Benq's GW series - LED monitor, is a perfect embodiment of The Bauhaus’ “less is more" minimalism design philosophy. The GW2270H is a delightful complement to almost any modern space.
J**N
Nice compact monitor used for troubleshooting and playing overwatch
This is the version with two HDMI inputs and a VGA. I originally ordered one from BENQ that only had DVI and needed a converter. This monitor works great, I use it with my NUC6i7KYK for Overwatch. The VESA mount makes it easy to mount on an arm or place the NUC on its back for LAN parties. I always love BENQ monitors.
P**N
Good value. Here's my Frequently Asked Questions style review.
Well, I've been using this monitor for a short while and I don't have a huge deal to say. But there seems to be some confusion about a few things, so what I'll do is lay this review out as an FAQ in an attempt to answer everything you might want to know. This monitor is not perfect, as this review will show, but it does everything expected of it just fine, hence the five stars. I also factored the price into its rating - I paid £71.96 and it was the clear winner for value for money. Seems most of the time this monitor is more expensive, so at its standard price of £94.50 you may want to consider the alternatives, or wait and hope for another sale. I'm completely ignoring the 23.8" model in this reviewWHAT'S IN THE BOX?An approximately 1.5 metre kettle power lead, the stand/mount (2 pieces), a VGA cable, a CD-ROM and of course the screen itself. The CD isn't of much importance unless you need drivers or wish to read a more detailed manual. Its contents can be found on BenQ's website. If the power lead is too short, you can buy an extension which will work out cheaper than buying a whole new lead. I would not recommend using VGA if you have an alternative, even if this involves buying a new cable, because it is an analogue signal and can be susceptible to noise, although your mileage may vary.WILL IT WORK WITH _____?Should do. The HDMI model supports HDCP 1.4 so it can be used with any HDMI device. This includes computers running any operating system, games consoles, DVD/Blu-Ray players and devices such as Chromecast. Of course, be sure your device has an HDMI or VGA port first. Some devices such as certain Android phones can work with it using the likes of micro USB to HDMI cables.WHAT PORTS DOES IT HAVE?There is a lot of confusion about this, particularly surrounding the audio jack in Amazon's questions section. The fact that all models are lumped under the same page is the root of this. Here I'll list each model by their model number, and in brackets what Amazon refers to them by, and what inputs/outputs it has.GW2270 (DVI) - DVI, VGAGW2270H / GW2470H (HDMI) - HDMI×2, VGA, 3.5mm OUTGW2270HM / GW2470HM (HDMI and speakers) - HDMI, DVI, VGA, 3.5mm INIS THE PICTURE NICE?Looks good to me. Not sure how to compare it, but it is sharp and colourful. There is a little bit of blur when things are moving on the screen. Generally this is no big deal, but for some people it will be noticeable, especially with dark scenes in video games. It's a matte screen, and while it does still reflect some light, it's much better than glossy. The black level is about what you'd expect.WHAT ARE THE SPEAKERS LIKE?My model doesn't have speakers (only the GW2270HM and GW2470HM do), so I can't really comment. But I hear they are not very good at all. If you get the GW2270H, you can plug in external speakers which I bet will sound much better. The base of the stand is perfect for sitting one of those cuboid-shaped speakers (the typical Bluetooth ones you get) on. Larger speakers will have to be placed either side of the monitor.CAN I ADJUST THE MONITOR HEIGHT ETC?You can sit the monitor on some old books if you need to position it higher. Other than that the answer is no. But what you can do is adjust the vertical angle of the screen. I believe you can angle it 5° downwards and 20° upwards. I'm not sure where I read this but it seems to be true. You should also be able to mount it on a different stand if you have one that is suitable.IS IT CHUNKY?It's not super slim, but I don't see what difference it makes. The edges are slim though, so it's easy to carry, and it gets a little fatter at the back near the middle. I assume this is for ventilation (it doesn't heat up at all, but I've not had the brightness cranked up) and also because it doesn't have a power brick, so any conversion from mains power must be taking place inside the monitor.WHAT IS THE VIEWING ANGLE LIKE?The picture washes out when viewed at an angle, but for ordinary use it is absolutely fine and swinging around in your chair won't cause it to wash out. You have to get out of your chair to reach the angle at which it washes out. Just don't expect to get the whole family huddled around it and experience a perfect picture.WHAT IS THE LOW-BLUE MODE LIKE?I've not really used it since colour accuracy is more important to me, but if you're doing a lot of reading and document work it may be handy to reduce eye strain, or to reduce the impact the blue light may have on suppressing melatonin production in the evening and night. Enabling it gives you a warmer picture, which actually still looks perfectly fine.WHAT IS THE ANTI-FLICKER LIKE?I haven't noticed any flicker with the monitor, so it's clearly working! But I've not noticed any flicker on any other LCD monitor either, so take that as you will. It's supposed to reduce headaches or something - I'm not sure I buy into it much.WHAT ARE THE MENUS LIKE?A bit better than the standard. You can customise three of the buttons to quickly access certain menus. I sometimes find myself accidentally pressing the power button though.WHAT RESOLUTIONS AND REFRESH RATES DOES IT SUPPORT?1920×1080 - 60.00, 50.00, 59.941680×1050 - 59.881600×900 - 60.001280×1024 - 75.02, 60.021280×800 - 59.911152×864 - 75.001280×720 - 60.00, 50.00, 59.941024×768 - 75.03, 60.00832×624 - 74.55800×600 - 75.00, 60.32720×576 - 50.00720×480 - 60.00, 59.94640×480 - 75.00, 60.00, 59.94720×400 - 70.08IS IT POSSIBLE TO CONNECT A DEVICE THAT DOESN'T DO VGA/DVI/HDMI?Not directly, but you can convert common cables such as composite, S-Video, SCART and component to HDMI using various products you can buy online. If you have a DVD recorder laying around, these often have analogue inputs and an HDMI output. But do keep in mind the following two sections.DOES IT WORK WELL WITH A NON-WIDESCREEN SIGNAL?You can configure the monitor to display non-widescreen signals either at their native aspect ratio or stretched to widescreen. But do be aware that standard definition video from devices such as DVD players uses non-square pixels, so 4:3 content from them will be incorrectly displayed at 5:4 for PAL and 3:2 for NTSC.HOW DOES IT HANDLE INTERLACED VIDEO?Not very well. You can feed it a 1080i, 576i or 480i signal and it will accept it, though the picture will be degraded. I would advise browsing for televisions if you need to display interlaced video since they generally do a much better job at deinterlacing than computer monitors. For most people this won't be an issue though, as practically all HDMI devices offer progressive display modes.WHAT COLOUR FORMATS DOES IT SUPPORT?It seemed to work with what I threw at it, which was RGB and YCbCr. It supports both the Limited and Full RGB ranges - see more on this in the final section.WHAT IS AMA?Looks like you've already bought the monitor if you're asking this. It's a BenQ thing ("Advanced Motion Acceleration") and increases response times, reducing blur and ghosting on moving objects. I suggest leaving it on the default of High. You can't get rid of all blur, but it definitely looks nicer than having it set to Off. The Premium setting doesn't improve things and is only worth considering if you play video games at a highly competitive level, in which case you're probably using a more expensive monitor anyway.ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?Yes.When using HDMI, you are likely dealing with an RGB signal. This can be in the Limited range (16-235) or the Full range (0-255). By default, the monitor uses Limited, and by default by laptop used Limited. On Linux I used the “xrandr --output HDMI-1 --set "Broadcast RGB" "Full"” command to set it to Full (this resets on startup). For Windows and Mac I am uncertain what you do and what your default might be. I have attached an image to this review you can use to test if your screen is configured correctly for if you use an HDMI signal. 0 and 16 and 240 and 255 should be noticeably different shades. If you are passing the test but the colours are dull, your computer is outputting Limited and your monitor is set to Full. What's important is that both your computer (or other device) and monitor are using the same range, although if you can configure them both to use Full rather than both use Limited, that would be preferred. On this monitor you can go to Settings -> Picture Advanced -> HDMI RGB PC Range to configure what it expects to receive.If you plan to watch UK television on this monitor from your computer, you can benefit from its 50Hz support and get a smoother picture than if you used 60Hz. This includes movies on BBC iPlayer and PAL DVDs. Movies on Netflix and other services will be at their original 23.976fps and are best viewed at 60Hz on this monitor (it doesn't support 24Hz).If you're trying a dual monitor setup for the first time, problems such as screen tearing might be introduced. This is not the monitor's fault and should be fixable by hunting around online and seeing what works for your hardware. But I'm on Linux which is rather notorious for these sorts of issues, so for Windows users I'd say you may stand a better chance at everything going smoothly. If not, try the drivers provided.
L**E
Excellent option for dual monitor setup
Always been a fan of Benq, was looking to update my very old monitors to a new dual setup without breaking the bank. At £180 for two, they appeared ideal and I was not disappointed. I am either working on Windows, macOS or both. These look great mounted to the wall and are very thin so take up very little space.A bonus which you don't see much on cheaper monitors is having 2 HDMI ports, I was surprised but pleased as it meant no adaptors were required and I could plug both PC and Mac straight in. It also switches automatically between ports which is helpful (turn it on in the menu). If you have two machines plugged in and switched on though you need to make the changes manually, that is expected, the monitors won't know what you want to see.There are no speakers built in and there was no HDMI cable in the box, just VGA so make sure you have or order an HDMI cable if you need one. The menu is easy to work, better than my older Benq's.So if you are looking for something cheap with good 1080p Full HD quality you will struggle to find better. I noticed some reviewers criticized build quality stating it was all plastic. What you going to do? Throw them around? Once they are on the desk or as in my case mounted to the wall there is no need to touch them other than to switch on and off...
C**N
Qualité au Top !
Magnifique écran 1080p, il est de très bonne qualité. Les finitions sont parfaites, les 2 ports HDMI sont très pratique pour dans mon cas connecter un ordinateur portable et une PS4 slim. Le fait de pouvoir régler l'orientation est très agréable.
R**Z
Buena calidad de imagen
LO BUENO:- Una calidad de imagen muy buena, especialmente se se tiene en cuenta el precio.- Con controles suficientes para configurar la imagen a tu gusto.- Varias configuraciones pregrabadas (oficina, lectura, navegación, etc). para no romperse mucho la cabeza- La fatiga visual es muy baja (lo uso para trabajar en casa un día a la semana, jornada de 8h30m)- Conexión VGA, HDMI y auriculares- Soporte estable, a pesar de su reducido tamaño- El tamaño del soporte hace que no ocupe mucho sobre la mesa.LO MENOS BUENO:- Solo se puede regular la basculación (inclinación respecto al observado)- No se puede regular la altura- No se puede regular el giro (hay que girarlo con el soporte)
M**J
The stand is very good has a quick disconnect function with one button to ...
My second of these, the first one is next to it (dual screen setup). my last was purchased nearly 3 years ago and is still bright and vivid without any dead pixels or hue issues, side by side the newer one looks a tad brighter but it is using a different connection type out of the PC (display port as opposed to HDMI).The stand is very good has a quick disconnect function with one button to click in, also has VESA connection for monitor stands on the back2 x HDMI (great) and 1 x VGA/D-SUB (not sure if anyone uses this anymore), might have been good to have a Display port connection but for the cost it is pretty good value for money in comparison to others i've seen.Very good screen, great size and also has power save etc.. etc...
Trustpilot
1 month ago
2 weeks ago