Ultra HD 4K monitors are a dime a dozen in this day and age. But whilst having a massive 4K screen may seem a bragging point, there’s a lot more you have to take into consideration before spending what’s left in your savings account on one. Colour reproduction, refresh rate and viewing angles are prime factors when you’re a competitive eSports player. Zowie has long since known this and has always catered to the professional gaming market when it comes to displays and monitors. And now, after being acquired by Benq, the latest BenQ Zowie XL2735 is a testament to their strength.
Let’s start with the Design. Before I talk about the size or the stand, I want to mention the ridiculous ears Zowie has supplied with the monitor. Nicknamed the Shield, the sturdy bits of plastic are meant to act as blinders, letting you focus on the screen instead of having your eyes coast a couple centimetres to the right or left. If I’m honest, it’s an over the top addition to what could have been a simple looking design. However, if you do find yourself unable to focus on the cross hairs in an FPS game, this could be the opt-in accessory for you. Considering I used two screens, it didn’t help having a bit of my second screen obscured by the ears.
Other than the flappy ears, it’s a practical gaming monitor. Made from textured matte-black plastic (except for a glossy patch on the back) and measuring 27 inches across whilst weighing 8.3 kilogrammes, it’s sturdy and imposing in appearance. VESA mounting lets you shift it up or down a fair bit so you won’t be craning your neck, something that is also helped by the fact that the monitor can be rotated, tilted and pivoted to suit your needs. The Zowie XL2735 also includes specially designed slanted frames that reduce reflective glare you would get from normal horizontal frames that border your screen. It may not seem like much, but the most sensitive of users would notice the difference.
When it comes to ports, you have a multitude due to the fact that this isn’t a G-Sync monitor. As a result, you get a DisplayPort 1.2, two HDMI and a DVI port. But that’s not all. On the left side of the monitor you have two USB 3.0 ports, as well as a 3.5mm headphone and microphone port as well as a pop out, stand to hang your headset from. It’s a great feature that I’m glad Zowie added.
When it comes to the interface, the settings of the Zowie XL2735 are easy to navigate through, something I found very handy when tweaking nearly every single setting to adjust the display. The On Screen Display (OSD) has many inbuilt presets including Standard, Gamer, and FPS. Navigating the OSD is further augmented by the S Switch. You can have it sit in the shallow depression on the base of the stand, using it to quickly switch between presets or utilising the dial to fine tune certain settings.
But how well does it do when it comes to performance?
The Zowie XL2735 uses a TN LCD panel instead of a more modern IPS panel. This isn’t entirely bad. For one thing, there was virtually no input lag that I detected whilst the panel performance managed to keep up with quick movements such as flick shots in FPS games. The superb gaming performance coupled with the 2560 x 1440 resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate were a blessing. So it’s perfect when it comes to the fast-paced action in games. That’s due in part to the TN LCD panel and because of the DyAc technology, an overdrive setting for making the panel respond even faster.
However, it does fall short in one area and that’s image quality.
Out of the box and without any settings tweaked, the Zowie XL2735 has an awful image quality. Colours are washed out, lack contrast and are just far too bright. I had to spend twenty minutes tinkering with the various settings before I could get it to reproduce colour at the proper level – yes this monitor is capable of looking good when it comes to image quality, it’s just set up terribly. As a result, I quickly switched away from the FPS preset, due to its low gamma settings, and to the standard preset before further tinkering. I reduced the brightness to 23, upped the gamma to the highest setting possible, and adjusted the colour balance slightly. It’s far from perfect and required a lot of work. The included Black Equaliser technology doesn’t seem to add much since the gamma is quite low anyways.
Which is what leads me to my conclusion. When it comes to gaming, the Zowie XL2735 is one of the best gaming monitors out there due to the sheer raw performance and lack of input lag that comes with a TN panel. However, when it comes to activities other than gaming, the image quality isn’t the best on the market. That and the steep price tag that’s attached would deter most users who could easily afford a monitor with better image quality at half the price.
