BenQ EL2870U Monitor Review

The BenQ EL2870U has a decent design, identical to the larger EW3270U. It is thicker than average for monitors of this size, and the panel is surrounded by a noticeable bezel on all sides. Despite being almost entirely made of plastic, it has good build quality, and shouldn't cause any issues down the road. Unfortunately, like the EW3270U, the stand has terrible ergonomics, making it difficult to place it in an ideal viewing position.

The stand is mostly made of plastic, and it has a matte finish, which unfortunately tends to show fingerprints and dust a bit more. The stand supports the monitor well, and it only wobbles a bit when the monitor gets nudged.

The stand can only tilt, there are no height adjustments and it cannot swivel, which is disappointing. If you want to be able to adjust the monitor, a VESA stand would be a better choice.

Like the EW3270U, there is no cable management on the EL2870.

The borders are a bit thicker than average, with a thicker bezel that surrounds the entire panel.

The BenQ EL2870U is slightly thicker than the EW3270U, which is unexpected. When removed from the stand, it is quite thin and will look good when VESA mounted.

Good build quality. There is a small gap around the outer edge used for heat dissipation, but it shouldn't cause any issues. The monitor itself is mostly made of plastic, but there are no points of concern.

Disappointing contrast ratio. Blacks appear gray in a dark room. These results are about average for TN monitors, but much worse than the larger EW3270U, which has a VA panel.

Local dimming is not supported on this monitor. The above video is for reference only.

Decent peak brightness, in the same ballpark as the EW3270U. There is very little variation between scenes, so the brightness won't change while you're using it, unless B.I.+ mode is activated.

Unfortunately, the EW2870U can't get very bright. While this can still deliver a decent experience when playing PC games in HDR that are mastered for lower brightness levels, it still falls short of the minimum DisplayHDR 400 requirements. It is far too dim to show off the creator's intent when watching movies in HDR.

Like most TN monitors, the EL2870U has disappointing horizontal viewing angles. When looking at the monitor at an angle, colors lose accuracy rapidly beyond about 30°, and at the same time, the contrast increases drastically. The brightness remains fairly consistent though, dropping to half at about 47°.

The vertical viewing angles are almost as bad as the horizontal viewing angles. When looking at the EL2870U from above, you shouldn't have any issues, as it manages to stay accurate to a fairly wide angle of about 40°. From below though, colors shift rapidly beyond 11°, and the brightness drops by half at only 15°.

Decent gray uniformity overall. There is above-average variation in the overall gray, but there is only slight dirty screen effect near the center, which shouldn't be too noticeable when browsing the web or streaming sports.

In near-dark scenes, the uniformity improves, but is still worse than average. There is very little dirty screen effect, which is good.

Disappointing black uniformity. There is noticeable edge bleed around the edges of the monitor. There are significant uniformity issues throughout the screen, and these are noticeable in some content.

Out of the box, the EL2870U has great accuracy. White balance and color dE are both below 3, and even enthusiasts are unlikely to notice any inaccuracies. The color temperature is a bit warm, but not far from the target 6500 K. Gamma follows the target curve well, but some scenes appear a bit dimmer than they should.

After calibration, the EL2870U is nearly perfect. The white balance dE and color dE are so low, specialized equipment is needed to spot any inaccuracies. Gamma follows the target curve nearly perfectly. The overall color temperature is a bit closer to the target of 6500 K, but still a bit warm.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

Excellent SDR color gamut. It covers nearly all of the s.RGB color space, which is good, but the Adobe RGB coverage is limiting for professional photo and video editing (see our recommendations for the best monitors for photo editing).

Excellent SDR color volume. It has nearly perfect coverage in the s.RGB color space, which is great, but it can't produce deep, dark colors very well.

Disappointing HDR color gamut. There is very little difference in the gamut between HDR and SDR, so HDR content will not look as vibrant as it should.

The EL2870U has bad HDR color volume. It is limited by the HDR color gamut, the disappointing HDR peak brightness, and the contrast ratio. These results are much worse than the EW3270U.

There are no signs of temporary image retention, even immediately after showing our high contrast static torture test for 10 minutes.

Outstanding gradient performance. There is some banding in dark shades, but this shouldn't detract from the viewing experience in any way. These results are among the best, and better than most TN monitors, similar to the Samsung UE590 and AOC AG271QX

There is no color bleed at all, which is great.

Overall, the EL2870U has good reflections handling, similar to the Dell S2417DG. There shouldn't be any issues with indirect lights, but light sources directly opposite the screen may cause some issues.

Response Time Off
Response Time High
Response Time Premium

The BenQ EL2870U has an excellent fast response time. There are three different settings for the response time, and we recommend the 'High' setting, as it produces the fastest response time with the least amount of overshoot. The 'Off' setting results in significant undershoot in most transitions, resulting in a slower overall response time, and the 'Premium' setting results in significant overshoot.

The EL2870U, like the EW3270U, is completely flicker-free, which is great. Unfortunately, there is no option to add flicker in order to reduce persistence blur.

The BenQ EL2870U supports a maximum 60 Hz refresh rate, which may be disappointing to more serious gamers. It does support FreeSync though, which is great, and the full VRR range is available to both HDMI connections and the DisplayPort connection. Unfortunately, low framerate compensation (LFC) is not supported, so you may still experience some tearing when the frame rate drops below the VRR minimum.

Update 01/15/2019: We have tested the EL2870U with the new NVIDIA G-Sync compatible drivers. FreeSync can be manually enabled from NVIDIA Control Panel with the EL2870U, and it works without any major issues.

Excellent low input lag, typical of 60 Hz monitors. Unlike most monitors, there is slightly higher input lag when using FreeSync, although it is still low enough to be good for most gamers.

The 28" screen and 4k native resolution is great for multitasking, as you can easily place multiple windows side-by-side.

Both HDMI ports support the full bandwidth of HDMI 2.0, great if you are planning on connecting a 4k console to it. It also supports HDCP 2.2, so you won't have any issues watching 4k UHD Blu-rays on it. There is a single audio out port with controllable volume, which is useful for a quick headphone connection.

The EL2870U has a few additional features, very similar to the EW3270U:

• M-book mode: This mode adjusts the picture settings to closely match the look of a Macbook.
• Super Resolution: Like the feature of the same name found on LG monitors, this adjusts the upscaling of lower resolution content
• B.I. +: There is a sensor protruding from the bottom bezel of the monitor that is used to adjust the color temperature based on the ambient lighting.

The controls are identical to the EW3270U. There is a dedicated HDR control button that enables HDR simulation when not in HDR, and can also be used to toggle the B.I.+ sensor on or off.

• Manual
• Driver CD
• Power Cable
• HDMI Cable