Price Of Reviewed Product $599.00
The great folks at Zowie BenQ were kind enough to let us review some of their products including their XL2740 Monitor.
Welcome to our review of the BenQ ZOWIE XL2740 monitor. This will not be your typical review because I think the XL2740 (at least the 24-inch) is the gold standard in PC LAN Esports Hands Down but what I want to explore in this review is how it could be used in a more casual gaming environment or even dare I say with a console.
The XL2740 does a lot of things very well, the first being how easy it is to assemble. I have owned over 12 monitors in the last 5 years and nothing comes close to this monitor as far as a simplistic setup process. I can clearly see why the Esports community has such a high regard for this monitor because it is literally one click and done and when you have 200 stations to setup in a few hours you need speed and consistency. This one-click install also gives you the stability you need in a full range of motion monitor stand which the XL2740 delivers with a massive 8-inch vertical range which then allows you to pivot at 90 degrees for a portrait orientation. Another easily overlooked feature on the XL2740 for me is the power USBs. I have noticed that a lot of manufacturers are starting to steer away from making this a standard feature and I am not a fan of that. So, I think that these 2 points are the XL2740’s best features regardless of being for Esports or Casual gaming.
Additionally, the color schemes and presets are pretty amazing and can truly change the way you look at certain games, but the black levels can seem muted. The XL2740 comes with a quick setting adjustment dial that allows you to switch presets on the fly. Unfortunately, it will not tell you what they are when clicked so you have to remember what you assigned each one to for this to be truly a time saving feature.
PC gaming allows the XL2740 to really shine via Display Port, but I saw some inconsistencies over HDMI 1 and 2 (marked 2.0 only). I have experienced this with a range of monitors and sadly it’s common. If you want the most out of the monitor you need to be running Display Port only. This is only further evident when trying to connect it to a console and in this case the Xbox One X. The most powerful console will allow up to 120hz at 1440p via HDMI or 4k at 60hz which is fantastic if you can find monitors that support this via HDMI. The BenQ ZOWIE XL2740 doesn’t. This generally has to do with which HDMI port version is installed on the monitor and is usually a very elusive stat to track down and yes I tested both HDMI ports with “Premium High Speed” HDMI cables.
At the end of the day this is not a great $599 monitor for console gaming, but is not a bad one either. For the price of this monitor you could easily find yourself a nice $350 32-inch 1440p 144hz Samsung Monitor and a $60 Echogear mount then have a superior home gaming experience on your Xbox One X, but if you need to fill a room with 150 stations on a weekend then is probably a really good choice.
Thank you for reading and let us know in the comments down below what you think and what piece of hardware you are looking forward to seeing on display at E3 2019.
