HARDWARE REVIEW

BenQ RL2460HT 24″ Gaming Monitor Review

by Luke Walsh, September 28th, 2016

From your standard budget range, to your more expensive IPS monitors and finally their gaming monitors, BenQ are a powerhouse supplier of monitors. For gamers, there are two specific models in the range the XL and RL lines, both offering very similar specs. The biggest difference are the refresh rates and screen sizes. With the XL, their refresh rates are between 120Hz and 144Hz and 24″/27″ displays, while the RL gaming monitors such as the RL2460HT stop at 60Hz, and come in 22-24 inch.

Of course, being at the lower end of the refresh rate and screen size spectrum, they are being offered as a value solution. In this review, we will look to see if the BenQ RL2460HT really is worth the money, and will allow you a decent gaming experience.

Design

Design wise, the RL2460HT looks the same as the BenQ CL2420TX with the 1920 x 1080 TN panel contained within the standard matte black casing. Red flares sit on a round base and a thick supporting arm connects to the monitor. With the mounting arm, it allows you to adjust the height of the monitor about 4 inches, while being marked with a scale for those who want precise measurements of your chair to eye level. On top of the height changes, you can swivel the display 90 degrees to enable portrait viewing which can be quite useful for graphics programs and have a 20 degree tilt angle. Most gamers will probably only use the height and tilt a little, but the versatile mounting options are a nice addition. If you have your own VESA monitor mount for the wall or desk mounts, the back of the RL2460HT can be detached.

On the righthand side are five different buttons that use on screen labels to tell you what they do, making it easy to navigate, with the most obvious one being the power button that is individually lit. On the back underside is two HDMI inputs, a DVI and VGA with an additional HDMI output which can be used to send the video signal to a capture device for YouTube or streaming such as Twitch. The design has enables capture cards to get hold of the video signal without the need to connect it first, adding lag to the screen before it hits the monitor. There are no USB ports on the RL2460HT, but it does have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and speakers. You probably won’t ever want to use the speakers as they are not all that powerful, being 2x 2 watts, sounding tinny and having very little bass.

Deeper into the menu, there are a lot of settings and BenQ have a range of different features tied into the monitor itself. You get the usual pre-made picture modes; Standard, Movie, sRGP, ECO etc, but also offers gaming modes which are aimed at specific types of games. There are two RTS picture modes and one FPS mode, with a couple custom modes to tweak as you want, and swap between them when needed. BenQ’s black equalizer adjusts the gamma at the low level brightness end, which allows you to gain deeper blacks in the shadows, which can be a benefit to gamers looking to get a little more depth. The Low Bluelight feature changes the tone of the image, basically reducing the blue levels within and helping to fight eye fatigue normally seen with blue light.

Other options include more gamma correction tools, Advanced Motion Accelerator option which acts like anti-ghosting settings to reduce ghosting behind moving objects, and some advanced picture options which can mimic other screen sizes. The AMA setting seemed to work quite well in video games, and particularly useful for high speed games such as facing or FPS which requires lots of sharp or quick movements. Changing the screen size is not something I would ever use, competitive eSports gamers though are known to reduce the aspect ratio and size of the screen to get a better overall picture of what is going on. Combined with the FPS mode, I can see the RL2460HT gaming monitor to be quite useful for those who fall in that category.

Performance

Colour performance wise, it does well for its price tag. Out of the box, the colours are quite good and won’t really require too much tweaking unless you really love to get into the finer details of monitor calibration. Colour performance is not always the best on TN panels because they favour performance, being quicker (reducing lag and response times) compared to IPS panels which have better colour performance, but usually do worse in the performance side of things. However in-game, the RL2460HT did exceptionally well with colours feeling bright and even levels of saturation with no tinting. Along with the 1ms grey to grey response times, playing Fallout 4, Overwatch and Battlefield 4 I never felt any visible signs of delay or lag. You should be able to use your keyboard and mouse comfortably without getting the impression, little mice are pulling responses slowly toward to monitor.

On their website, BenQ state the power consumption is 27 watts and during testing, I measured it to be about 23 watts on standard mode while it dropping to around 11 watts in ECO mode. ECO mode is great if you are energy conscious, but you will be shown a very dim image as a consequence which dilutes the images on screen. This makes it only really good for word processing in a dark room.

Included in the features is their ZeroFlicker technology. Without being too technical, backlight levels are usually controlled through a technique called pulse-width modulation (PWM) which cycles off and on the the LED rapidly. When the cycle is varied this can cause a visible flicker in the image, which to some user can cause eye fatigue. To combat this, BenQ’s ZeroFlicker technology dims the monitor at the pixel level rather than via the brightness output. This way there is not switching on and off, which allows the monitor to be at full brightness the whole time and therefore not showing any flicker. The aim of reducing the “flicker”, which is not always seen by the naked eye, is for reducing eye fatigue, for gamers and eSports people this is high on their list. By reducing the speed at which your eyes can get tired, you can game for much longer and have less chance of getting headaches, or just feeling tired.

In terms of being a 60Hz monitor, it does well and reducing motion blur and artifacts for fast moving objects, this was particularly true in Battlefield 4 when I was driving or twisting round quickly. Being accustomed to a 144Hz monitor I did notice more artifacts and motion blur than I was used to but being a TN panel it does great compared some similar IPS panels. If you are looking for lower budgets but the best you can get performance always stick with a TN monitor. The main difference is improved performance from motion blur and artifacts, but for the price saving you could buy almost an entire new monitor and have two RL2460HT.

In-Game

As mentioned, I tested three different games for this review. Fallout 4, Battlefield 4 and Overwatch. In Fallout 4, the monitor lit up dark areas well and did not lose any detail within the shadows or grey areas. In fights when there was a lot going on and I had to move around, I never felt slowed down by the monitor and there was no noticeable lag or delay. During my play through in Battlefield 4, the monitor did well to keep up with quick mouse movements, and fast paced action when driving but there was more noticeable motion blur than with Fallout 4. The same can be said in Overwatch, with artifacts around movement being much more noticeable when playing FPS titles. The FPS mode did seems to help smooth things out a little bit, but I suspect the issue came from the 60Hz refresh rate and there is only so much software can do to help. That being said, it was not crazy levels of blur, and I could quite happily game with it at this setting. If you however have become used to higher refresh rates, or already have one, you will notice it a little bit.

Overall, being priced at £200 brand new, the BenQ RL2460HT gaming monitor is a good choice for gamers on a budget, that still want to stand a chance at competitive eSports or fast action video games. It performs really well in the field with good detail in dark areas, and decent overall colour balance and saturation. Its fast response times and no noticeable lag are much better than IPS panels in the same budget. You will have to trade off a slightly better image and viewing angles, but when the perfect headshot is waiting for you, it is a small price to pay.