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More people must be contemplating going pro in gaming, because there is an increasing number of monitors arriving to cater for their serious intentions. Latest to grace our testing desk is the ZOWIE XL2730 from BenQ. This is a 27in screen with 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, 1ms response and 144Hz top frequency. So it ticks the right boxes where headline features are concerned.
There’s nothing particularly revolutionary about the technology used by BenQ. Like most gaming screens, this is a TN panel, so the image stats are de rigueur. The typical brightness is 350cd/m2 and contrast 1000:1. There’s a claimed 72 per cent of the NTSC gamut. Adaptive Sync is available as well, providing variable frequency to match what your graphics card can deliver, so long as it supports this standard.
There’s a good array of inputs including DisplayPort 1.2a and HDMI 2.0, but also legacy DVI-DL and even VGA. There are convenient audio connections and a USB 3.0 hub, although only two downstream ports for the latter. A welcome addition is the S switch Arc, an external menu controller that connects to the monitor via mini USB, providing similar facilities to the Quick Switch of AOC’s AGON AG271QX.
In fact, with a similar specification to the latter, the XL2370 could be seen as a direct competitor. But BenQ expects you to pay a little more than AOC. Let’s find out if it’s worth the extra outlay.
Specification:
Screen size: 27-inch, 16:9 aspect
Native resolution: 2,560 x 1,440
Refresh rate: 144Hz
Panel type: TN
Contrast ratio: 1000:1 (typical)
Brightness: 350cd/m2
Response time: 1ms
Display inputs: 2 x HDMI (one HDMI 2.0 only), DisplayPort 1.2a, DVI-DL, D-Sub
USB hub: Yes
Tilt: Yes
Raise: Yes
Swivel: Yes
Other: Headphone jack, microphone jack
Retail Price: £456.02 (inc. VAT)
I believe this isn’t correct:
“Then there’s the 144Hz refresh and Adaptive Sync. The latter may not be quite as enticing for NVIDIA owners as G-Sync, but at least it works across adapters from AMD as well as NVIDIA”
Adaptive Sync isn’t supported on Geforce cards except their proprietary Gsync as far as I know?
I have the BenQ XL2730Z, bought just after Freesync monitors became available around April 2015.
Apart from dropping the ‘Z’ from the name and including ‘Zowie’ branding now, I’m struggling to see the difference!
Updated HDMI/DP ports? I’ll have to check specs when I get home.
Great monitor BTW 😉
its an excuse to keep the price high. They don’t want to have to lower price cause they have nothing new to put out so they invented a new brand called Zowie.
Yep, just checked those specs – it’s exactly the same! http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/benq_xl2730z.htm
The Quadros support it. NVIDIA cards don’t support FreeSync. But this monitor has Adaptive Sync, which is the more general standard.
The ZOWIE is about £300 cheaper than the XL2730Z on Amazon.co.uk. All very strange, but this is the first time we have looked at the screen and it’s still a goodun’ so well worth considering.
Yes, Quadros, which really isn’t what needs it, it’s gamers/Geforce that really benefits from it. It’s so silly, it’s surely just a driver issue, if only Nvidia would implement adaptive refresh support… 🙁
Something is definitely not right there then! I bought mine for just shy of £500 nearly 2 years ago. This certainly looks like it’s just a re-branding for Zowie. I can only guess that the price you see on Amazon, is because the original XL2730Z is no longer available, except via private sellers.
(Edit – Scratch that, just found the XL2730Z for £349.99 at Maplin! Hardly known for being a discount store either).
I agree it’s a fantastic display though, had some teething issues when I first purchased it and ended up being sent another screen via BenQ RMA, then I had to send it back again for a Firmware update, but after the initial hassles – I love this monitor!
Freesync makes such a massive difference in games and I really notice when I play on my Gaming laptop (1080p/60hz & no adaptive sync on laptop) versus my Desktop.
No, the GeForce supports Adaptive Sync too. It’s FreeSync that they don’t support. And G-Sync that the AMD cards don’t support. G-Sync adds extra hardware to the monitor, which is why the G-Sync screens are more expensive.
Isn’t Freesync just AMD’s implementation of Adaptive Sync, the VESA standard?
The main thing this is a great screen for the money. If you can get the older name for £349.99 then that’s probably an absolute bargain!
Yes, and I’ve read that you can still use Adaptive Sync with NVIDIA cards on screens that claim to support FreeSync. But FreeSync has some other things going on that are an improvement over basic Adaptive Sync. There is a theory that G-Sync is better than FreeSync due to the hardware taking the work away from the graphics card, but I’ve seen no scientific proof of that. I’m not even sure how you would test that objectively.
Okay, thank you for explaining that! 🙂
No worries. It’s really confusing and I’ve had to research things a lot even to get to the relatively meagre level of understanding I have!
Agreed! 🙂
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