BenQ E2400HD - 24" Full HD Monitor

Subjective Image Quality

This monitor may sport a new fangled 16:9 aspect and 1080p native resolution. But in terms of overall image quality chops, it's a resoundingly old school TN screen. In other words, it's immediately obvious that TN technology is at work.

Colours lack heft, saturation and vibrancy while the mediocre contrast makes for a washed out overall look. We would say that it's not what you would expect from a monitor with a static contrast ratio of 1,000:1. But then specification abuse is rife in the monitor market, currently.

The E2400HD is therefore pretty much a middle of the road TN panel in terms of static image quality. Black levels are not exactly spectacular, nor will you be impressed by the slight backlight bleed along the top and bottom of the panel or the moderate patchiness of the overall screen when displaying a solid black image. We've certainly seen better TN panels than the E2400HD, much less VA or IPS screens.


BenQ's take on dynamic contrast is likewise does little offset the panel's inherent shortcomings. It's a fairly brutal implementation that is initially slow to react to changes in image data and then tends to overcook things. In darker scenes, the backlight is dimmed to such an extent that significant detail is lost. In short, we would leave it disabled at all times.

Better news comes in the shape of pixel response, which is essentially beyond reasonable reproach. This is not absolutely the fastest panel we have ever seen. But it does not suffer from any overdrive related artefacting and it's extremely likely that the vast majority of users will be happy with the E2400HD's snappy pixels.

As we have said previously, we also tend to be fans of tighter pixel pitches on our PC monitors. So we certainly appreciate the sharpness of image the E2400HD serves up compared with a 16:10 24-incher.

Conclusion

If the overarching tone of this review seems a little harsh, don't let that give you the wrong idea. This is far from a horrible monitor. It's actually a pretty decent option if you are after a large but cheap 1080p monitor to use predominantly for watching HD video content and playing games where the screen's tight pixel pitch and rapid, lag-free response pay dividends.

The fact that it is such an attractive physical specimen is also a boon. If your budget forces you to go with a cheaper TN screen, it certainly doesn't hurt to have a nice enclosure. At the same time, the E2400HD does absolutely nothing to move the game on for overall TN image quality. Its sludgy colours make for a distinctly underwhelming general desktop experience and ensure that it's a poor choice for any application that demands good colour accuracy, such as photo editing.

As for the whole 16:9 1080p vs 16:10 1,920 x 1,200 thing, well, we're not convinced the wider aspect is a win at 24 inches. We'd prefer to keep the extra vertical pixels even if it does make for a coarser pitch. All told, that makes it tough to give the E2400HD a strong 'buy' recommendation. It's essentially a monitor that will be bought chiefly on price. In time it will no doubt pop up on special for under £200, at which price we'd have much less cause for quibble.

• Features
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• 8/10

• Image Quality
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• 6/10

• Value
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• 6/10

• Overall
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• 7/10

Score Guide