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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.
The EX3210U is the best HDR monitor I’ve yet seen from BenQ because ut finally has a dynamic contrast option. This is something other Mobiuz monitors have lacked, and it makes their HDR lackluster by comparison.
HDR Brightness and Contrast
The EX3210U beats its VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification with an output of just over 604 nits. I had to measure a 25% window pattern to meet this using the monitor’s zone dimming edge backlight. To record the black level, I had to use an info bug because a full black field pattern shut off the backlight completely. The resulting contrast puts the EX3210U in a high percentile. Only a few monitors can top 10,000:1 in this test. Some sort of zone dimming is required and I’m glad to see BenQ finally doing this. Better contrast than this is only available with a full array backlight or an OLED panel.
Grayscale, EOTF and Color
The default picture mode for HDR10 signals is Display HDR and it is the best choice for appearance and accuracy. There is a barely visible blue tint in the brighter steps, but this does not impact actual content. You’ll only see these levels in tiny specular highlights, not in large areas of the image. The EOTF tracks perfectly with only a tiny hump at 10% and ideal tracking to the 65% transition point. This is excellent performance.
HDR content comes mastered to both DCI-P3 and Rec.2020. The EX3210U tracks both standards very well. Both are slightly over-saturated at the inner targets, typical of the HDR monitors I’ve tested. Tracking is linear until the monitor runs out of color at the triangle boundaries. The good part is that all HDR content will be correctly rendered regardless of the intended gamut. Hue targets are also in line, which means HDR color will be both natural and impactful.
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