BenQ E2400HD review

World of Warcraft is really starting to try my patience, because of the way the game behaves during monitor testing. It behaves darn near perfectly on nearly every monitor, including the BenQ E2400HD. Colors are vibrant and the polygonal models move smoothly without any streaking or ghosting. Curses to Blizzard for creating such a scalable game that, while good for the gamer, is bad for me, the tester. The game is just wearing out its usefulness as a test basis that can really highlight the differences in monitors.

Having said that, when viewing the game from a lower-than-optimal viewing angle, the screen darkened to the point where graphic details could not be seen--typical of most TN panels. See the paragraph at the bottom of this section for more details on viewing angle.

When watching our favorite test scenes in the Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD on the BenQ E2400HD, we noticed that its performance was virtually identical to the Dell S2409W's. Colors were vibrant, but didn't have the same kind of pop like we saw with the Apple LED Cinema Display. The blacks were deep without losing any dark details in dark scenes, though not quite as deep as the Dell's. We didn't notice any streaking or ghosting and the screen remained sharp for a DVD.

The 1080p Blu-ray version of House of Flying Daggers looked great for the same reasons stated above; however, we didn't notice any quality advantage to the screen's 16:9 aspect ratio.

The built-in speakers produce decent sound, but even at maximum volume we were disappointed that the decibel level did not go high enough. In addition, the low level of bass made the audio sound tinny at times.

We determined that the best settings for watching games and movies on the BenQ E2400HD was Standard preset mode, with a contrast of 36, and the brightness set at your discretion. We settled on a 92 for brightness.

The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the screen's distance down from the top. At this angle, you're viewing the colors and gamma correction as they were intended. Most monitors are not made to be viewed at any other angle. Depending on its panel type, picture quality at nonoptimal angles varies. Most monitors use TN panels, which get overly bright or overly dark in parts of the screen when viewed from nonoptimal angles. Both the Dell S2409W and the BenQ E2400HD displays use TN panels, and when they are viewed from the side angles, the screens appeared to darken only slightly. When viewed from the bottom the screen darkened immediately but not as dramatically as some smaller monitors like the Gateway HD1900 and the Samsung SyncMaster 953BW. Of course, when viewed from the optimal angle, we had no problems.

Juice box

BenQ E2400HD	Avg watts per hour
On (Default Luminance)	41.56
On (Max Luminance)	42.64
On (Min Luminance)	17.2
Sleep	0.53
Calibrated (200cd/m2)	37
Score	Good
Annual energy cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$12.76

Find out more about how we test LCD monitors

Service and support
BenQ backs the E2400HD with a three-year parts-and-labor warranty, which also includes support for the backlight. Free phone support (as long as you are under warranty) is provided Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. PST, but there is no weekend phone support like Dell provides for the S2409W. The user manual is on the included CD, but BenQ's Web site only has the warranty information available for download.