BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX 144 Hz gaming monitor review: Bright, colorful and stylish

32-inch 4K IPS gaming monitor with 144 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR1000 and wide gamut color.

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BenQ EX321UX
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

Despite its quirks in SDR mode, the EX321UX delivers excellent HDR. It’s very bright and reasonably accurate in its Display HDR preset. Applying an HDR10 signal makes the switch automatically.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

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BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The EX321UX is one of the rare HDR monitors that lets you adjust brightness in all its HDR presets. The default is Display HDR and that is the most accurate choice. Maxing the slider takes a 25% window pattern to a hair shy of 1,300 nits, well above the DisplayHDR 1000 certification. While that is impressively bright, there are brighter monitors available if you get the PD32M or Neo G8, which tops 2,000 nits. How much difference does that make? Almost none because you’ll only ever see those lofty output levels in the smallest highlights, and only here and there. The EX321UX is plenty bright. Black levels are measurable because the backlight doesn’t shut off completely, so I calculated an HDR contrast ratio of 42,785:1. In a side-by-side comparison with the top three panels, you cannot tell a difference in image quality.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

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BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX
(Image credit: Portrait Displays Calman)

The EX321UX nails the grayscale portion of the HDR color tests, but the EOTF is a bit too dark and below 45% brightness. I had to make a few tweaks in the Doom Eternal menu to bring out shadow detail. This is a minor issue that is easily compensated for. In the gamut tests, there is general over-saturation which is typical of HDR displays. The EX321UX has lots of punch with vivid color saturation. Because the targets track linearly, no detail is obscured. It also covers a goodly portion of the Rec.2020 gamut thanks to those Quantum Dots. The primary colors all top out at around 85% with inner points slightly over-saturated. This is excellent performance.

Test Takeaway: The EX321UX delivers HDR quality and accuracy on par with other premium Mini LED displays. It’s plenty bright though there are a few screens with more output capability. It matches the competition in color accuracy and saturation with vivid hues and strong detail rendering. If you want the best HDR short of an OLED, the EX321UX has it.

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Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • brandonjclark
    Hrmm, it's IPS and not OLED. That's kind of expensive for IPS tech, right?
    Reply
  • DavidLejdar
    brandonjclark said:
    Hrmm, it's IPS and not OLED. That's kind of expensive for IPS tech, right?
    Somewhat, yeah. E.g. the Gigabyte M32U is a lot cheaper, and moreorlees competitive in the posted benchmarks. But where it trails behind, is about HDR, where it comes to "only" HDR400. And that's where the Mini LED of the EX321UX shows, instead of LCD with M32U.

    And when one is looking for high HDR, 32 inch, 4K and FPS, most other screens seems to be at around the same price, except for perhaps the Acer X32QFS.
    Reply
  • truerock
    I would never buy a monitor with speakers in it.
    Reply
  • npyrhone
    This does NOT have DP2.1. Display port is limited to DP1.4. That is a common hoax or loophole with monitors nowadays, that it can be called 2.1 even when the bandwidth limitation is identical to 1.4. This should always be called out!
    Reply
  • joey22
    Hi! Can you share the color settings you landed on with the SciFi HDR mode? I have had this monitor for a few weeks and have struggled to get a good color setting with the "genre" HDR modes and agree that it looks best in DisplayHDR but then you don't get the local dimming and better backlight control.

    I have found "Realistic" to be the best HDR setting for me for gaming but still am not 100% satisfied with it. Overall I'm happy with the monitor, but do wish they would provide some firmware updates as you and other reviewers have suggested. For what it's worth, my usage scenario is 80% productivity / 20% gaming and didn't want to deal with the text clarity or burn in compromises with an OLED.
    Reply
  • maxtraxv3
    "No LED lighting or internal speakers" listed on CON's? huh?
    Reply
  • FoxTread3
    August 18, 2024 - As usual with the Tom's Hardware reviews. There are enough details to make your eyes bleed, and your brain go numb. But that's why we're here.. to get the information. Call me what you like, but I much prefer OLED screens. I have an OLED LG 55" TV, an OLED Samsung Chromebook, and an Alienware 34" OLED monitor. I love all three of them and have no complaints. I also have a seven year old Dell 32" HDR LCD monitor whose model number I'm too lazy to look up now, but is still doing quite well. As I recall I paid well over a thousand dollars for it. As I wrote these comments I did look on Dell's PC monitor page, and see that they have quite an inventory of 4K monitors hundreds of dollars less than the benQ reviewed in this article. It would be interesting see how the less expensive Dell monitors stack up against the benQ. All said and done. I'll stick with OLEDs until the "next best and greatest thing" arrives on the market. :giggle:
    Reply