When it comes to eSports monitors, the gaming standard is BenQ Zowie. Tuning into any of the major PC e-Sports tournaments, such as the OGN Overwatch Apex Season 2, and you’ll see the tournament stages kitted out with the branded monitors. We’ve already taken a look at the XL2735 monitor and now we’re breaking down the BenQ Zowie XL2540 240Hz eSports Monitor, which was released a short while ago.
Design-wise the XL2540 is pretty much a spitting replication of the XL2735. And that means that the ear-flaps make a return. Yes, the “shield” is back. Designed to prevent you from getting distracted by anything off screen, the blinders are adjustable, letting you adapt to various different environments. If you want to look as if your monitor has blinders. As is with the XL2735, it’s an unnecessary addition no pro-gamer is going to specifically look for.
The rest of the monitor is spitting mirror image of the XL2735, albeit slightly smaller. It measures 515.43 x 569.94 x 226.04 mm when adjusted to its highest and at its lowest, it comes it at 445.75 x 569.94 x 226.04 mm. And that’s probably the best thing about this monitor, other than the display; the VESA mounting. Adjusting the monitor is the easiest task in the world, letting you pivot, rotate and lift it to prevent you from craning your neck, all with a simple finger. The stand itself has quite a large base, adding to the sturdiness of the setup, with the classic circular depression for the S-Switch. Where the body meets the display panel, a specifically designed, slanted bezel prevents reflective glare from the screen. Again, like the Shield, this is one of those highly specialised features, something the majority of gamers wouldn’t even notice, and perhaps even some pros. Meanwhile, the matte-black coating over the entire set up gives a powerful, yet discreet feel to the monitor.
When it comes to I/O ports, the BenQ Zowie XL2540 offers an excellent range to help justify the price. It has a DisplayPort 1.2, two HDMI ports, and a DVI-DL for video input options and additional ports for a microphone and a headphone. Added functionality comes with the four USB ports. Two USB ports, as well as the microphone and headphone jack, are located on the left side of the monitor. There’s also a handy hook to hang your headphones on. Meanwhile, the rest of the ports are located on the bottom and back of the monitor, allowing you to neatly loop all your cables through the circular part of the VESA mount.
The bottom left of the monitor hosts the five OSD buttons you’ll need to navigate to adjust the various settings of the monitor, something you’ll need to do to get the perfect visual representation you’ll need to climb the ranks. Such settings include the preset modes, such as Gamer, FPS and Standard. While I didn’t find myself switching between modes after settling on my own custom preset I did find myself tweaking other minute settings, often with the help with the S-Switch. As far as monitor OSDs go, BenQ Zowie has done a great job here when it comes to navigation.
The BenQ Zowie XL2540 utilises a Twisted Nematic film (TN) panel. TN panels are famous for having the best refresh rates on the market and a relatively affordable price. However, they do lag behind in terms of image quality, which is why you’ll be spending quite a few minutes on your first setup of the monitor. The BenQ Zowie XL2540 has a whopping 240Hz refresh rate, one of the few monitors on the market to offer such a feature. That, coupled with the 1920 x1080 pixels, results in flawless and fluid motion on another level. Tracking opponents in FPS games is fantastically smooth as is making abrupt shifts in view. However, despite the incredibly high refresh rate, there is a distinct lack of G-Sync, something that the XL2735 also lacks.
Now while the refresh rate might provide fluid performance, image quality is not up to par, as is expected with a TN monitor. Much like the XL2735, colours are washed out, sacrificing contrast for brightness. Upping the gamma, reducing brightness and tweaking the colour balance over the course of a few gaming sessions finally led me to a preset I liked. The Black eQualizer technology is another feature that I didn’t see much use for, due to the low gamma. Lastly, the XL2540 has a whopping 400 nits of brightness.
Previously, I held the XL2735 as the best gaming monitor I’ve reviewed but it looks like a new king has ascended. Despite the shoddy image quality, the supreme feel of a 240Hz monitor, coupled with the sleek design and various I/O ports makes the BenQ Zowie XL2540 the best monitor I’ve tested for FPS gaming. However, as is the case with every TN monitor, don’t expect to be impressed when watching 1080p films or designing with Photoshop.