BenQ G2400W review: BenQ G2400W

Nowadays, people won't take you seriously unless you have a big screen. The absolute is minimum 20 inches, with 22 and 24 inches fast becoming the norm. BenQ stands proud as one of our favourite manufacturers in the 24-inch category, thanks to its FP241W, and it's now trying to woo the rest of the world with its latest effort, the G2400W. It's simple, it's attractive and it only costs £250. Are these the makings for some serious monitor envy?

7.5

BenQ G2400W

The Good

Design; value.

The Bad

Average colour reproduction; lack of physical flexibility.

The Bottom Line

It's by no means the best 24-inch monitor in the world, but the BenQ G2400W is exceptional value for money and those with shallow pockets will appreciate what they get for the price

Strengths
Right off the bat, the G2400W is an impressive monitor. Not because it's packing any crazy aesthetic features, but because it's simple and no nonsense. The minimalist styling really appeals to us, particularly on the all-black model. The bezel is thin, there are no trendy glossy bits: the whole thing is just nicely presented. It also comes in silver, but we'd only go for that model if you needed it to match your living room -- and your house is a space ship.

Both HDMI and D-Sub ports are fitted, as is a DVI port (not shown)

Considering it's half the price of other 24-inch monitors, the G2400W's specification impressed us. It runs at a WUXGA resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels, which provides plenty of room for you to play with on-screen documents. The 5ms response time isn't the lowest we've seen quoted, but it's nippy enough not to cause any ghosting or blurring. We certainly didn't see any on the movies we subjected it to.

Three kinds of video connector are present on the underside of the G2400W. The analogue D-Sub port will prove useful to anyone with an older graphics card or a laptop with an analogue-only port. Those with newer laptops or desktops will appreciate the HDMI and DVI ports, which are Vista-ready so they'll accept HDCP-encrypted Blu-ray or HD DVD movies.

Being a BenQ monitor, the G2400W features the company's patented "Senseye+Photo" technology. This modifies the monitor's settings to give you the best picture depending on what you're doing at any given time. Modes include Standard, for everyday usage; Movie, for watching flicks; and Photo, which comes in handy when you're looking at party pictures on Facebook. A fourth mode, Dynamic, does its best to switch between the other three modes automatically, although this didn't work particularly well.

The G2400W delivers good image quality. It ran through our DisplayMate tests -- a virtual assault course for monitors -- without any problems. Colour separation was as good as you'd expect from a modern monitor, as was the greyscale reproduction.

Weaknesses
The G2400WA doesn't cost very much and it shows in the specs. Most notably, the contrast ratio is a paltry 1,000:1. While we shouldn't really complain -- it's not as if the images on the G2400WA are awash with grey -- the difference in luminosity between blacks and whites isn't as good as on other monitors. Note to BenQ: LG is churning out monitors with 10,000:1 contrast ratios and while numbers aren't everything, consumers do take note.

The OSD control buttons live under the bottom bezel, which makes them difficult to use

While the colour separation on the G2400WA is solid, the actual colour gamut -- that's the number of colours it's capable of displaying -- isn't going to distinguish between your sunrise yellow and your golden poppy. Stood next to our Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP, the colours look like pale imitations of what they're supposed to be. Everything's just less spectacular -- it's almost like watching a fireworks display while squinting.

At 24 inches, the G2400WA is a great size, but it'll never measure up to the king of hearts

The G2400WA's physical flexibility isn't so hot either. It can't be height adjusted, so you'll need to fiddle with the height of your chair or desk, or put the monitor on a stack of magazines to get it sitting at the right height. It's also not possible to pivot it into a portrait orientation, but it can be tilted backwards and forwards.

Conclusion
It's by no means the best 24-inch monitor in the world, but the G2400WA is exceptional value for money. If you can't afford to spend in excess of £400 for a Dell 2408WFP, then go for it, but those with smaller wallets will appreciate what they get with the G2400WA.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday