharge for a G-Sync monitor. Tearing is almost nonexistent at these refresh rates regardless. BenQ has a real winner here.

Pros: Colors are great for a TN and response time is fast thought even with a "1ms" response time there is still motion blur as with any LCD based display. But thats where Blur reduction comes in! BenQ's blur reduction makes the frames of fast moving scene near perfect by greatly reducing your perception of motion blur and it does it at 144hz.Unlike the light boost hack used with other monitors it doesn't make the picture dark , wash out the colors or force you to use 120hz. Now on to the resolution. 1440p @ 144hz is glorious! Makes games like CSGO and TF2 so responsive and crystal clear.

Cons: Minor backlight bleed near the bottom right but only noticeable in dark scenes, not too distracting but could be for others. The audio port on this monitor is useless as it only works when the refresh rate is less than 144hz defeating the whole point of having it. Very minor double frame (ghosting? (speed mirage?)) when using blur reduction.While it is present it isn't too noticeable while playing and you can even adjust what sections of the screen this occurs on. e.g. playing a shooter? Set the near perfect section in the middle. Flight sim? Maybe a bit more to the top. The antiglare coating is lame but not a deal breaker. All in all I just knocked down an egg for the audio out being useless.

Overall Review: I can't comment on the free sync as I have an Nvidia card. For those who might be wondering (as I have seen before) if you use this for a console it will no display your games in any higher resolution or refresh rate than it would on a TV; However you can still benefit from lower input latency and blur reduction though a 1080p monitor from BenQ would suit it better.

Pros: Build quality, adjustable stand, adaptive sync.

Cons: Monitor lock ups requiring disconnecting of the power cable, ghosting issues, monitor failing after 4 months.

Overall Review: I've currently opened an RMA with Benq as my monitor is now failing after around 4 months of use. I use display port only for adaptive sync capabilities. When my PC came out of sleep mode, the screen came on and everything was fine. Then the picture glitched and everything went a bit blurry (as if it was the wrong resolution) and then there was very apparent flicking occurring. Checked all settings, tried it on a different computer and even tried HDMI but all the same results. The monitor also suffers from a lock up condition rarely, whereby none of the buttons function including the power button and the monitor's power needs to be disconnected and re-attached for things to work again. I suspect a firmware bug here and unfortunately as of this writing Benq has no firmware update. I have read many reviews about this monitor and ghosting effects. Some say it doesn't have ghosting, others say it does. I can tell you that it does have ghosting issues for sure. Blur reduction is a nice feature, but it is not available when adaptive sync is enabled. This is an expensive monitor and you should expect more, but Benq has not delivered and I question their QA on this product.