BenQ SW2700PT review – reasonably priced monitor for pro photographers

BenQ-SW2700PT_web

Today we’ll be taking a look at the BENQ SW2700PT monitor. It target audience are users who spend spend a lot of time at their machines doing color work.

Some time ago BENQ debuted their 24″ PG2401PT to a market segment where accurate color reproduction is of paramount importance.

SW2700PT, which we’re focusing on here, has a high Quad HD resolution, useful anti-glare coating, wide color gamut, external OSD controller for fast switching, hardware LUT, 10bit color, flicker-free backlight, a very comfy ergonomic multi-angle stand. Additionally, the package includes a shading hood for the monitor. Users interested in the unit include photographers and designers, as well as people looking for detailed and vivid image reproduction.

What we’ll try to do here is give a precise, objective evaluation of the monitor, based on all the test we’ve done.

If you happen to like the results and would like to get the monitor, you can find up-to-date information on pricing for the BenQ SW2700PT, as well as purchase options at Amazon’s online store: http://amzn.to/1ZKd4XS

Amazon.com’s store currently has info about a total of 100 BenQ monitors. Check those out here:
http://amzn.to/25vPBhm

Contents


Video


In the package

In addition to the monitor itself, the box it comes in contains a stand, power cable, DisplayPort cable, HDMI, DVI and USB cables, an OSD controller, a shading hood, driver disk, manual, as well as a quick assembly guide.

P1130208

Design

With it’s matte-black finish, the monitor is clean and minimalist, design-wise. The stand allows for all necessary positions, including portrait. You’ve got up to 130mm’s worth of height adjustment, plus a 35°/35° swivel.

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The external OSD controller doubles as a remote control. It makes it easier to make screen adjustments and quickly switch between Adobe RGB or sRGB, for example.

a-controller

Ports

All of the ports are located on the back. There’s a USB port (upstream; connecting to the PC), which you’ll need for hardware calibration, DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort for image transfer, mini-USB for the OSD connector, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. Additionally, there are two USB ports and an SD card slot on the side.

Screenshot 2016-03-23 18.21.46

Technical specifications

Diagonal27″
ResolutionQHD (2560 x 1440)
Additional
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Pixel pitch (mm): 0.2331
  • Brightness (typ.): 350 cd/㎡
  • Native contrast (typ.): 1000:1
  • Viewing angles (L/R;U/D) (CR>=10): 178°/178°
  • Response time (Tr+Tf) typ.: 12ms, 5ms (GtG)
  • Color Gamut: Adobe RGB 99%

Stand

  • Swivel (left/right): 35°/35°
  • Tilt (down/up): -3.5~20
  • Height adjustment (mm): 130
PortsHDMI 1.4, DVI-DL, DisplayPort 1.2, USB concentrator: USB 3.0 (Downstream x 2 (side), Upstream x1)
PanelIPS


Display Tests

BenQ SW2700PT has a QHD matrix, IPX panel, blue LED backlight and 3M’s “Quantum dot“. That gives the monitor its broad color gamut coverage that both pros and enthusiasts value, but more on that later. The quantum dots are molecule-sized molecule-sized spheres of nano-semiconductor materials integrated in a special film, part of the display panel. They act as high-efficiency phosphorous crystals, emitting photons in a narrow spectrum proportional to their size when hit by light (445nm blue light through a 3nm quantum dot turns into 535nm green light, whereas through a 7nm quantum dot, it becomes 620nm red light). Thus, the blues from the backlight is transformed into light of appropriate spectral characteristics, which is then further regulated and recombined via the subpixel matrix filters. We have to note that actually making this possible to manufacture requires the cooperation of multiple outfits with world-class achievements in technological discipline.

3M Quantum dot-BENQ SW2700PT
Bef34%AdobeRGB-22-BENQ SW2700PT

The monitor comes with an individual factory check report for Adobe RGB, gamma 2.20 and White Point 6500K, all thanks to the high class Konica Minolta CA310 color analyzer.

BENQ-SW2700P-OnlineFactoryCallibrationReport

Further analysis was conducted with the i1 Pro spectrometer and the i1 Display Pro calibrator.

BenQ SW2700PT has a diagonal of 27″ (68.58cm) and a resolution of 2560×1440. It’s got 10bit color (8bit + FRC), which is a significant advantage in broad color spaces, allowing for a smooth transition in gradual color changes over a narrow range. There’s 3D LUT hardware profiling and emulation for color gamuts other than the default (part of the profile information for this specific monitor is stored in Windows). Aspect ratio is 16:9, pixel density is 109ppi at a pitch of 0.233 x 0233mm. The ‘retina’ effect comes into play when looking at the monitor from a distance of at least 81cm – i.e., at that distance you can no longer discern individual pixels.

Micr-BENQ SW2700PT

Viewing angles are perfect. Here’s an image that will help you judge for yourself.

Angles-SW2700PT

BenQ SW2700PT offers the following choice of modes and related OSD settings.

Settings-ColorMode

Measured max Luminance is high – 371cd/m2 (measured at the center of the screen in Standard mode, RGB 100%). Contrast ratio is around the 1060:1 mark. Center-screen deviations are negligible. There’s a deviation of dE2000=4.6 in the lower-left area, due to a 10% difference in brightness and about 600K in color temp. It would have been nice if the monitor had Uniformity Compensation functionality.

MavBrightness-BENQ SW2700PT-1920

Here is a comparison – the unit in both a darkened room and with ambient lighting bumped up.

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Color Reproduction

First we ran an Adobe RGB Display Mode test, gamma 2.2, 6500K. The figure below represents color accuracy and coverage of the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram in Adobe RGB at factory settings. The accuracy is high and most users won’t be needing additional calibration. The colored circles represent colors the monitor should be displaying, whereas the white circles indicate the results. Bot main and additional colors are featured, all with a saturation of 25, 50, 75 and 100% in the Adobe RGB color space.

FactoryAdobeRGB-BENQ SW2700PT
The display gamma is a tad higher than desired.

Factory-Gamma-AdobeRGB-BENQ SW2700PT

We tested the display with 24 samples. They contain both common colors and colors that the eyes recognize well – dark or lighter human skin, blue skies, grassy green, orange etc.

Factory-Checker-sRGB-BENQ SW2700PT

We switched to the next screen mode – sRGB. The sRGB color space is considered the standard for working with the web. It is used basically everywhere by millions of users, so accurate reproduction of sRGB colors is also of key significance for determining the quality of the display.

Factory-sRGB-BENQ SW2700PT

Factory-CheckerAdobeRGB-BENQ SW2700PT

We profiles the monitor in Standard Display Mode, sRGB color space, sRGB gamma, 34% Brightness (140 cd/m2) – here are the results. You get a software profiling package – Palette Master Element. We’ll mention that again later on. In our case we used i1 Display Pro and third party software. Here’s a comparison – after sRGB profiling.

BasICColor-sRGB-BENQ SW2700PT

BasICColor-Checker-sRGB-BENQ SW2700PT

BasICColor-sRGB-Gamma-BENQ SW2700PT

Web designers will appreciate the degree of color accuracy they get.

We also did some calibration and profiling with the included software solution Palette Master element. Here’s one of the resulting set-ups. In this case we’ve gone for White Point D50, Luminance 160 cd/m2 and Gamma L*.

PalleteMasterElement-1

PalleteMasterElement-Report

There are two concluding points to be made here.

First, it might prove necessary to add some functionality to Palette Master Element (functions present in previous versions of the application). Second, something with regard to the following figure and the color spaces indicated on it. In addition to Adobe RGB space, used in quality cameras, we can see color spaces used by renowned film studios and in UHD digital television. The final one, Rec2020, has up till now always been an impossibly tough benchmark for modern displays.

Also indicated is a color space studied by Michal Point – the aptly named Pointer’s Gamut. It encompasses reflected colors visible to the human eye, or in other words, real colors, as seen in nature.

The dotted yellow line indicates the coverage of BenQ SW2700PT registered by spectrometer. The monitor has more to offer beyond covering Adobe RBG, and there is certainly quite a bit of potential in it.

GAMUT-BENQ SW2700PT

Aft-PaletteMaster-BENQ SW2700PT

Gaming capabilities

Something of interest to gamers here – the graphic below illustrates response time in black to white and white to black, for levels of 10% up to 90% and vice-versa, settings set to default, and AMA on. The latter improves the gray level response time of the LCD panel.
We measured Fall Time + Rise Time to be 16.1 ms. The matrix is quick for its type.

ResponceTime-BENQ SW2700PT

Backlight flicker

BenQ SW2700PT emits no PWM-regulated light throughout the whole brightness spectrum. This allows for continuous and gaming or productivity sessions without any problematic strain for your eyes and brain.

PWM-BENQ SW2700PT

Low Blue Light

The issue of artificial light reflection and more specifically, the impact of display light on one’s health in today’s dynamic world, is now gaining momentum and quickly becoming a burning issue. We’ve discussed this in some detail here.

The people who’ve designed BenQ SW2700PT have taken special care to address the issue. Here you have the spectra of light the monitor emits in the respective modes.

LBL Display Mode - BENQ SW2700PT

Conclusion

BenQ SW2700PT is aimed at a broad market segment of user who consider color work either a major time-consuming hobby or are simply professionals. The monitor is affordable and comfortable to use, designed with users’ health in mind. One might jokingly say, ‘Price is not an issue – I’m looking for quality and affordability!’. If we were to do conduct a search on the class of monitors we’re talking about here, including requirements such as high resolution, 10bit color, hardware LUT, we’d get very few results (lack of PWM would be considered a bonus in such a scenario). Adding to the equation the issue of finance might narrow the result set to only one entry – precisely the model we’re reviewing here.

If you happen to like the results and would like to get the monitor, you can find up-to-date information on pricing for the BenQ SW2700PT, as well as purchase options at Amazon’s online store: http://amzn.to/1ZKd4XS

Amazon.com’s store currently has info about a total of 100 BenQ monitors. Check those out here:
http://amzn.to/25vPBhm

Pros

  • High resolution – 2560 x 1440
  • High-quality advanced panel
  • Broad color gamut coverage
  • Excellent viewing angles
  • Efficient anti-reflective coating
  • Hardware LUT
  • 10bit color ( 8 bit + FRC)
  • PWM-free backlight
  • High max brightness
  • Good contrast ratio
  • Good number of OSD presets, including Low Blue Light
  • Ergonomic stand, VESA mounting
  • OSD controller
  • Monitor hood (Shading hood) included
  • Competitive pricing


Cons

  • No “Uniformity compensation”
  • Lacking in display-gamma OSD modes – just 1.8 and 2.2
  • Current Palette Master Element version is crippled

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Chris
Chris
7 years ago

Great review but the specs for this monitor say it’s a true 10 bit color depth not 8 bit + FRC.

Kev
Kev
7 years ago

I tried 2 of these BenQ SW2700PT monitors and returned both. The first SW2700PT had a yellow tint on the left side and a blue on the right side, it was clear to see. It’s average delta E was over 2.5 and the blue was over 6.5. The screen uniformity was bad, with a14% difference in the lower right corner, and 10% difference on the right side. The top right corner was 4% brighter. I returned this monitor and tried a second. The second did not have the yellowish or the blue tint like the first, but had greyish tinted… Read more »

Richard
Richard
7 years ago

I wasn’t aware it was a quantum dot display. I thought it was RB-LED.

Not that this information is to be found in the specs on the BenQ site. Somehow I think if it had been quantum dot their marketing would have been making a big noise about it. It’s also not clear if it’s a native 10-bit panel or 8-bit with FRC, but BenQ describe it as “1.07 B display colors” rather than native 10-bit!

I’ve got one on order. Just hope I’m not disappointed by the hype.

Doug Faber
Doug Faber
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard

Was wondering whether Richard or anyone since these posts has had any issues, as I’m needing a monitor.