Got my hands on BenQ's MOBIUZ EX321UX monitor
I've been on a hunt for a new monitor for over a year now. Something that can be for personal use and WFH with these specs:
- 4k
- 144Hz
- MiniLED
- <=34" (no curve)
- Built-in KVM switch
Having briefly experienced the INNOCN 27M2V, I expected a "perfect" monitor on the horizon.
Soon after I stumbled into a blog post announcing BenQ's reveal of a monitor that featured all the specs I wanted. I've finally got my hands on that monitor today having waited ~6 months.
First impression was the size. This monitor is a thicc boi. Made me think of a television, but not as heavy as I expected. I mounted it on my monitor arm (VESA 100) without problems.
The OSD is nifty and easy to navigate. There are 5 "quick menus" (ALPHA, BRAVO, etc.) that let you customize settings for each and quickly switch between them. These menus can be customized to select 3 "favorite" settings (e.g. brightness) so that you don't have to dig through the entire menu.
After tinkering a bit, I've fired up Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. I've set the display profile to use the per-configured "Fantasy" color mode (with mini-led enabled). Honestly I don't know what I'm doing these settings, so I don't know whether this monitor is calibrated at all, but it was gorgeous. I don't think any picture I take will demonstrate how good it looks.
I don't have much to say about the KVM yet. But I connected my keyboard+mouse to the monitor, then connected the USB to USB-C to my desktop. I also connected my work laptop (USB-C to USB-C). Everything works, but it'll take a couple of days of normal use to see if there are hiccups. I like switching between desktop (waking from sleep) and my work laptop then vise-versa. I'm curious to see if the "auto scan" works like I want it to.
Unfortunately, I've discovered 2 "stuck" sub-pixels. According to BenQ's dead pixel policy, this is "acceptable". One of the sub-pixels (green) is almost in the center of the screen and I zero in on it almost immediately. I'll reach out to their support regardless because I prefer not to have defects at this price ($1199.99). If I'm lucky I'll discover another stuck sub-pixel.
If it's stuck, and not dead, it may be possible to fix it with software or manually.
I didn't know this was an option, but no luck on my end.
I'm currently using two BenQ Mobiuz EX2510s (24.5 Inch 1080P 144Hz IPS) and have been for many years now, and even at the time I purchased them they were a great deal, price-to-performance. FWIW, the two I got don't have any stuck or dead pixels. It sucks that every monitor purchase plays that lottery though.
And yeah, monitor manufacturers leave leeway in their policies for defects which sucks. Hopefully these might be unstickable.
What UI scale are you running at? There’s tons of 4K monitors in the ballpark of 30”-34” but I’ve always avoided them because they fall into a bit of an awkward zone where they’re not really “normal” DPI (e.g. 21” 1080p, 27” 2560x1440) but also aren’t really “high” DPI (anything Apple labels “retina”, most midrange and above smartphones, etc). About 40” is where 4K starts to become “normal” DPI again and it’s practical to run at 1x UI scaling, but then the screen is starting to get too big to comfortably fit on a desk.
UI scale is set to: 150% (Windows default/recommended). It feels "just right".
I agree with the "awkward zone". The DPI increase isn't substantial due to the physical size. To be honest, if they offered the same monitor in 27", then I would've taken that instead. BUT, the increased size is convenient for a monitor also used like a TV (couch viewing).
It’s kind of interesting how the acceptable size for TV-style usage has increased over time. Back in the mid-2000s I had a 16:10 20” iMac G5 in my bedroom, and the screen on that wasn’t all that much smaller than my 20-something-inch 4:3 Sony CRT TV, so it got plenty of use from me as a TV. Apple even anticipated this use case with a little remote that magnetically stuck to the iMac’s side!
Today though a 20” TV sounds almost ridiculous. It’s difficult to even find monitors under 24” in size that aren’t straggling decade-old office-usage models, and decent TVs basically start at 40”.
In 2002 I had a 15" Inspiron 8200, with a 1600x1200 resolution.
I swear people are just going blind and not being willing to admit it :)
Back then they just set their 15" monitors to 640x480 resolution.
I think what really killed pixel density in laptops for a long time was the rise of “HD” as a marketing term. After that caught on, those awful 1366x768 panels spread like wildfire because they were technically “HD” which buyers generally understood to mean “really good” even though they were actually worse than what was in many laptops prior (like your Inspiron). Workstation laptops held out the longest (I have a 15.4” from 2008 with 1920x1200 resolution) but eventually even those succumbed.
That checks out. For a real, real long time 'high end' came to mean a reasonably sized 1080p screen, and that was still a fundemental downgrade for productivity.
And now we’ve gone through and out the other side again - 4K is the magic number and it’s easy to get a 12” or 15” 3840x2160 panel for a couple of hundred dollars, which even I’ll accept is overkill, but then there’s a huge gap right in the DPI sweet spot.
My 27” 5120x2880 panel just died and the list of viable replacements is in the single digits, starting at twice the price now that model’s discontinued. I live in hope of an unnecessary marketing push for 8K TVs making the whole problem moot at some point!
I feel you on the lack of options for 5k 27” monitors. I was shopping for one of those a year or so back and eventually just caved and bought a Studio Display. The price bites but it’s a great monitor.
There’s a Samsung monitor with that resolution+size that sometimes goes on sale for $700, but it has some issues like capacitor whine. I also tried a Dell 32” 6k monitor with a similar density (still runs at 2x UI scale) but at that point it wasn’t particularly fond of macOS (which I’ve read has since improved) and also didn’t like to be driven over Thunderbolt very much (even though that was headlining feature). I returned it and got the Studio Display in its place which has been great.
Ah crap, don’t say that, I literally just decided on the Dell earlier today! Having to spend even more for an upgrade felt less galling that paying a premium for an equivalent replacement, for whatever reason…
Fingers firmly crossed that they have indeed smoothed things out by now - I also read that it was pretty flaky at release, but apparently a couple of driver and firmware revisions have made a big difference. Was it general connectivity issues you were seeing, or is there anything more subtle to look out for?
Aside from the Mac-specific issues having to do with macOS not enabling DSC when it should be, resulting in a slightly degraded picture (which have seemingly been fixed), mine was mainly just kinda slow and cranky when turning on and switching inputs.
Its antiglare coating bugged me too but that’s always been a thing for Ultrasharp monitors and is subjective.
Got it, thanks! I’m alright with antiglare, and won’t need input switching, so here’s hoping the latest software has handled the rest. If not, it’s good to know the studio display will be the way to go, even with a bit of teeth-grinding over the price.
Update for anyone who happens to find this later: I'm also returning the Dell U3224KBA.
Definitely wouldn't recommend it, unfortunately - the size and sharpness are great, and the physical build quality seems good, but the experience as a whole feels like it's from about 2010. Very uneven backlighting, shockingly so in fact, and the most annoyingly reflective matte coating I've ever seen (somehow far worse in the same position/lighting than the gloss display it was replacing).
The images in this review, which I only found after searching to see if I'd maybe got a bad unit, are pretty accurate to what I'm seeing - as is the conclusion that it'd be a fair deal at maybe half what it actually sells for.
By some miracle, however, an eBay listing went up a couple of days ago with 25(!) available LG 27MD5KL monitors from an office clearance. That's the same discontinued 27" 5K display that I've been trying to replace, so I managed to grab two for significantly less than one Studio Display would've cost (and half what the Dell sells for). Blind luck in the end, but assuming those aren't DOA it all seems to have worked out!
So true. I recall getting my first 17" monitor and thinking how huge it was. Now I sit in front of a 39" screen (set fairly far back) and it's almost too big.
It’s even hard to find a 24” 4K monitor. Per Apple densities, between 21–22” is the sweet spot for 4K. Two 27” monitors would not fit on my desk, but a pair of 24” is perfect.
Then again, Windows handles non-integer scales much better than Mac.
I’m surprised to hear this. It didn’t used to be the case.
My desktop has a 28" HP Omen monitor that does 4K@144 and I feel the UI scale at 150% is perfect. I think it's pretty comparable to what you'd expect out of a desktop experience.
I wouldn't want to go bigger than 28" 4K at 150% UI scaling because it would be too big for my purposes. I've had 3K or pseudo-3K screens on laptops and that is just way too small on anything less than 175%. I think this is the right size and scope for most people, however I can understand RTS and FPS gamers might prefer screens that are smaller and fit better into their field of view.
Now that the honeymoon period is over, I found one of my biggest gripes. The flickering you see happens when I scroll over darker areas of the stage.
Don't know the technical term for this, but it's very obnoxious and defeats one of the main reasons I got this monitor.
Not an expert, but to me it looks like the LED dimming algorithm is laggy or needs tuning.
My thoughts as well. When it comes to mini-leds you're at the mercy of the manufacturer developing updates/fixes to their software. I heard numerous software complaints with Cooler Master's GP27U. I personally experienced issues with INNOCN's 27M2V. With yet another disappointing experience I'm getting tired of being a "beta-tester" for these mini-leds. Unless these kinds of problems come with the territory.
I think it’s just a matter of due diligence on the part of the manufacturer. The mini-LED panels in MacBook Pro’s and previous gen iPad Pro’s don’t exhibit this problem even though they support both 120hz and full-range variable refresh rate, and I’ve not heard of the various high end Windows laptops now integrating mini-LED panels having issues like this either.
You don't have blur reduction on, do you?
(edit: I ask because sometimes that can cause flickering)
I don't see any blur options. Thing is the entire screen is flickering. I should use the word "dimming". Flickering happens when switching from a dim to bright areas back and forth. You'd expect the dimming to happen only in the darker parts of the screen, not the entire panel. In short, looks like a buggy dimming algorithm.
I had looked up a review for the monitor, and TechCrunch said that setting could cause flickering. I don’t directly know the menu settings haha
I'm testing with a film "The Lighthouse (2019)".
There's a setting called "Shadow Phage". Has something to do with contrast, but it makes a scene brighter than it is. The panel is lit and is constantly adjusting to the dark. The transitions are very apparent. Turning it off makes the panel go "dark", like you'd expect from a mini-led. The panel will light up when the scene becomes brighter. In short, turning this off improves light/dark transitions somewhat, but doesn't get rid of the problem entirely.
It's just the nature of a 32" monitor with this few zones at this point.