BENQ XL2420TE: Best 120Hz & 144Hz monitor at the moment?

Posted Oct 16, 2013 by

Several Blur Busters readers, forum posters, and Amazon.com customer reviews have consistently mentioned BENQ XL2420TE (and its UK sister, XL2420T Revision 2.0) have less eyestrain and better color quality than the ASUS VG248QE.

The BENQ XL2420TE has been confirmed by many to have:
– Wider brightness adjustment range from very dim to very bright;
– ZeroFlicker is more eye-friendly with PWM-free dimming; fewer headaches;
– Better default colors than the ASUS VG248QE.

XL2420TE also has LightBoost, which is excellent for eliminating motion blur.
For other monitor options, see list of 120Hz and 144Hz monitors.

About Mark Rejhon

Also known as Chief Blur Buster. Founder of Blur Busters. Inventor of TestUFO. Read more about him on the About Mark page.

9 Comments For “BENQ XL2420TE: Best 120Hz & 144Hz monitor at the moment?”

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SS4
Member
SS4

Isnt the eyestrain problem only affecting a minor subset of population just like ppl that cant watch 3D though?
I have the VG248QE (got it since it seems like the lowest input lag of all LCD on the market so far) and even staring at it for hours, even in the dark with low or high brightness i don’t feel any eyestrain. I was using a CRT Syncmaster DynamicFlat monitor til i upgraded to the Asus and I must say I’m really happy with it. The colors are great, price was really good, and i don’t notice any delay when playing twitch shooter or games like DDR/stepmania.
The only problem was weird backlight bleeding that evened out after constantly running screensaver for a week or two.

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10 years 10 months ago
Mark Rejhon
Author
Mark Rejhon

“Isnt the eyestrain problem only affecting a minor subset of population just like ppl that cant watch 3D though?”

It’s unrelated to 3D. Sometimes PWM and shutter glasses (both forms of flicker) can be a similar problem for some people. However, there are some people enjoying 3D but can’t tolerate PWM. There are also people who like CRT or LightBoost, but dislike PWM dimming, because PWM dimming also create uncomfortable motion artifacts, in addition to flicker. This is because PWM dimming uses multiple strobes per refresh, while CRT/LightBoost/motion-blur-eliminating backlights generally do only one significant flash per refresh. While this still flickers, this eliminates PWM artifacts.

Some people are actually sensitive to the flicker (one side effect of PWM), while other people dislike the motion artifacts (another side effect of PWM). The people who get eyestrain from motion artifacts during FPS gaming, often see their eyestrain disappear when switching from PWM-dimming strobing, to LightBoost strobing. (For an example: Turn off LightBoost, then view http://www.testufo.com/ghosting while gradually lowering the ASUS brightness via monitor menus to 0% — that’s the ugly PWM motion artifact).

As for percentage of population, it is a minor subset, but a huge minor subset. The percentage is unknown but 5% still means 1 million out of 20 million — that is still lot of people. A good example is google ‘VG248QE headaches’ which illustrates the subset of people affected by this, and why certain monitor manufacturers are now paying a little more attention to this, to prevent the PWM issue.

LED backlights creates harsher PWM effects than CCFL backlights, so it’s apparently more important for LED monitors to become PWM-free over the longer term. Also, using ambient light and not using excessive brightness, also can help greatly too, as some people are brightness-sensitive, too.

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10 years 10 months ago
SS4
Member
SS4

I tried the ghosting thing but not sure what im suppose to look for lol. Seems fine to me.
Oh and i know ppl who cant watch 3D is not the same thing i was just using that as an exemple of how small subset of ppl are different but they still make lots of 3D stuff nonetheless so to me the PWM issue is not something most ppl need to consider since they arent affected by it is more what i wanted to say.
BTW, think toasty will upgrade his program so we can use 144hz strobe instead of 120 soon?

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10 years 9 months ago
OC_Burner
Member
OC_Burner

XL2420T Revision 1.0 vs XL2420T Revision 2.0,

same hardware, different firmwares?

Or use Revision 2.0 a newer panel?

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10 years 11 months ago
Mark Rejhon
Author
Mark Rejhon

Newer panel, since Revision 2.0 now supports 144Hz.
It also has reportedly better color than Revision 1.0, too.

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10 years 10 months ago
Mark Rejhon
Author
Mark Rejhon

An Overclock.net post:

This monitor changed my life, since my eye injury in Iraq, it really helped me stay in the game, and not have to leave every 5-10 min.

One of the Amazon.com customer reviews:

I had to sell my asus vg248qe cause the PWM was making my eye water and strain only after 1 hour of gameplay I decided to spend a few extra cash on this monitor since it has no pwm and man Im enjoying fluid responsive on 120hz and 144hz also my eye don’t hurt anymore either. I only use 120 hz since my 770gtx can only push about 125 frames constantly in bf3 on low and med settings I love this monitor it also easy to navigate your setting unlike the other monitors I had which never had an hand held remote. Also It doesn’t have that washed out color My asus vg248qe Had on standard mode and black equalizer helps me alot on dark maps

Another different Amazon.com customer review:

I’d like to give thanks to David Miller for his review. Like David, I had tried the ASUS VG248QE 144HZ monitor and it absolutely killed my eyes. The reason is because of the PWM (Pulse-width Modulation) of the Asus monitor. The BenQ XL2420TE is currently the only flicker free 144hz monitor and is very easy on the eyes. The Benq also has much better color and brightness. There are many profiles already in this monitor that do not require much adjustment. If you’re picky like me, you probably like to create your own profiles which is very easy to do without the need to download other ICC profiles. The Asus monitor never looked good outside of gaming no matter what profile I installed or how I adjusted it.

I was reluctant to try Benq because I never heard of them before. I have always used Asus and have been happy with them over the years until I bought the VG248QE. I highly recommend giving the Benq XL2420TE a try and see it for yourself.

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10 years 11 months ago
nuninho1980
Member
nuninho1980

@Chief Blur Buster: “I had to sell my asus vg248qe cause the PWM was making my eye water and strain only after 1 hour of gameplay”

Eyestrain only?! But sorry my eyes haven’t health issue despite 50Hz (CRT monitor Samsung SyncMaster 1100P+ 21″) while I watched DTT TV@50fps and films@50fps because I have very “appetite” due to pure-smooth motion. 🙂

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10 years 11 months ago
Mark Rejhon
Author
Mark Rejhon

Yes, we’ve also had several reports that LightBoost (another kind of a more beneficial strobing) reduces eyestrain too.

Some people get PWM eyestrain (due to ugly PWM motion artifacts, e.g. viewing http://www.testufo.com/ghosting WHILE your monitor is set to low Brightness setting). But miraculously, several people who get PWM eyestrain, do not get CRT eyestrain. We’ve found that such people generally do not get LightBoost eyestrain either, since LightBoost is like a 120Hz CRT.

That’s why the LightBoost FAQ has two entries:
“Why does LightBoost have MORE eyestrain?”
“Why does LightBoost have LESS eyestrain?”
Many people react differently to LightBoost versus PWM dimming.

As a rule of thumb, if your eyes loved CRT, then you will usually love LightBoost. The great thing about the BENQ XL2420TE is that you have a choice of turning ON/OFF LightBoost.
..You love CRT and hate PWM: LightBoost ON (“It’s like a CRT!”).
..You hate both CRT and PWM: LightBoost OFF (zero flicker)

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10 years 10 months ago
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