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OSD Setup & Calibration
BenQ has a tried-and-true on-screen display (OSD) system, but if you’d rather not tweak, out-of-box accuracy is good enough for most users. There are no controls available in HDR mode, but you can switch between two different image modes.
Devoted to its Eye Care technologies, this monitor offers Low Blue Light with four different sub-modes for that purpose. Their warm color temps help reduce eye fatigue when working with white screens. Also here is Brightness Intelligence +. This feature uses a front-mounted sensor to alter color temp according to room light. The Adjust By Duration feature changes the white point gradually over time to get you through those long number-crunching or word-processing sessions.
Under the Picture menu are six gamma presets, of which 3 is the default. Under our 2.2 standard, this made the picture too light and washed-out. Number 4 is a significant improvement. AMA is BenQ’s overdrive control. Premium is the highest setting and causes a bit of ghosting when the action moves quickly. High is the better choice to reduce motion blur without consequences.
Picture Advanced starts with 11 image presets that cover every conceivable situation. The two HDR modes will emulate extra dynamic range with SDR material. You can do this with the front-mounted HDR button too, which also toggles BI+. Standard is the default SDR mode and is accurate enough to not require calibration. sRGB and Rec.709 offer similar quality and are perfectly acceptable fire-and-forget modes for users who don’t want to tweak.
SmartFocus is an interesting feature that highlights a user-defined area of the screen through a small or large window you can create and move around the screen. It's handy for photo or video editing if you're working on small details.
While a brief message pops up when HDR signals are detected, you won’t know if FreeSync is working unless you open the AMD Catalyst manager.
Calibration
Very little needs to be done to the EL2870U to make it accurate. Grayscale tracking is already under 2dE average, and color errors are minimal. If you want to calibrate the white point, you’ll need to select User.
Try our settings to optimize your EL2870U:
| BenQ EL2870U Calibration Settings | |
| Picture Mode | User |
| Brightness 200 nits | 69 |
| Brightness 120 nits | 36 |
| Brightness 100 nits | 28 |
| Brightness 80 nits | 20 |
| Brightness 50 nits | 9 |
| Contrast | 50 |
| Gamma | 4 |
| Color Temp User Define | Red 100, Green 92, Blue 92 |
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