BenQ ZOWIE XL2746S 27" Gaming Monitor

[TL;DR Pros and Cons] Pros: ***VERY Fast Response Time No Screen Tearing Okay Viewing Angles (For a TN Panel) Really Smooth Gameplay Amazing Customer Support Can technically run the Xbox Series X at 1080p 120FPS Cons: Color Reproduction Inaccurate (As With All TN Panels) (Resolved Through BenQ Customer Service) Dead Pixels Console Set-Up (at least from my experience) has to be brute force to run 120FPS at 1080p. [General Thoughts] This monitor is for the PC gamers who are serious about competitive gaming. This monitor and the XL2546K are the best in class monitors for almost instant response time at a 0.5ms average; you just have to think about what size is better. If you want everything in your vision I would go with the XL2546K, though if you're more like me and want a bigger screen that's a little more immersive the XL2746S is perfect. If tearing in games or motion blur is a problem for you this monitor or any of the Zowie monitors with DyAc+ should do the trick for any games and remedy these problems. [Next Gen Consoles] The Xbox Series X does run at 120 FPS at 1080p on this monitor through it's HDMI 2.0 port though from my experience you have to brute force your way into the settings and activate it manually through the override menu. I'm not too sure on the PS5 though I can check soon and update this review. [Problems and How They Were Resolved] So I just want to mention in my review that the monitor I originally got from Amazon later had a dead pixel problem down the line. Though the customer service at Zowie/BenQ was really good and they were able to trade in the monitor for a replacement. Later on the monitor they gave me in return had stuck pixels though the customer service was still kind enough to provide me with replacements until I got a good model. Hopefully this problem doesn't happen to any of you but if it does just be aware that for this specific product, new monitors come in the red boxes, the refurbished monitors come in normal cardboard brown. [Color Reproduction and TN Panels] The color reproduction on TN Panels aren't that good and this monitor is a TN. Since the fastest refresh rates and response times are the easiest to achieve with a TN Panel this was the right choice overall. Though just be aware that doing any sort of color accurate work on this monitor isn't recommended. [Conclusion] This is in my honest opinion one of the best 27-inch gaming monitors for competitors. Playing games like Valorant, Call of Duty, Quake give you a good bump up in FPS and response time from most TVs/monitors and even games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon 2, Guilty Gear Xrd, Under Night In-Birth, and other 60FPS locked games feel really good also due to DyAc+ and the quick response time. Though if you want to have a single-monitor set-up that can both game and do freelance work that require accurate colors or a high resolution you might want to look elsewhere. This monitor works great for competitive gamers who need practice, competitive streamers who have secondary monitors to monitor their stream, or the ones who want to be very serious about their gaming equipment and have the space and money for secondary monitors for different works. I've personally had a dead pixel problem with this model though the customer service at BenQ/Zowie is so good with these kinds of problems that I didn't mind that much in the end. All in All, if competitive gaming is a huge priority to you and you can fit this monitor in your budget. I would say go for this, or any of the other high end Zowie XL S or K Series monitors.

I've been using the display since April of 2020 so I've had plenty of time now to get used to it and give it a fair shake. Brightness: If you enable DyAc+ and leave it on, the brightness can be adjusted as high as 400+ nits. However, if you turn off DyAc+, then it drops to roughly 320 nits. I personally leave DyAc+ on all the time. 2D Picture Quality at 27": So a lot of people think they'll see pixelation at 1080p/27" and in my case I don't really notice it since I sit about 2 feet away from the monitor and i have it mounted on my wall. I previously had the 25" KD25F and found it too small for my liking so right now, this 27" hits the sweet spot. Remember, there is an 8 pixel per inch difference between 25" at 1080p vs 27" so all you have to do is move the 27" back a bit and you get the same view. 3D Gaming at 27": I got an FPS jump of >30% going from 1440p back to 1080p with this display which was nice. As soon as I started playing CoD: Warzone I noticed the input lag and motion was far better than my old Asus PG278Q which is a 1 ms TN panel but from 2014. With DyAc+ enabled and the ultra low input lag of this display, my K/D shifted upwards and I've been averaging 5-15 kills per match in Warzone since I bought this monitor. With my old Asus PG279Q, I had peaked and could feel the input lag. S Switch: Man what a handy little tool! I setup 2 profiles so far, one for desktop with the black equalizer set to 5 and vibrance set to 12 and DyAC turned off. When I want to game, I choose the other profile which turns DyAC to Premium while boosting vibrance and black equalizer. Very handy little tool that a lot of other manufacturers should think about copying. Colors/Sharpness: Out of the box they're a bit dull so I just set it to user define + standard and gamma at 3 and now it looks pretty good. I also had to increase the Sharpness to 8/10. You should download the color profile for this display and then calibrate it. Since it is a true 8 bit display with near 100% sRGB, you will get very nice colors from it that matches a lot of IPS displays. DyAc+: So this is the entire reason I bought this display, to have BFI that doesn't lose brightness when turned on. I can confirm that this monitor does not lose any brightness with DyAC enabled and infact gets MUCH BRIGHTER (up to ~480 nits peak) unlike every other competing display which tend to cut their brightness in half with BFI enabled. I briefly read about changing the vertical totals on these forums and since I likely won't hit 240 FPS even with a 9900k@5 Ghz and 2080 Ti in the games I play (Warzone/Apex Legends), I settled on 182 Hz with VT of 1350. I tested many different vertical total values out and 1350 just seemed to work best as the top/bottom of the screen had minimal blurring and the middle was great. It also works perfectly at 240 Hz with no VT adjustments needed. Additionally, you can enter the service menu of this display and calibrate the area/intensity using the UFO Ghost page found on blurbusters or their utility. I did this for my display by setting a custom area/intensity in the service menu and have virtually NO ghosting (see attached image of UFOs). Negatives: ------------ Yes there are unfortunately negatives with this display as there would be any display on the market. TN: Because this is a TN display, it will have limited viewing angles and you should be prepared to sit in front of the monitor with at least 1.5-2 feet distance between you and it. I have my monitor mounted and sit back about 2 feet from it which is ideal. Color: While the color is fantastic with it being a true 8 bit display, a lot of high end IPS have gone 10 bit and have better sRGB coverage than this one does so it doesn't match top tier IPS panels. If you want to do professional work, I would recommend having a separate IPS monitor for that or if you absolutely cannot afford two monitors, then buy an IPS monitor instead of this one. Overdrive: This monitor does not have dynamic overdrive which is unfortunate. What this means is if you lower your refresh rate, AMA (what Zowie calls their overdrive) only has 3 settings and so you end up with more double images at refresh rates below 240 Hz because the overdrive doesn't compensate. Some new displays (namely an AOC one) has dynamic overdrive which accounts for this and so you end up with no double images/ghosting while gaming at lower refresh rates. While not a deal breaker by any stretch, I would have loved to see Zowie include this. Price: Let's face it, this is an expensive panel for 1080p and being TN. $650 is asking a lot but if you are a serious gamer that wants the best technology, you gotta pay. Other panels offer similar performance but they lack DyAc+ which is the ultimate differentiator. I'd say if you don't care about DyAc+, then you could get a panel from say Asus that costs $200 less and will give similar performance--just be aware that Asus displays BFI is <200 nits which is pretty dark. That's it, hope you found this review helpful. If I had to, I'd buy this monitor all over again and am highly satisfied with my purchase and you will be too.

Best 1080p monitor I've ever used. My only complaints are the aesthetic choices they made. Pros: 1. Great specs. 2. No dead pixels. 3. Super fast response time. 4. Crystal clear display. 5. Good viewing angles. 6. Sturdy stand that doesn't take up much desk space. 7. I like the power button because it matches the button on my PC. 8. Easy setup. 9. Intuitive interface. 10. Wakes up from sleep fast. My G7 takes like 10 seconds to wake up from sleep. Cons: 1. The circular depression in the stand and the little remote that goes in it. The remote is a good idea but I don't switch between presets so often that I need it right there. I think they should have put a spot to mount it on the back of the monitor, out of sight, and get rid of the divot in the stand. It looks like a cupholder. 2. The headphone holder thing that pops out on the side is flimsy and looks awkward when you hang a headset on it. They should have just put a headphone hook on the back of the monitor like Samsung did with the G7. 3. The red color on the stand clashes with the paint theme in my room. I would have preferred a version that is all black.

This is a great monitor for gamers! 240Hz is crazy smooth and BenQ [Zowie] has been doing it for a while now. It's a TN panel so don't expect mind blowing colors but still does a great job. There is some excellent software features built into the UI also. Fiddling with it for a little to dial in the setting is a set and forget affair. The stand works great giving some routing options along with a high range of tilt/height adjustments. The headset hook comes in clutch also.

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Too bad I don't have a factory reference to compare with my "Used - Like New" BenQ XL2746S, because this monitor from Prycedin smells like fraud. No original BenQ packaging, disrespectful careless packaging by the seller resulting in heavy damages, a disrespectful careless response by the seller, and worst of all, these gross circular streaks all over the screen from some disgusting oily rag. During shipping, the heavy metal stand has obviously been bouncing around on top of some bubble-wrap trampoline-thing mere inches above the screen and has definitely been impacting the screen during even the slightest disturbances. Whenever the box were to even go on its side, let alone upside-down during transit, the stand and the screen have been impacting with force through the bubble-wrap while the weight of the monitor presses the screen onto the stand. Half of the screen is dimmer, there are intermittent vertical darker bands across the entire screen, the screen has clusters of stuck pixels around the center, the screen has clusters of dead pixels around the dim areas, additional pixels continue failing, and all of this damage is from Prycedin's disrespectful careless packaging. The screen frame frontplate also arrives partially separate from the rest of this "Used - Like New" monitor that doesn't need such invasive maintenance because it's "Used - Like New", and for as terrible as this display looks after heavy damages from the careless seller, it wouldn't be displaying anything if shipping force were enough to rip off the frontplate from the rest of a factory-sealed monitor chassis, so this "Prycedin" seller likely swaps out the expensive panels after BenQ certification before selling them on Amazon. I prefer totally authentic hardware without defects, peace of mind is worth several extra hundred when third parties keep failing to respect clients and businesses. Poor conduct from third parties like Prycedin is harmful for many links of the market, from myself being apprehensive towards innocent third party sellers in the future, to BenQ ceasing their third-party refurbishment certification program, to Amazon increasing stringency for selling and beyond. I highly recommend purchasing this monitor directly from BenQ. I cannot vouch for the image quality nor refresh rates because Prycedin damaged the screen and likely stole the panels, though I can personally vouch for an extremely good build quality from BenQ, considering this monitor still displays even a terrible image after what Prycedin did. Dropping this thing would likely only damage your pride, and maybe your foot.

This BenQ 27" monitor is the very best monitor I have ever had or seen!!! I can't say enough gvood things about this monitor. I have now seen the future and it is in Taiwan products, the Taiwan miracle is ON!!! I will try to buy BenQ products whenever possible. I prefer to buy American. But, this company is much better than I could get in American products. The so-called efficiency is to me just a race to the bottom. Taiwan may be the race to superb products. I would recommend BenQ products to everyone. Another person bought a bottom level BenQ monitor and was totally impressed with it. The design and engineering in my BenQ product is superb!! BenQ thought of everything. Definitly recommended!!!

1st monitor: Never knew what dead pixels looked like, until this monitor. Red pixel at 1 o'clock. Never had an issue with my older BenQ like that. XL2746S I think I will give this monitor another chance by purchasing a replacement and returning this one. But...man, that's BAD quality control. Electronics have been going through a gutter in quality lately. 2nd Monitor Update: Another panel with same exact issue, after an hour display threw in the towel. Wow. Benq...this is beyond unacceptable. I am horrified of your quality. Monitor crapped out when I wiped the spot near dead pixel. Why is it made like egg shell? Great colors, but who needs a monitor that dies an hour later, even if you forget about dead pixel. Video incoming. 2nd return, wow. Just wow. 2-3 dead pixels. XL2746S 3rd Monitor XL2746K also has a dead pixel. Another return 4th monitor XL2746k, washed out colors, and piercing white haze, cannot save settings to S-Switch, and monitor settings reset when you turn off monitor. I ordered 4 monitors in the row, two were 2746S models, and two were 2746K, 3 had one to three dead pixels, and one had screen artifacts. Last one could not save my settings. By the way, S-switch is what stores your settings, so it was broken. Last TN panel had horrible contrast, where white was piercing bright even on lowest settings. Abysmal quality overall. BenQ is worse than when it first released its' flagship XL2720Z, which I have to this day, and even though there colors are not as great as 2746K, 2720Z has no pixel issues. Quality control department does not exist in BenQ presently, it's fully automated process made in China, where no one checks for dead pixels, or artifacts. They replaced people that have eyes with machines that have no heart, mind or soul. It's shameful how bad this company carries themselves while being this so called "Elite gaming" sponsor at pretty much ALL eSports championships. I guess this is what happens when you destroy your own USA's market of electronics and outsource it to Asia. Last US made TV company was RCA, since this, we are relying on Asian quality products that are made by volume, not by quality. All 4 screen had completely different quality of color, regardless the fact that Zowie themselves stated TN panel is all the same between 2746k and 2746s, and even 2746k looks nothing alike to each other. Ended up buying IPS panel after this from another company. Such a shame, I loved BenQ, way before it was even known by people, people used to bash XL2720Z as inferior to IPS. Well, I still use it, but new monitors are very low quality, and inconsistent to the max.

Imo the back-light strobing is absolutely top tier in this monitor compared to all other available options(Wayyy better than ULMB). I simply enable dyac premium and uncap my frames in game, and I'm treated to buttery smoothness. You can't get this backlight strobing and 240hz with any other brand currently. I'm pretty cracked in game and my click timing has definitely improved. If you want the best/most competitive high refresh rate monitor(with motion blur reduction of course) available in the US as of 7/22/20 you've come to the right place. Idk how 360hz (later this year) will compare but I know it won't be able to achieve the MPRT(Motion persistence response time) of this monitor without a completely refreshed ULMB running at or above 240hz. Basically if you're not budget concerned and want to clap noobs, go ahead and order this and hook it into your top end gaming PC :)

Swapped to Asus VG279QM from XL2546s last year. A big disappointment and regret as I under-estimate the motion blur on the 280hz IPS compared to XL2546s. Finally managed to buy XL2746s again. The DyAc is basically best strobing mode with lowest crosstalk on the market. The Asus ELMB-Sync create a lot crosshair make it is not usable to game with. There is no compliant except obviously tighter view angle on TN. As long as you use it as main monitor and place it in front of you it should be fine.