Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Color Gamut And Performance
For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, please click here.
The XR3501's native gamut runs a bit over-saturated for all six colors. By lowering the luminance levels, BenQ has compensated somewhat but the resulting errors are all still visible to the naked eye. This is mainly due to a default gamma setting that is too dark and the Color Vibrance control, which is set a little too high. The average error here is 4.19dE.
By tightening up gamma tracking, the sRGB mode yields far better results in the gamut test. We're still seeing over-saturation but by returning color luminance to the correct level, overall errors are significantly reduced. Now the average error is 1.89dE, which is perfectly acceptable.
The luminance chart doesn't look quite as good as it did previously, but check out the color saturations. They are now on or near their targets at all points except for 100 percent red. By calibrating grayscale, setting the gamma preset to one and dropping Color Vibrance from 10 to 9, we've achieved the best-possible gamut result.
Now we return to the comparison group.
Since the XR3501 finishes just behind the U3415W, it's safe to say this is a pro-level result. None of the screens here have color issues but our review subject takes the crown for most color-accurate gaming monitor.
Gamut Volume: Adobe RGB 1998 And sRGB
Thanks to slight over-saturation in the three primary colors, the XR3501 offers a little extra gamut volume. If you're engaged in color-critical tasks, you'll need to calibrate your camera and printer to take advantage of the bonus. For gamers however, it means the brightest scenes will be just a tad more colorful.
