The Benq G2420HD LCD is a large-screen 24-inch Full-HD monitor that offers value for money. Being a very decent product from a known brand, the popularity of this monitor can be easily understood since it could even be used as an affordable alternative to a TV-cum-PC monitor.
The Benq G2420HD is a 24-inch PC LCD monitor that takes forward Benq’s line of value-for-money products. Benq in India has had a string of products that are priced superbly for their segment, examples that we had reviewed earlier include the Benq G2220HD (22-inch) and the Benq M2700HD (27-inch) monitors. The 24-inch Benq G2420HD is priced at a sweet-spot that could convince fence-sitters to go larger – those who were intending to buy a 22-inch LCD monitor, might swing towards this one instead.
With price in its favour, the G2420HD may not have all the frills offered by expensive monitors, but it is not particularly less-endowed either. The sheer size of the display area strikes you first, with the looks following immediately after. It is simple but does not look cheap – the glossy black design includes a bezel that is quite thin compared to the display panel of which it forms the border. There is no sharp edge, all edges are rounded at the front and back. To the left side is a headphone jack for HDMI sound output, and at the bottom right edge are the menu/OSD buttons to control the monitor’s settings. As usual, the rear side has grills at the top for heat exhaust, and VGA/DVI/HDMI input ports at the bottom. The oval-shaped stand has a subdued appearance so that attention centres on the screen itself. Like all normal monitors, the stand only allows for one type of adjustment, which is to tilt upto 25 degrees, and supports VESA wall-mounting.
The Benq G2420HD is a wide-screen monitor with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a Full-HD resolution of 1920×1080, also known as a 1080p display. Though the monitor bezel and casing are glossy, the actual screen itself is matte – which is a welcome spec if you have had to put up with monitor glare. It has an effective response time of 5ms, and uses a TN panel (Twisted Nematic), which we presume lets Benq reduce price enough to make the monitor affordable for home users. While monitors with a VA or IPS panel do offer better visual quality, they are not usually as affordable as the G2420HD. It weighs 4.9 kg and is rated to consume a maximum of 49W while active. The package contents include a DVI cable too, besides the usual bundle of VGA cable, power cable, manual and driver CD.
Six on-screen display (OSD) buttons that control the monitor are placed at the bottom-right, facing downwards quite literally. This includes the power button, with all the buttons placed very close to each other. There are labels in front though, to make each button’s functionality clear. Getting the buttons out of the way was probably done to make the front look clean, though at some cost to accessibility. However it does not take more than a few minutes to get comfortable with the OSD buttons. The OSD navigation system is laid out in the familiar Benq colors and organization. One thing we liked is that this monitor supports displaying screen output as per the "Aspect Ratio" of the input signal, a setting found in many higher-end monitors which can be very useful. The monitor under review here is not the LED version, it is the normal one, with specifications available on Benq India’s website.
Performance
The Benq G2420HD LCD monitor claims a dynamic contrast ratio (DCR) of 40,000:1 which is fine for movies and games. However, we disable DCR to measure the true contrast ratio, claimed to be 1000:1 that we then measured by our Chroma meter to be 545:1 which is quite good. We measured brightness of 192 cd/m2 and a black level of 0.42 cd/m2 which is acceptable for a budget monitor of this size. We first calibrate the monitor using Spyder Elite 3 and its hardware-based solution, ensuring that what we see is the best that the monitor can provide. Then we run a battery of tests including those from Lavalys Everest, Lagom, and DisplayMate, measuring them with a Chroma meter. It scored well with regard to the RGB (colour accuracy) levels and contrast ratio. The color temperature measured higher than the 6500K expected, and black levels across the screen varied a lot despite disabling DCR and setting monitor to "Standard" mode, possibly due to the "Senseye" feature. We saw negligible backlight bleeding at the middle of top and bottom of screen. It offers a color gamut of 72% as measured on the CIE1976 standard, which is as expected. For more details see the "Performance" tab of this review.
Our subjective tests consisted of browsing and productivity apps, viewing photos, movies and playing games. The colors, and vibrancy were normal, as is to be expected of a TN-panel monitor with a matte screen. Importantly for movie watchers, the depth of the black levels was just about acceptable during our movie playback. Viewing angles of 170 and 160 degrees, horizontal and vertical respectively, are very usable in a home environment. There were no dead/stuck/colored pixels on the unit that came to us for review, as confirmed on 5 uni-color screens (completely dark, white and the 3 primary colors). Text that scrolls by fast (as in really fast) can get hard to distinguish, as borne out by PixPerAn tests. However, there was no noticeable blur or ghosting in games and movies – it remained visually sharp, mouse lag in fast-paced FPS games was not perceivable, and audio remained in sync while watching movies.
Performance was not a particular concern, since it did pretty well for a large-screen budget display. The changes introduced by "Senseye" would only be a concern for graphic design artists looking for accurate color reproduction, who might want to opt for a much-costlier IPS-panel monitor instead (the Dell UltraSharp U2311H is priced 30% more and offers an IPS panel, but does not have an HDMI input port). For home use, the Benq G2420HD is good value for money and does perfectly fine as long as you are willing to manage with the placement of the OSD buttons.
The Benq G2420HD is a wide-screen monitor with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a Full-HD resolution of 1920×1080, also known as a 1080p display. Though the monitor bezel and casing are glossy, the actual screen itself is matte – which is a welcome spec if you have had to put up with monitor glare. It has an effective response time of 5ms, and uses a TN panel (Twisted Nematic), which we presume lets Benq reduce price enough to make the monitor affordable for home users. While monitors with a VA or IPS panel do offer better visual quality, they are not usually as affordable as the G2420HD. It weighs 4.9 kg and is rated to consume a maximum of 49W while active. The package contents include a DVI cable too, besides the usual bundle of VGA cable, power cable, manual and driver CD.
Six on-screen display (OSD) buttons that control the monitor are placed at the bottom-right, facing downwards quite literally. This includes the power button, with all the buttons placed very close to each other. There are labels in front though, to make each button’s functionality clear. Getting the buttons out of the way was probably done to make the front look clean, though at some cost to accessibility. However it does not take more than a few minutes to get comfortable with the OSD buttons. The OSD navigation system is laid out in the familiar Benq colors and organization. One thing we liked is that this monitor supports displaying screen output as per the "Aspect Ratio" of the input signal, a setting found in many higher-end monitors which can be very useful. The monitor under review here is not the LED version, it is the normal one, with specifications available on Benq India’s website.
Performance
The Benq G2420HD LCD monitor claims a dynamic contrast ratio (DCR) of 40,000:1 which is fine for movies and games. However, we disable DCR to measure the true contrast ratio, claimed to be 1000:1 that we then measured by our Chroma meter to be 545:1 which is quite good. We measured brightness of 192 cd/m2 and a black level of 0.42 cd/m2 which is acceptable for a budget monitor of this size. We first calibrate the monitor using Spyder Elite 3 and its hardware-based solution, ensuring that what we see is the best that the monitor can provide. Then we run a battery of tests including those from Lavalys Everest, Lagom, and DisplayMate, measuring them with a Chroma meter. It scored well with regard to the RGB (colour accuracy) levels and contrast ratio. The color temperature measured higher than the 6500K expected, and black levels across the screen varied a lot despite disabling DCR and setting monitor to "Standard" mode, possibly due to the "Senseye" feature. We saw negligible backlight bleeding at the middle of top and bottom of screen. It offers a color gamut of 72% as measured on the CIE1976 standard, which is as expected. For more details see the "Performance" tab of this review.
Our subjective tests consisted of browsing and productivity apps, viewing photos, movies and playing games. The colors, and vibrancy were normal, as is to be expected of a TN-panel monitor with a matte screen. Importantly for movie watchers, the depth of the black levels was just about acceptable during our movie playback. Viewing angles of 170 and 160 degrees, horizontal and vertical respectively, are very usable in a home environment. There were no dead/stuck/colored pixels on the unit that came to us for review, as confirmed on 5 uni-color screens (completely dark, white and the 3 primary colors). Text that scrolls by fast (as in really fast) can get hard to distinguish, as borne out by PixPerAn tests. However, there was no noticeable blur or ghosting in games and movies – it remained visually sharp, mouse lag in fast-paced FPS games was not perceivable, and audio remained in sync while watching movies.
Performance was not a particular concern, since it did pretty well for a large-screen budget display. The changes introduced by "Senseye" would only be a concern for graphic design artists looking for accurate color reproduction, who might want to opt for a much-costlier IPS-panel monitor instead (the Dell UltraSharp U2311H is priced 30% more and offers an IPS panel, but does not have an HDMI input port). For home use, the Benq G2420HD is good value for money and does perfectly fine as long as you are willing to manage with the placement of the OSD buttons.
Bottom Line
The Benq G2420HD LCD is a large-screen 24-inch Full-HD monitor that offers value for money. Being a very decent product from a known brand, the popularity of this monitor can be easily understood as it could even be seen as an affordable alternative to a TV-cum-PC monitor.
The official price of this monitor is Rs. 13,400 but you are likely to see it being sold in stores for as much as Rs. 2,000 lower. At that price, our recommendation of the G2420 as the one to buy becomes even stronger. However, if your priority is colour reproduction, you might want to pay slightly more and buy the Dell UltraSharp U2311H instead.
The official price of this monitor is Rs. 13,400 but you are likely to see it being sold in stores for as much as Rs. 2,000 lower. At that price, our recommendation of the G2420 as the one to buy becomes even stronger. However, if your priority is colour reproduction, you might want to pay slightly more and buy the Dell UltraSharp U2311H instead.
