BenQ Announces the ZOWIE XL2540: 24-Inch 240 Hz Full-HD Display 'for e-Sports'
by Anton Shilov on November 10, 2016 10:00 AM EST
BenQ this week introduced its new display aimed specifically at professional gamers. The new monitor belongs to the ZOWIE family of BenQ’s products designed for e-Sports and features Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution as well as a refresh rate as high as 240 Hz. In addition to support for ultra-high refresh rates, the display also has other features developed specifically for gamers.
The BenQ ZOWIE XL2540 monitor has a 24.5” TN panel with a typical resolution for this size (1920×1080), support for 16.7 million (6-bit + FRC) colors as well as a typical contrast ratio for mainstream screens (1000:1). The monitor stands out when it comes to its brightness - 400 cd/m2 (400 nits) is a bit higher compared to what we usually see on TN-based devices and a refresh rate of 240 Hz to ensure as fast gameplay as possible. It is noteworthy that despite positioning, the ZOWIE ZL2540 does not support any dynamic refresh rate technology (either G-Sync, FreeSync or Adaptive-Sync).
When it comes to connectivity, the ZOWIE XL2540 excels many products on the market as it can use DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI and DVI-DL (naturally, DVI does not support 240 Hz refresh rate) to connect to host PCs (nowadays many monitors are only equipped with DP and HDMI inputs). Also, it has a three-port USB hub. The display also has a built-in 55 W power supply.
| BenQ ZOWIE XL2540 | ||
| ZOWIE XL2540 | ||
| Panel | 24.5" TN | |
| Native Resolution | 1920 × 1080 | |
| Maximum Refresh Rate | 240 Hz | |
| Response Time | 1 ms (gray-to-gray) | |
| Brightness | 400 cd/m² | |
| Contrast | 1000:1 | |
| Viewing Angles | 160°/160° horizontal/vertical | |
| Inputs | 1 × DP 1.2 1 × HDMI 2.0 1 × DVI-D DL |
|
| USB Hub | 3-port USB hub | |
| Audio | audio in/out ports | |
| Power Consumption | Typical | unknown |
| Maximum | 55 W | |
In addition to ultra-high refresh rates as well as improved brightness, the ZOWIE XL2540 supports several features specifically for e-Sports professionals: the Black eQualizer that increases brightness of dark areas without oversaturating the bright areas, an option to quickly increase color vibrancies, a special external controller to rapidly activate different settings and profiles as well as a light-shielding hood (which BenQ calls a way to help gamers to focus on their games).
The manufacturer does not announce pricing as well as availability timeframe for its ZOWIE XL2540 just yet. The only thing that BenQ tells us at the moment is that the display will be demonstrated at trade shows from late November. Since BenQ does not produce its own panels, the ETA of the ZOWIE XL2540 depends completely on the company’s suppliers. Moreover, when the panels are available, the display will have to compete against similar products by other makers, such as the ASUS PG258Q (which has G-Sync) which has similar specifications, perhaps indicating it is the same panel.
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Source: BenQ
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BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
There's the inevitable car comparison. I have to admit I don't see that as often on AT as I do at other tech sites.Anyway, don't make assumptions that I'm making declarations about product quality or functionality. I'm poking fun at the brand name itself and at BenQ for continuing to use it after acquiring the company. Of course there will be a number of brand loyalists or people who fancy themselves aspiring eSports gaming professionals that will pick a product and swear by it. With star-struck swoons, they'll follow in the footsteps of their corporate-sponsored idols when they proclaim, "It makes the clicking better to click with a Zowie!" People do that with professional atheletes playing actual sports all the time, why should it be any different with the competitive computer gaming that the computer industry is trying to get off the ground and into the mainstream? If BenQ can turn a profit from those people by transferring their wealthy, they absolutely should. In the end, the laughability comes from the brand name and just that. I'm not mocking the hardware in the slightest.
JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Here's another example of a company that acquired another, yet still continued to use that brand name: AMD bought ATI (and acquired their Radeon graphics card technologies), but continued to sell their graphics under the ATI brandname for a few years afterwards. They eventually transitioned back to just using the AMD brandname.The same will likely happen here. It might take some time, but for now BenQ's trying to use that sub-brand to get more traction in the gaming peripherals market.
Inteli - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
People like driverless, no frills gaming mice with little marketing crap. Zowie was doing very well for themselves in their niche.It's ironic how you blame a marketing department for the name, but Zowie does so well for themselves by having a nice product, not with high numbers and gimmicks.
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
I like no-frills mice that don't rely on anything but a native OS driver too. I also agree that gimmicks and pointlessly high number specs (presuming that's what "high numbers" means) leave me unimpressed. That's why I have a cheap-o from Dell that I got as inventory excess from my company's free-to-a-good-home box. Works great and racks up kills that make the occasional shooter I play a school girl gigglefest for me.So...as I said before, it's got nothing to do with the hardware or its function. There's no need to advocate product quality at me. I'm just amused by the brand name because I find it hilarious that something like that slipped through the cracks at a decent sized company.
kn00tcn - Friday, November 11, 2016 - link
as if benq rolls off the tongue, chinese/taiwanese brands are still chinese/taiwanese names, there's nothing unusual about zowie in the context of benq, this isnt corsairsilverblue - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Soon to be followed by Zoinks (for FreeSync support) and Jeepers (for GSync support), I suppose?BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Congrats, I almost choked on my tea from laughing when I read that! :DGuspaz - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
I have to wonder if G/Free-Sync would see diminishing returns with ever higher refresh rates anyhow. On a 60Hz monitor, the maximum timing error (the amount of time between when a frame could be presented and when it would actually be presented) for which G/Free-Sync could correct for would be 17ms, but on a 240Hz monitor, that error is reduced to only 4ms. Any judder introduced at that point would be very hard to spot.limitedaccess - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
It more likely prioritizing low input lag as much as possible and the target demo that really needing variable. If they are using this monitor they likely can also afford a very high end system which is going to be running e-sports titles that typically low req, which also may be further run at low graphics settings just to reduce on distractions.DanNeely - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
They do. If you want to avoid tearing you can enable VSync and only have a max delay of 4.167ms (vs 16.67ms at 60 hz) on a 240hz panel. Alternately without vsync any tearing artifacts will only be visible for 1/4th as long.