BenQ Zowie XL2411P Monitor Review

The BenQ Zowie XL2411P has a decent design. The bezels are noticeably thicker than most dedicated gaming monitors, but the stand supports the display well and there's very little wobble. The stand has a great range of motion, so it's easy to place it in an ideal viewing position. This monitor has decent build quality, but the exterior panels are all made of plastic, and it feels a bit cheap in places.

The stand is bulky, but supports the monitor well and there is very little wobble.

The Zowie XL2411P has great ergonomics, and the stand can easily be placed in the ideal viewing position or turned to share your screen with someone.

The back is plain, with no quick release for the stand, and no RGB bias-lighting feature. There's a clip on the back of the stand for cable management, but it's pretty basic.

The borders are thicker than most 24 inch monitors we've tested. This isn't a great choice for a multi-display setup.

The BenQ Zowie XL2411P has decent build quality. The exterior panels are all made of plastic, and the plastic itself feels easily breakable.

Like most TN monitors, the BenQ Zowie XL2411P has a disappointing contrast ratio. This causes blacks to look gray, and it's especially noticeable in a dark room.

The Zowie XL2411P doesn't have a local dimming feature. The above video is provided for reference only.

Very good peak brightness. There shouldn't be any issues using this monitor in a bright room.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

Like all TN monitors, the image degrades when viewed from the side. This shouldn't cause any issues for most people, though.

Like all TN monitors, the image degrades when viewed from above or below. From below, the image inverts at wider angles, and at one point the display can't be seen at all.

Decent gray uniformity. There is some dirty screen effect in the center of the screen, but this shouldn't be very noticeable with most content. The top of the screen is noticeably darker due to the mediocre vertical viewing angle.

Unfortunately, the Zowie XL2411P has terrible black uniformity. There is noticeable clouding in dark scenes, and this may be distracting in dark scenes in a dark room.

Out of the box, the BenQ Zowie XL2411P has mediocre accuracy. There are some noticeable inaccuracies in most colors and in brighter shades of gray, and the color temperature is a bit cool. The biggest issue is gamma, which doesn't follow the sRGB target curve at all, so most scenes aren't displayed at the correct brightness.

After calibration, the Zowie XL2411P has much better accuracy, but there are still a few issues. It wasn't possible to completely correct the color inaccuracies, but gamma is much closer to the target curve, and the white balance is almost perfect.

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

s.RGB Picture Mode: Standard (calibrated)
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Standard

The Zowie XL2411P has an excellent SDR color gamut. It has nearly perfect coverage of the standard sRGB color gamut used by the majority of desktop content, but limited coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color gamut.

s.RGB Picture Mode: Standard
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Standard

Great SDR color volume. Due to the low contrast ratio, it can't display dark, saturated colors very well, and colors aren't quite as bright as pure white.

The XL2411P can't display an HDR color gamut.

This monitor doesn't support HDR.

There are no signs of temporary image retention on this monitor, even immediately after displaying our high-contrast, static test image for 10 minutes. This can vary between units, though, so let us know in the discussions below if your unit shows signs of image retention.

Great gradient handling. As it can only display 8-bit colors, there is some noticeable 8-bit banding.

There is no noticeable color bleed on this monitor.

Good reflection handling, similar to the ASUS VG248QE and the Acer GN246HL, so glare shouldn't be an issue in most rooms.

Response Time AMA High
Response Time AMA Premium

The Zowie XL2411P has an excellent response time, resulting in clear motion with only a short blur trail behind fast-moving objects. The level of overdrive can be adjusted by changing the AMA setting. We recommend the 'Off' setting. 'High' has a noticeably faster response time, but there is significant overshoot in most transitions, and 'Premium' is even worse.

The backlight is completely flicker-free, even at low brightness levels, which is great. There's an optional black frame insertion feature, known as Blur Reduction, and it's available even at low refresh rates, such as when gaming on a console.

The Zowie XL2411P has an excellent native refresh rate, but it doesn't support any of the variable refresh rate technologies, like AMD's FreeSync.

The Zowie XL2411P has outstanding low input lag, even at 60Hz. For the lowest lag possible, it's recommended to enable the Instant Mode setting from the 'Picture' menu.

The low 1080p resolution and small screen isn't great for multitasking, but delivers a sharp enough image for gaming.

This monitor has very few additional features. There are a few gaming features, including a black equalizer feature that adjusts gamma to make it easier to spot objects in dark scenes.

The controls are easy to use, but there's no directional control, so it can be a bit more difficult to navigate the OSD.

• DisplayPort Cable
• Power Cable
• CD
• User Manual