Benq FP241W 24" widescreen monitor

For high-end gaming, it's hard to think of a better buy right now than a big-ass widescreen monitor. As prices are tumbling and the power of graphics cards continues to increase, driving a 24" widescreen at the native resolution of 1920x1200 is becoming ever easier. Widescreen monitors look great and provide a massive boost to productivity, as well as looking super-neat on your desk.

There are two popular sizes of monitor right now, and we've already looked at a bunch of monitors in the 20" category, including this awesome Samsung and our 20" widescreen group test. If you're looking for something a little cheaper, then you can happily look at one of these.

However, in this 24" range - which we think is far nicer than 30" for gaming - we have also looked at the Dell 2407WFP, which we decided was a pretty nice monitor, especially for the price.

Benq is a major manufacturer that has been ramping up its displays business. The FP241W, which we have on test here today, is promising to deliver top-end performance at a really attractive price point. How does it measure up to the competition?

The monitor is a two-piece design, with the panel itself hooking into a very solid stand.

Specifications:

• 24" (wide) viewable area;
  
• 6ms reponse time (grey to grey);
  
• 500cd/m² brightness
  
• Contrast ratio: 1000:1
  
• DVI-D, VGA, S-Video, Component, Composite, HDMI (with HDCP)
  
  
• Price: Around £670 (Price depending on market conditions)

The specification list here is pretty impressive. 500 candelas of brightness is nice, and the contrast ratio is fantastic, on par with the excellent Samsung. Response time is plenty adequate, and the range of inputs is tremendous. There are plenty of ways to connect up your hardware - you could happily attach a PC via DVI, Xbox 360 via VGA, and HD player (either PS3 or HD-DVD) via HDMI. The support for HDMI input puts this above the Dell, which lacks that port.

There is also support for component input. Note that the Benq site lists this as merely a composite input, which it isn't!