Early Verdict
A mainstream-brand 27-inch QHD monitor with an IPS panel will cost you between $400 and $600. The BenQ SW2700PT comes in just above that with the most accurate color we’ve ever seen, high contrast, solid build quality and a wide gamut option. With many comparable screens selling for north of $1000 this is an easy monitor to recommend, and we do so highly.
Pros
- +
Reference-level accuracy, no calibration required, excellent light hood included, premium build quality, bright sharp AHVA panel, slick OSD controller, great value
Cons
- -
Some gaps in Palette Master software but the monitor has no flaws worth reporting
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Introduction
Advances in technology for professional monitors don’t come around too often so it’s not unusual to see many months pass between new model introductions. One such change highlighted in our recent review of the Asus PA328Q is the addition of Ultra HD resolution to the genre. Today we’re going to check out a relatively new panel type that we’ve seen on gaming monitors – AHVA.
Advanced Hyper Viewing Angle is a variant of IPS we first saw on Acer’s XB270HU and Asus’ MG279Q gaming monitors. In addition to the accurate color inherent to IPS, this panel type improves off-axis image quality to where there is virtually no brightness reduction or color shift as you move to the sides.
BenQ has decided to incorporate a brand-new AU Optronics panel in the SW2700PT professional display. Like any credible pro-screen it sports a factory-certified calibration and both sRGB and Adobe RGB color gamut options. And it includes a high-quality light hood that will complement any high-end graphics or photography workstation.
Specifications
AHVA achieves its superior viewing angles by tightening the tolerances between the thin-film transistor and liquid crystal layers. With a correspondingly thin grid polarizer, the path becomes shorter from the backlight to the screen surface. This reduces the effects of moving off-axis and improves image quality. It also means lower power consumption because the backlight doesn’t have as much material to shine through before it reaches your eyes.
To add an Adobe RGB gamut to the SW2700PT BenQ has departed from a traditional white LED which relies solely on filters to produce red, green and blue. To achieve the greater saturation required in extended gamuts, colored LEDs with phosphor coatings must be used. A type we’ve seen in the past is GB-r LED which employs green and blue diodes and a red phosphor. This new part uses RB-LED which is red and blue diodes and a green phosphor. In either case the phosphor emits light when excited by the two active diodes. The end result is less reliance on filters to produce color and a larger native gamut. The backlight is also part of BenQ’s Zero Flicker line. It uses constant current rather than pulse-width modulation to control brightness.
BenQ claims errors of less than two Delta E for a specific set of color patches that include grayscale steps as well as multiple saturations of the six primary and secondary colors. This is backed up by an enclosed data sheet unique to each monitor. You also get a complete set of calibration controls in the OSD and an app that enables a fully-automated software calibration. The most impressive part of all is that it comes at price only slightly higher than a typical business-class 27-inch QHD display. We’re anxious to get it on the test bench so let’s take a look.
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