BenQ announces Mobiuz EX321UX, its first 144 Hz 4K Mini LED monitor

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By Christopher Harper
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The display is slated for release in May 2024, at least in Japan

Promo render of BenQ's upcoming Mobiuz EX321UX Mini LED monitor.
Promo render of BenQ's upcoming Mobiuz EX321UX Mini LED monitor. (Image credit: BenQ (via YouTube))

BenQ announced its first 4K Mini LED monitor— the Mobiuz EX321UX, which for the time being is a Japan-exclusive slated for a May 2024 release. The original press release on BenQ's site is in Japanese, but fortunately there is also an English-language rundown of the new display at DisplaySpecifications, which is how we heard about this one.

BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX Specifications

  • Variable Refresh Rate: Variable between 48 to 144 Hz. To get 144 Hz at 4K you will need the best graphics card.
  • Screen Size and Resolution: 31.5 inches at 4K (3840 x 2160), approximately ~139 PPI.
  • Panel Type: IPS Panel with Mini LED backlight, which should turn around the best-possible contrast for an IPS panel.
  • Color Gamut Coverage: 99% Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 coverage. While 144 Hz suggests a gaming focus, this color gamut is very much pro-grade.
  • Display Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 DisplayPort 2.1 port, and 1 USB Type-C port with support for both DP Alt Mode and 65 Watt power delivery.
  • Other I/O: 3.5mm audio port, 3 USB Type-A ports, and two other USB Type-C ports, one upstream (to PC) and one downstream (for peripherals). The display also supports audio connections including eARC, Dolby Atmos, and DTS: X but there are no onboard speakers. HDMI CEC is also supported for managing multiple connected devices with one remote (ie, if you also hook a cable box to your PC monitor).

Overall, the provided specs from BenQ are impressive and we wouldn't be surprised to see this display come stateside. But the biggest remaining question that will determine whether or not anyone buys this one is its pricing. How will is compare to other market-leading monitors, Mini LED or otherwise, we will have to wait and see. Specs-wise, it certainly seems competitive, but we don't yet have specific pricing or an exact release date, even for Japan, so only time will tell.

Christopher Harper
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19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cknobman
    Found another outlet stating there will be 1152 local dimming zones.
    This will all come down to price and the local dimming performance.
    $650 would be my limit before I decided the OLED would be worth the premium.
    Reply
  • setx
    To get 144 Hz at 4K you will need the best graphics card.
    Since my iGPU can do that, it's the best graphics card, right?
    You are a joke.
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    cknobman said:
    Found another outlet stating there will be 1152 local dimming zones.
    This will all come down to price and the local dimming performance.
    $650 would be my limit before I decided the OLED would be worth the premium.
    pretty much my same thoughts, but reduce it to $500. i'm actually pretty thrilled and the recent boom in gaming monitors, i really felt like we had a desert of innovation for about 13 years where the only improvement was resolution. I had a 120hz 1080p TN monitor in 2010, and now i have a 1440p 144hz va panel.

    now with oled 4k panels hitting 240hz, i would argue it's actually worth the premium to get that extra fluidity. The contrast of this mini-LED monitor might compete with the OLED, but it won't get close when it comes to motion clarity.

    However, you probably never have to worry about burn-in.
    Reply
  • DougMcC
    setx said:
    Since my iGPU can do that, it's the best graphics card, right?
    You are a joke.

    I'm sure you just misunderstood and aren't trolling. The claim about needing a high end card is not about being able to display the windows desktop at 4k, but about being able to run modern games at 4k at 144fps.
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    cknobman said:
    Found another outlet stating there will be 1152 local dimming zones.
    This will all come down to price and the local dimming performance.
    $650 would be my limit before I decided the OLED would be worth the premium.

    EDIT: you are correct about 1152 local dimming zones, original reply was because I misread this comment as 1152 nits (it's 1000 nits). please continue about your business.
    Reply
  • setx
    DougMcC said:
    I'm sure you just misunderstood and aren't trolling. The claim about needing a high end card is not about being able to display the windows desktop at 4k, but about being able to run modern games at 4k at 144fps.
    Well, I've understood it exactly as it was written. There wasn't any mention of games.

    I think it's very reasonable to use such display for work, where writing code and scrolling in browser don't require 'best graphics card' at all.
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    setx said:
    Well, I've understood it exactly as it was written. There wasn't any mention of games.

    I think it's very reasonable to use such display for work, where writing code and scrolling in browser don't require 'best graphics card' at all.

    I think context clues should have tipped you off that you don't need a high-end GPU on a 4K monitor for anything besides gaming, and no one was attempting to mislead you. I myself once paired a GTX 760 with a 4K monitor and even managed to have a decent exp playing Doom 2016 with the right res scale settings, though games these days are too demanding for that.

    edit: should have said "besides gaming and other high-end GPU-accelerated workloads". you are being obtuse and I don't get paid to make forum posts, though, so this is all the apology you're getting.

    That said as the original writer of the piece, I didn't actually that add that tidbit- an editor did, because mentioning high-end GPUs makes a TON of sense in this context. Just because you Can run a 4K 144 Hz monitor with a GTX 760 like I once did (or an iGPU, if you're particularly foolish) doesn't mean that you Should.

    Honestly, it really just seems like you're looking for something to be upset about when the intent (especially from the rest of the piece, which Does mention gaming) is fairly clear. Take a chill pill dude, no one buying a 4K 144 Hz monitor is going to be out here burning my house down because we recommended pairing it with a high-end GPU. That's just common sense, I'm afraid.
    Reply
  • setx
    TheyCallMeContra said:
    you don't need a high-end GPU on a 4K monitor for anything besides gaming
    You don't know that some people, uhm, actually use them for work?

    TheyCallMeContra said:
    That said as the original writer of the piece, I didn't actually that add that tidbit- an editor did, because mentioning high-end GPUs makes a TON of sense in this context.
    No offense to you, since you don't write that.
    But does stuffing that shameless self promotion in and out of context all the time make a TON (or any at all) of money for the authors?
    Reply
  • NedSmelly
    10-bit colour depth and 99% AdobeRGB / DCI-P3. Intriguing. (True 10-bit, or 8-bit + FRC?)

    Now I want to know how it compares to their existing SW line of creator monitors. Will it have hardware LUT calibration? If not, then perhaps this is a signal that the next generation of SW will migrate to mini-LED instead of OLED.
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    setx said:
    You don't know that some people, uhm, actually use them for work?

    You are Really testing my patience on this, huh?

    For one, take another look at the sentence you were pulling my hair out over.
    Variable Refresh Rate: Variable between 48 to 144 Hz. To get 144 Hz at 4K you will need the best graphics card.Variable Refresh Rate. Hmm. That's literally just a gaming term. VRR isn't doing anything on your desktop, and has long been understood to work best when in exclusive fullscreen- aka, a Game.

    The statement "To get 144 Hz at 4K" in context of the sentence could NOT more clearly be referring to gaming performance specifically. It might have been better if we used "FPS" there, but the intent is clear to anyone who isn't being intentionally obtuse, and you clearly know that.

    And yes— those other pro workloads you're alluding to as if I don't know they exist also do happen to benefit from high GPU compute. A great deal of my body of work as a freelancer for the past 10+ years involves assessing CPUs and GPUs for their compute capabilities in pro workloads including video editing and 3D rendering. See the rest of my reply, where I say

    "Honestly, it really just seems like you're looking for something to be upset about when the intent is fairly clear. no one buying a 4K 144 Hz monitor is going to be out here burning my house down because we recommended pairing it with a high-end GPU. That's just common sense, I'm afraid."

    You could not more clearly be arguing in bad faith. Who on Earth would be upset about high-end GPUs being recommended for use with a high-end monitor?

    Those adventurous enough to insist on using a 4K display with a humble GPU like I once did can either work around those limitations appropriately, or listen to common wisdom pointing toward high-end components for a high-end display. Go ahead, buddy— I wanna see your best 4K 144 Hz Blender render on that iGPU you mentioned earlier! Just be sure to tell us how long it took once you're done rendering and uploading it.
    Reply