Thank you for this Hugh. I’ve been going back and forth on whether to get this monitor or not. Your balanced review convinced me to go for it. (It arrives on Wednesday.)
Calibration is crucial and any colourist must know the ins and outs of their color space & gamma pipeline. And in order to do that, having a well calibrated display with proof of calibration is a must. Of course you can get great results without that too but in a professional environment, it's not passable. But to add some value instead of just criticism, I do own BenQ displays and I can confirm that the factory calibration on these benq displays (that come with a calibration report) are incredibly good. My display had a maximum ∆E of less than 3 average ∆E of around 2.5 straight out of factory. That's very good for any consumer grade display. However, what's more impressive is that after calibration I got my display's max ∆E down to 0.87 & average to 0.37. To the uninitiated, ∆E is essentially the deviation of colours from what they're supposed to be and anything below 2 is really good. Over 3 becomes noticeable with the average naked eye. 4 and above is no good for colour grading at most levels of proficiency. Max ∆E of less than 1 is expected from a professional colorist's displays. That said ∆E at just the center of the display is not the end all be all measurement. Professional reference displays cost so much because, among other factors, they have to have that same colour accuracy from corner to corner while also being able to maintain the gamma curve throughout.
Thanks for your information, it's very valuable and good to know. 100% of my content is viewed by people just using internet browsers and apps on their devices, phones and laptops etc. So once it looks good on those devices, it's fine by me. I'm not grading for Cinema or even TV. I know by looking at the monitor if the colour and dynamic range is decent and BenQ did state that the factory calibration was good enough. If I had more spare cash, I'd invest in a serious pro monitor just to have it. Calibrating these monitors seems to be a black art and I've seen a lot of people struggle with it, so I guess I'll leave it until I feel it's not 100% right. I explained to BenQ that my knowledge of monitors and calibrating is very limited as I always used to just edit on a Mac screen but they told me that they wanted 'average daily users' to try their products so they were happy with my review(s). However, I've decided not to review monitors in the future because I just feel I don't know enough about them. So this 2 year old review might be the last.
@@HuFilms I used the data colour spyder X and the free Benq software. The SW270C is hardware calibrated. Not sure if yours is so it might not give the same results
Hi Hugh, I have two questions about Benq monitors. 1. Do you recommend connecting it to your Mac mini via USB-C or HDMI? 2. In the settings of your Mac, is it best to keep HDR on (automatically adjusts monitor settings) or turn it off? Thank you for your help
...and I'm Irish, unlike all those American and Canadian camera bro's you see everywhere..." 😆 Priceless, that Won my subscribe, although I still love a lot of those camera bro's, they taught me a lot since 2016. LoL
Having speakers next to the screens also affect the displays. The speakers have an electromagnetic component inside to create sound and magnets affect electronics.
As much as love this video, I was a DJ playing old Skool DNB and jungle for while before my film career and i agree here whenever i used my now very old laptop in-between the speakers to record my sessions it would distort the display and also its always advised never to have your speakers no less than 4 feet apart. Also never have hard drives right next to each other as the spindles have magnets each side to record the info going onto the spindle disks the magnets can cause the hard drive to fail.
Really Good Review😊 I am trying to find out if this Monitor will be Suitable for My Needs which namely are watching 4K Nature Videos and also Podcasts on UA-cam also Occasionally a Movie and a Sports Game I currently have 27" Acer which is 2K but is also 7 Years old so looking to get a New one Regards Ivo
Thanks Seán. That's actually custom. The desk is a glass panel on a custom made metal frame and the ply is cnc routed with some cavities below for routing cables. Dead handy.
Mac Mini M1. I was using the supplied usb-c cable, got image but the monitor usb ports don't work so no data. Ordered a new thunderbolt cable to see if that solves the problem.
what is the most efficient way to calibrate this monitor? is it through software? Is it possible with an xrite or does this type of monitor require other types of tools?
I wish this monitor had a bigger power supply. connecting my RTX laptop I dont think 65w would cut it. I know the bigger model is slightly better. but still wont cut it.
I just purchased a PD2705UA monitor along with an iMac 27 5k 2019. I see it very dark and in the color corrections I make, now I do them with the benq and not with the iMac they tell me that everything is very dark. It is true that the imac has more nits than the benq but in theory the benq would have to be more reliable to the iMac. What solution can there be so that my color work that I did in the imac, now in the benq is the same? Any kind of calibration? Thank you!
Have you experienced image sticking? Many users complain that if a static image is displayed on the monitor for 20 minutes or more, then it remains visible on other images for some time.
Do u have the options to control gamma and color gamut as in my case it greyed out and I am unable to change any of those settings , where I have checked all color mode and nothing helps
Can we do colourgrading for my theatre film on this monitor pls say- And Can we also use samsung m7 43 inch 4k monitor for colourgrading work to lowbudget theatre film pls say
I got the benq pd2705U 4k but it seems dim and not as sharp as my iMac 27” .. is that how it’s supposed to be? When the review says the contrast and clarity is excellent, is this acceptable or is my monitor damaged?
Hullo, thanks for the review. Are you able to test the thunderbolt connectivity at all? I'm looking to use one of these as the first link in a Thunderbolt chain, then have all my other peripherals in a daisy-chain using the hub: Macbook -> Monitor -> TBdock -> TB accessory BenQ themselves won't say whether this'll work or not - would be great if you could try it out with your mac in one TB port and a TB accessory in the the other! Cheers!
@@HuFilms nobody who has this monitor uses any other tb accessories :'( it should work like you say, because the tb spec is very strict. I guess I'll have to purchase and be ready to return.
Been looking for a good quality screen for music making and I use a Mac Mini M1 would this be a good choice ? Also been looking at the 34 BenQ although it is not 4k (3440*1440)
I'm using the wide 34" BenQ 4k and it's been great. I'd recommend trying a wider monitor for music production. Definitely the 4k one as the detail is good for those intricate music production apps etc.
@@HuFilms Thansk for ansver :-)Do you have a model name for that 34 k you are using ? BenQ PD3420Q is the one I have looked at and it is "only" 3440-1440
It comes factory calibrated, the BenQ vehemently state that you don't need to calibrate it. Maybe after a while. Right now it looks perfect, same as my M book pro.
@@HuFilms sure... You dont do as much photography and printing as you do video and since you on iMac, which is P3 when it comes to color gamut it is better to have bot able to view same gamut. Ive send you message on FB 😉
Thanks, I see your email. If you watch all my vid, I show the ArtIsRight UA-cam channel. Honestly, for me, I can’t tell the difference between this and previous SW monitor. It’s more than good enough. I don’t do prints as of now but maybe in future. This is the second monitor BenQ sent so maybe next time I’ll get them to send the best option for printing. Thanks again for your comment.
Your review is terrible . You did not even once try to measure the brightness / color gamut or accuracy of the monitor . You did not even try to check the backlight bleed . All you did is just read through the specs sheet and marketing blurbs and blindly pass it without verifying it with tests . Well , at least you tried comparing it to other screens being the iMac .
Thank you for your comment. All I can do is review it based on my knowledge of monitors which at the moment, isn't overly in-depth as I'm not a professional colourist and only produce work for the web. I currently don't have equipment to do detailed analysis you're looking for on colour accuracy or calibration. I hope you find a more fulfilling review to meet your needs in regards to this monitor.
@@HuFilms Yeah , I am dissapointed with every single office / professional monitor "reviews" being ridiculously shallow , no exceptions . Really , the only properly in-depth monitor reviews I can find are the monitors with high refresh rate . People actually tested gaming monitors to see if it can be used for productivity (such as color grading) tasks . And yet professional monitors , built exactly for that purpose , are being gimped with these advertisements disguised as "reviews" . Also , I cannot find even a single PD2725U proper in-depth review to this day .
Thank you for this Hugh. I’ve been going back and forth on whether to get this monitor or not. Your balanced review convinced me to go for it. (It arrives on Wednesday.)
Great, thanks a lot for the comment. Hope you enjoy it!
How do you like it?
@@miguelosterroht I returned it. The stand’s placement in relation to the screen made the overall depth of the setup to deep to fit my work space.
@@orvet Shame... my workspace does not have much depth to place it either but I'm willing to give it a try. How did you find the screen itself though?
@@MJBold_1 I would have kept it if not for the physical depth issue. Very happy with the screen/image itself.
Wow didn't realize this monitor was 2 years old ...
nice review ... informative
sí, I enjoying tu video, muy detallado, gracias.
Calibration is crucial and any colourist must know the ins and outs of their color space & gamma pipeline. And in order to do that, having a well calibrated display with proof of calibration is a must. Of course you can get great results without that too but in a professional environment, it's not passable.
But to add some value instead of just criticism, I do own BenQ displays and I can confirm that the factory calibration on these benq displays (that come with a calibration report) are incredibly good. My display had a maximum ∆E of less than 3 average ∆E of around 2.5 straight out of factory. That's very good for any consumer grade display. However, what's more impressive is that after calibration I got my display's max ∆E down to 0.87 & average to 0.37.
To the uninitiated, ∆E is essentially the deviation of colours from what they're supposed to be and anything below 2 is really good. Over 3 becomes noticeable with the average naked eye. 4 and above is no good for colour grading at most levels of proficiency. Max ∆E of less than 1 is expected from a professional colorist's displays.
That said ∆E at just the center of the display is not the end all be all measurement. Professional reference displays cost so much because, among other factors, they have to have that same colour accuracy from corner to corner while also being able to maintain the gamma curve throughout.
Thanks for your information, it's very valuable and good to know. 100% of my content is viewed by people just using internet browsers and apps on their devices, phones and laptops etc. So once it looks good on those devices, it's fine by me. I'm not grading for Cinema or even TV. I know by looking at the monitor if the colour and dynamic range is decent and BenQ did state that the factory calibration was good enough. If I had more spare cash, I'd invest in a serious pro monitor just to have it. Calibrating these monitors seems to be a black art and I've seen a lot of people struggle with it, so I guess I'll leave it until I feel it's not 100% right. I explained to BenQ that my knowledge of monitors and calibrating is very limited as I always used to just edit on a Mac screen but they told me that they wanted 'average daily users' to try their products so they were happy with my review(s). However, I've decided not to review monitors in the future because I just feel I don't know enough about them. So this 2 year old review might be the last.
@@HuFilms I thought the Mac settings matches the Mac monitor perfectly?
Great review, I think I will be getting one in the coming weeks
Just calibrated my Benq SW270C and it matches my M1 MBP 16” XDR screen exactly.
Nice one. what did you use?
@@HuFilms I used the data colour spyder X and the free Benq software. The SW270C is hardware calibrated. Not sure if yours is so it might not give the same results
@@RumourHasitYT nice one. yeah, maybe I cant. I won't panic for now!
Thanks for the nice video and review.
*_Thanks for the video, I really liked it again_*
Thank you for the video, amazing review!
Just wondering what your thoughts are on the BenQ PD2705U?
absolutely useful video. Thank you for sharing
Great review! Thanks!
no problem, thanks!
Great video mate!
Thanks a lot.
Hi Hugh, I have two questions about Benq monitors.
1. Do you recommend connecting it to your Mac mini via USB-C or HDMI?
2. In the settings of your Mac, is it best to keep HDR on (automatically adjusts monitor settings) or turn it off?
Thank you for your help
...and I'm Irish, unlike all those American and Canadian camera bro's you see everywhere..." 😆 Priceless, that Won my subscribe, although I still love a lot of those camera bro's, they taught me a lot since 2016. LoL
I bought this monitor 5 days ago and they shipped new Thunderbolt 4 cable ❤
so are you happy with that monitor? im thinking about to buy one too but not sure yet :(
Having speakers next to the screens also affect the displays. The speakers have an electromagnetic component inside to create sound and magnets affect electronics.
As much as love this video, I was a DJ playing old Skool DNB and jungle for while before my film career and i agree here whenever i used my now very old laptop in-between the speakers to record my sessions it would distort the display and also its always advised never to have your speakers no less than 4 feet apart. Also never have hard drives right next to each other as the spindles have magnets each side to record the info going onto the spindle disks the magnets can cause the hard drive to fail.
Calibration changes with time. I recalibrate mine every month, or more often if I'm doing any critical printing.
wow, thats a lot!
how calibration changes and critical printing ? can explain little bit please.
Really Good Review😊
I am trying to find out if this Monitor will be Suitable for My Needs which namely are watching 4K Nature Videos and also Podcasts on UA-cam
also Occasionally a Movie and a Sports Game
I currently have 27" Acer which is 2K but is also 7 Years old so looking to get a New one
Regards
Ivo
I am looking for an all in one a film colour grading monitor and a photographer monitor so thank you very much.
Subscribed @13:09 😆☘
jak ten wynalazek wygl;ada na tle Eizo lub nec o tyej samej rozdzielczosci matrycy ?
Well met Hugh... great video! Can I ask you where you got the desk stand/shelf you have your monitors sitting on?
Thanks Seán. That's actually custom. The desk is a glass panel on a custom made metal frame and the ply is cnc routed with some cavities below for routing cables. Dead handy.
@@HuFilms Lovely work. Can I have it please? ;)
My years as a sign maker and fabricator come in handy at times!
Mac Mini M1. I was using the supplied usb-c cable, got image but the monitor usb ports don't work so no data. Ordered a new thunderbolt cable to see if that solves the problem.
what is the most efficient way to calibrate this monitor? is it through software?
Is it possible with an xrite or does this type of monitor require other types of tools?
I wish this monitor had a bigger power supply. connecting my RTX laptop I dont think 65w would cut it. I know the bigger model is slightly better. but still wont cut it.
I just purchased a PD2705UA monitor along with an iMac 27 5k 2019. I see it very dark and in the color corrections I make, now I do them with the benq and not with the iMac they tell me that everything is very dark. It is true that the imac has more nits than the benq but in theory the benq would have to be more reliable to the iMac. What solution can there be so that my color work that I did in the imac, now in the benq is the same? Any kind of calibration? Thank you!
Have you experienced image sticking? Many users complain that if a static image is displayed on the monitor for 20 minutes or more, then it remains visible on other images for some time.
Not really on the BenQ stuff but I get this a bit with my Macbook pro
Ghosting it's called I think.
Hi, I like the video, thx. How do you switch between REC 709 2.4 and REC 709 2.2
Would you say that the PD2700u is similar enough?
Does this monitor move up and down, if so what is the measurement (from the table to the bottom edge) lowest to highest??
Do u have the options to control gamma and color gamut as in my case it greyed out and I am unable to change any of those settings , where I have checked all color mode and nothing helps
Is this glossy or matte finished monitor ?
Can we do colourgrading for my theatre film on this monitor pls say-
And Can we also use samsung m7 43 inch 4k monitor for colourgrading work to lowbudget theatre film pls say
I got the benq pd2705U 4k but it seems dim and not as sharp as my iMac 27” .. is that how it’s supposed to be? When the review says the contrast and clarity is excellent, is this acceptable or is my monitor damaged?
Hullo, thanks for the review. Are you able to test the thunderbolt connectivity at all? I'm looking to use one of these as the first link in a Thunderbolt chain, then have all my other peripherals in a daisy-chain using the hub:
Macbook -> Monitor -> TBdock -> TB accessory
BenQ themselves won't say whether this'll work or not - would be great if you could try it out with your mac in one TB port and a TB accessory in the the other!
Cheers!
I can't really answer this accuratly. It should work but if the monitor sleeps (when the mac does) then it'll drop connection.
@@HuFilms nobody who has this monitor uses any other tb accessories :'( it should work like you say, because the tb spec is very strict. I guess I'll have to purchase and be ready to return.
unfortunatelly its not true 10 bit, its 8 bit + FRC. For only 500$ you can get same from asus - PA279CV
What can we set brightness & contrast in Rec. 709? For color grading, which looks the same in iPhone!
Been looking for a good quality screen for music making and I use a Mac Mini M1 would this be a good choice ? Also been looking at the 34 BenQ although it is not 4k (3440*1440)
I'm using the wide 34" BenQ 4k and it's been great. I'd recommend trying a wider monitor for music production. Definitely the 4k one as the detail is good for those intricate music production apps etc.
@@HuFilms Thansk for ansver :-)Do you have a model name for that 34 k you are using ? BenQ PD3420Q is the one I have looked at and it is "only" 3440-1440
Hi！Is this jaw gap big? How does it compare with Dell U2720QM!
Can’t help with either of those questions, sorry!
Hi can we connect a Mac mini M1 to this monitor?
I currently have mine hooked up to an M2 Mac Mini so yours should be fine.
Cool Video! But! Why is there no monitor. With 4K, 100% sRGB, low Delta-E AND a high refresh rate (>=100Hz)
Adobe rgb? Is it possible to just choose that colour space?
No, it's not on the list.
wait did you make a video with title perfect for colour grading and with it you said that you never colorcalibrate your monitor? lol
Of course you need to calibrate. Not even a question.
It comes factory calibrated, the BenQ vehemently state that you don't need to calibrate it. Maybe after a while. Right now it looks perfect, same as my M book pro.
Great Review! I was debating this for work and I think I will give it a go. What do you think about the 32 inch version as a solo monitor set up?
Not sure. I have a 34 here ready to unbox! I kinda like big monitors myself so maybe try it. One 32 as a standalone is better than 27 I guess.
Agreed, you should learn about calibrating monitors, especially if you find yourself reviewing them.
Thanks for the lecture.
SW line is hardware calibrated where PD is not and doesn't have as wide gamut 😉
Wide enough for me!
@@HuFilms sure... You dont do as much photography and printing as you do video and since you on iMac, which is P3 when it comes to color gamut it is better to have bot able to view same gamut. Ive send you message on FB 😉
Thanks, I see your email. If you watch all my vid, I show the ArtIsRight UA-cam channel. Honestly, for me, I can’t tell the difference between this and previous SW monitor. It’s more than good enough. I don’t do prints as of now but maybe in future. This is the second monitor BenQ sent so maybe next time I’ll get them to send the best option for printing. Thanks again for your comment.
this is matte screen this is why it looks wired and soft. The iMac has a glossy screen that is why it does not have this things.
it doesn't look soft to me.
@@HuFilms i am referring to that anomaly you mentioned you are seeing when you move your head.
looks washeout
it isn't though.
Perfect for color grading but he doesn’t color calibrate his monitors. What a joke.
Your review is terrible .
You did not even once try to measure the brightness / color gamut or accuracy of the monitor .
You did not even try to check the backlight bleed .
All you did is just read through the specs sheet and marketing blurbs and blindly pass it without verifying it with tests .
Well , at least you tried comparing it to other screens being the iMac .
Thank you for your comment. All I can do is review it based on my knowledge of monitors which at the moment, isn't overly in-depth as I'm not a professional colourist and only produce work for the web. I currently don't have equipment to do detailed analysis you're looking for on colour accuracy or calibration. I hope you find a more fulfilling review to meet your needs in regards to this monitor.
@@HuFilms Yeah , I am dissapointed with every single office / professional monitor "reviews" being ridiculously shallow , no exceptions .
Really , the only properly in-depth monitor reviews I can find are the monitors with high refresh rate . People actually tested gaming monitors to see if it can be used for productivity (such as color grading) tasks .
And yet professional monitors , built exactly for that purpose , are being gimped with these advertisements disguised as "reviews" .
Also , I cannot find even a single PD2725U proper in-depth review to this day .