Is BenQ a good brand for monitors?

[donline]

Hi folks, are BenQ monitors any good?

Specifically, I was looking at these two:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-GL2250HM-Multimedia-Monitor-Speakers/dp/B00B7ZE0G2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462652159&sr=8-2&keywords=monitor

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CFFFGUM/ref=psdc_428652031_t1_B005OPLG0O

Is it worth paying extra for the second choice above^ ? And are monitor speakers generally better than basic laptop speakers? (If not, is it easy to disable the monitor speakers and switch to external?).

Thanks!

 

[madmatt30]

Brightness wise the norm for day to day use is 120-150 CD/m2 - nobody would run either of those monitors at full brightness , for one it would be incredibly uncomfortable to look at , & for another the blacks would end up grey.

The norm IMO for setting these up I'd do is drop the brightness to 50-60% & increase the contrast until you get the punch you want from the white & colours , this way the blacks stay black.

IPS are very punchy on colours anyway , & the sRGB setting on that aoc is pretty usable out of the box.

 

[donline]

Brightness wise the norm for day to day use is 120-150 CD/m2 - nobody would run either of those monitors at full brightness , for one it would be incredibly uncomfortable to look at , & for another the blacks would end up grey.

The norm IMO for setting these up I'd do is drop the brightness to 50-60% & increase the contrast until you get the punch you want from the white & colours , this way the blacks stay black.

IPS are very punchy on colours anyway , & the sRGB setting on that aoc is pretty usable out of the box.

Great, thanks mate. I'll play around with the colour settings when I get the monitor. Will let you know how everything goes.

Cheers again, you've been really helpful. Have a good weekend.

 

[donline]

Brightness wise the norm for day to day use is 120-150 CD/m2 - nobody would run either of those monitors at full brightness , for one it would be incredibly uncomfortable to look at , & for another the blacks would end up grey.

The norm IMO for setting these up I'd do is drop the brightness to 50-60% & increase the contrast until you get the punch you want from the white & colours , this way the blacks stay black.

IPS are very punchy on colours anyway , & the sRGB setting on that aoc is pretty usable out of the box.

Hi again madmatt30

I've been playing around with my new laptop and not been feeling so great when looking at the monitor...

It's been suggested to me that I buy an external 'flicker-free' IPS monitor to help with this (apparently there's something called PWM - pulse wave modulation - that can cause health issues).

Do you have any advice/recommendations? Thanks
(Info here: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/pulse_width_modulation.htm)

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

No, that's not true at all. Nobody has successfully confirmed that PWM causes the issues they say it causes. They're full of it, spreading lies in the form of clickbaits.

Research CVS, ComputerVisionSyndrome.

The two biggest causes to eye strain (health issues you refer to, there are no permanent harm with anything related to displays), are too high brightness, and wrong color temperature for the room it's in. A minor cause is the display coating, you want matte not glossy. You don't want 5000k in a 3000k room, and you don't want 3000k in a 5000k room, just an example, but trust me with this, ignore everything everyone says about PWM causing issues, please.

 

[donline]

No, that's not true at all. Nobody has successfully confirmed that PWM causes the issues they say it causes. They're full of it, spreading lies in the form of clickbaits.

Research CVS, ComputerVisionSyndrome.

The two biggest causes to eye strain (health issues you refer to, there are no permanent harm with anything related to displays), are too high brightness, and wrong color temperature for the room it's in. A minor cause is the display coating, you want matte not glossy. You don't want 5000k in a 3000k room, and you don't want 3000k in a 5000k room, just an example, but trust me with this, ignore everything everyone says about PWM causing issues, please.

Thanks Suzuki, so it sounds like it's just marketing hype with the PWM message.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

It can be an issue, but the thing is, that's like saying people getting CVS from staring at a lightbulb. It really doesn't make any sense. It sounds like that if people are sensitive to light, they might get CVS...

It just all seems very strange to me. If it was a legitimate concern for temporary eye strain, then they wouldn't just add 2 sentences of information about it, which is what BenQ has done.

It's important to remember that CVS is only temporary, it can't be permanent damage to the eyes. Just leads to headache, dizzyness, red eyes, blurry vision, which simply goes away on it's own after not staring at a display. Or making sure the display fits the room it's in more, so lowering brightness, more warm color temperature, and so on.

 

[donline]

It can be an issue, but the thing is, that's like saying people getting CVS from staring at a lightbulb. It really doesn't make any sense. It sounds like that if people are sensitive to light, they might get CVS...

It just all seems very strange to me. If it was a legitimate concern for temporary eye strain, then they wouldn't just add 2 sentences of information about it, which is what BenQ has done.

It's important to remember that CVS is only temporary, it can't be permanent damage to the eyes. Just leads to headache, dizzyness, red eyes, blurry vision, which simply goes away on it's own after not staring at a display. Or making sure the display fits the room it's in more, so lowering brightness, more warm color temperature, and so on.

But maybe it's more profitable for manufacturers to not talk about PWM, as improving the technology would probably make things more expensive for them (with more health and safety requirements etc)? For example, current TN technology is cheaper than OLED technology (which is flicker free by it's very nature as I understand).

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

No, because you're comparing two different technologies. OLED and LED LCD. There are no restrictions, they are simply hitting a niche market, because it basically automates the process for you, rather than manually doing it. Everything their mode offers you can do yourself, to get rid of CVS, so that's not really an argument you can make, considering BenQ already made it clear that it's not an important issue, if it was everybody would be doing it.

 

[donline]

No, because you're comparing two different technologies. OLED and LED LCD. There are no restrictions, they are simply hitting a niche market, because it basically automates the process for you, rather than manually doing it. Everything their mode offers you can do yourself, to get rid of CVS, so that's not really an argument you can make, considering BenQ already made it clear that it's not an important issue, if it was everybody would be doing it.

Thanks Suzuki. How about this whole page on Flicker-free monitors from BenQ?
http://www.benq.eu/Microsite/eye-care-monitors/ff.html (Scroll down and they talk about PWM)

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

That doesn't tell us anything I'm afraid. As soon as this is brought up in a serious medical manner, that's when you should start care. They're a company to sell their monitors, never forget that.

 

[donline]

That doesn't tell us anything I'm afraid. As soon as this is brought up in a serious medical manner, that's when you should start care. They're a company to sell their monitors, never forget that.

Thanks Suzuki.

Yes, I agree it's very likely there are commercial/marketing interests with companies talking about PWM but I also believe there is the possibility of it being a true issue...

So I would say that CVS and PWM are both real issues (perhaps closely linked to each other) and to go with personal experience (e.g. try a flicker-free monitor compared with a standard monitor) and what feels best

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

You're just guessing now

It's likely a problem for those that can't go the cinema, and those that can't be in nightclubs. For everyone else it's irrelevant and not even worth mentioning. Those that can't handle it already have medical issues, not the other way around.

 

[donline]

You're just guessing now

It's likely a problem for those that can't go the cinema, and those that can't be in nightclubs. For everyone else it's irrelevant and not even worth mentioning. Those that can't handle it already have medical issues, not the other way around.

Yes that may be true I guess it's not so easy to isolate and measure what 'exactly' is causing issues for many people (e.g. is it the brightness of the screen, the distance from the screen, the colour temperature, or the wave modulation, etc etc). Unless each factor is tested for specifically it's challenging to say the least.

Anyway, thanks for all your feedback. I'll read up more on CVS and see what things help most