BenQ XL2420G Gaming Monitor Review

Our Verdict

The BenQ XL2420G is a premium gaming monitor that offers vibrant colors, fast response times and smooth G-Sync performance.

For

Impressive motion-picture show quality
Smooth K-Sync performance
Highly flexible design
Handy remote command

Against

Fewer options in One thousand-Sync mode
Nevertheless 1080p for a high price

Tom's Guide Verdict

The BenQ XL2420G is a premium gaming monitor that offers vibrant colors, fast response times and polish G-Sync performance.

Pros

+
Impressive pic quality
+
Smooth G-Sync performance
+
Highly flexible blueprint
+
Handy remote control

Cons

-
Fewer options in G-Sync mode
-
Still 1080p for a high price

The BenQ XL2420G wants to do it all for gamers. This 24-inch, full-HD monitor's unique dual-engine design allows it to act every bit two split displays: a traditional screen with a bevy of customization settings, as well as a supersmooth G-Sync monitor that provides optimal performance. This display ($529 on Amazon) is aimed at competitive first-person shooter players, with custom brightness settings and mistiness-reduction technology designed to keep the enemy in your sights. Gene in the sturdy and highly flexible design, and this premium monitor has a lot to offer defended players who want tons of options.

Design

The all-black XL2420G looks similar your average 24-inch display at outset glance, but some central pattern touches set up information technology apart. The monitor's highly adjustable stand up lets you position the screen just about whatever way you like; you lot can motion it about 5 inches up or downwardly, swivel it 35 degrees left or right, and tilt it 20 degrees dorsum or 5 degrees forward. I found this flexible design particularly useful for accessing the rear ports, a procedure that tin exist a nightmarish task on some displays.

The monitor's rectangular base has a subtle bend, every bit well every bit magnetic edges that permit you attach the included S Switch for hands switching modes (more on that after). A hole in the middle of the stand provides ample room for running wires through, and a small reddish hook behind the brandish lets you hang up your gaming headset when yous're done playing.

Holding a small button on the back lets you lot easily slide the monitor off its stand, if you lot prefer to attach the monitor to your wall via a VESA mountain. At 22.five 10 twenty.3 x 5.9 inches and nine.4 pounds, the XL2420G felt sturdy and secure on my desk, but still left plenty of room for my keyboard and mouse, and wasn't besides much of a pain to acquit.

Ports and Interface

The XL2420G's essential ports are tucked just below its rear panel, where you'll observe a DVI-DL connectedness, two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, a USB port and a miniUSB connection for attaching the aforementioned South Switch.

The monitor's left edge hosts two USB ports and a headphone jack, making it like shooting fish in a barrel to attach peripherals. The right side of the bezel packs vi touch-capacitive buttons, i for turning the monitor on and five for navigating the display'due south menus.

I had a fairly easy time tweaking settings using the capacitive buttons, which serve as access points to several unlike menus. The monitor's digital controls are all pretty straightforward: Engine Switch lets you choose betwixt M-Sync and Classic mode; Film Mode allows you to select presets, such equally FPS or Motion picture; and Brandish Style lets you alter the aspect ratio.

If yous don't need all 24-inches of screen infinite on the XL2420G, you tin can shrink the display'due south ratio to as minor as 17 inches in order to maximize your peripheral vision. In that location's as well a more general main menu that lets you tweak such settings as brightness, contrast and bluish light, the latter of which tin can be harmful to your eyes and can be lowered for marathon gaming sessions.

These controls are simplified quite a bit in G-Sync way, which loses the ability to set a dissimilar attribute ratio. This style puts the Blackness Equalizer (which lets you change brightness without overexposing things) front end and center, while still providing access to bones settings like brightness and contrast.

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While the monitor'due south side controls piece of work just fine, I had a much easier time navigating with the S Switch. BenQ's remote control has a clickable coil bike and dorsum button for hopping in and out of menus, also as iii keys for switching amidst your custom display presents on the fly. Unfortunately, you can't employ the S Switch in G-Sync mode, as that setting uses a custom engine that communicates straight with your figurer's graphics card.

Overall Functioning

The XL2420G'southward 24-inch, 1080p display is built primarily for competitive shooters, with motion-blur-reduction technology designed to assistance you stay focused on the enemy. As such, I ran through a few FPS (and not-FPS) games on the monitor, and was largely impressed past what I saw.

Battlefield 4 made an excellent showpiece for the display; whether I was battling it out amidst reflective city skyscrapers or gazing over a sunny embankment at distant enemies, the game's sprawling arenas looked sharp and photo-realistic. Nearly importantly, I could easily spot adversaries nigh and far, and I didn't feel whatsoever distracting slowdown or motion blur.

That same smoothness carried over to the cartoony, dystopian action of Borderlands 2. The shooter's vibrant, cel-shaded fine art fashion popped with color, and its hulking enemy monsters looked but as well-baked equally the distant planets I was able to spot in the nebulous skies above.

Even the most diehard shooter fans will likely exist playing more than merely FPS games on the XL2420G; as such, I switched over to the much darker (and less shooter-y) Batman: Arkham Knight. The game'south detailed, rainy rendition of Gotham Urban center was represented gracefully on the BenQ monitor, from the pellets of h2o that slid off Batman'due south cape to the wrinkled, mustached face of a distressed Commissioner Gordon.

The XL2420G isn't simply swell for games; it's perfectly suitable for when yous want to boot back and sentry a movie, as well. When I fired upwards the Suicide Team trailer, colors looked full and accurate, and I could see every horrifying detail of The Joker'southward face when the camera zoomed in on him. While the monitor'southward Film mode adds some nice dramatic contrast, I found information technology to be a bit too night and grainy, and so I instead chose Standard way for live-activeness content.

G-Sync Performance

The XL2420G's Classic mode is impressive enough, just you'll want to switch to G-Sync mode for maximum smoothness. Available on whatsoever machine with an Nvidia graphics carte du jour, the Grand-Sync engineering science synchronizes your PC'due south GPU with the refresh rate of your monitor, assuasive for a meaning reduction in stuttering and input lag.

Because of the XL2420G's dual-engine design, it behaves similar a completely separate monitor in Yard-Sync manner. Nonetheless, switching between One thousand-Sync and Classic modes merely took about 10 seconds each time.

The benefits of Thousand-Sync became apparent immediately: With the feature on, just about every game I played on the XL2420G performed improve. I noticed a proficient amount of screen tearing when chop-chop moving my cursor around in Battlefield 4 and Borderlands two in Classic way, but activating K-Sync erased this problem almost completely.

G-Sync manner benefits from the monitor's Black Equalizer, which is designed to increase effulgence without overexposing lite colors. The characteristic worked well in my testing; when I cranked the equalizer to max effulgence in Battlefield four, I was able to get a better look at the foliage in front of me without having the sunny sky above get blown out.

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Using K-Sync didn't have a massive consequence on frame rates. When benchmarking BioShock Infinite on Very High, the fps on our test PC (Falcon Northwest Tiki, Core i7 processor, GTX 760 graphics) averaged out to the high 90s with and without the feature on. However, while G-Sync might not accelerate your frame charge per unit, information technology will make it more consequent. Borderlands 2 would jump from 50 to 60 fps in Classic style, but stayed nigh completely locked to sixty with G-Sync on.

Brightness, Colour and Latency

While the XL2420G proved impressive for gaming, we ran it through several color and brightness tests to see how information technology stacks up to the competition. On default settings, BenQ's monitor registered a strong 173 nits of effulgence when we tested its white luminescence level, though Acer'due south XB270H, another gaming-optimized G-Sync monitor, outshone the BenQ by almost 100 nits, at 270.5.

The BenQ also trailed the Acer in colour accuracy, registering a colour Delta Due east score of ten.45. The XB270H was much closer to a perfect 0, at 3.89.

Fortunately, the BenQ projected an impressive 103.57 percent of the Rec. 709 colour gamut, which is a loftier-definition standard ideal for video games. The Acer trailed slightly, at 95.68 percentage.

The XL2420G features up to a 144-Hz refresh rate and defaults to BenQ's Instant Style, which is designed to deliver extra-fast response times. On our lag tester, the monitor responded in a speedy 9.v milliseconds with Instant Way on, and a still-impressive x.7 milliseconds with the feature off.

Modes and Features

In Classic fashion, the BenQ XL2420G puts an array of display options at your fingertips. Standard, Picture and Photo are all fairly cocky-explanatory, while sRGB mode is designed to lucifer the display with what yous'll see on your digital camera or printer. There'due south also a low-brightness Eco mode for saving ability.

The monitor features two carve up first-person shooter presets. If you're a hardcore Counter-Strike player, FPS1 mode is designed for Counter-Strike i.six, while FPS2 is congenital for Counter-Strike: Source. I preferred FPS1 fashion for most shooters I played due to this setting's more authentic colors and deeper blacks; FPS2 looked a chip pale by comparing and added a subtle bluish tint to everything.

Topping things off is an RTS mode optimized for real-time strategy games, equally well every bit three customizable "Gamer" presets that you can fine-tune to your liking.

Bottom Line

For its loftier price tag, the BenQ XL2420G ($529 on Amazon, $699 listed) essentially offers two excellent monitors for the price of ane. Its highly tweakable Classic mode lets you adjust a wealth of settings on the wing, while its powerful Thousand-Sync mode allows for ultra-smooth performance on PCs with Nvidia graphics cards. And regardless of how yous play, the XL2420G volition preserve the colorful action and fine details of your games.

BenQ's innovative 1080p display isn't for everyone; the company'southward non-G-Sync RL2455HM offers some of Classic mode's all-time features for just $209, and there are a bevy of gaming-friendly total-HD models available at the aforementioned size for less than $200. Simply if you want a high-performance M-Sync monitor for games that support the tech, and a vibrant, customizable gaming brandish for everything else, the XL2420G has lots to offering dedicated players.

Cardinal Specs

•    Monitor Type: LED
    •    Size and Resolution: 24 inches, 1920 x 1080
    •    Aspect Ratio: 16:9
    •    Refresh Rates: 100/120/140 Hz
    •    Gray-to-gray response time: 1ms

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Mike Andronico is an Associate Editor at Tom's Guide. When he's not writing nearly games, PCs and iOS, you can usually take hold of him playing Street Fighter. Follow Mike at @MikeAndronico. Follow us@TomsGuide, onFacebook and onGoogle+.

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored and was formerly Managing Editor at Tom'south Guide. When not at work, y'all can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.