We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use. BenQ's EX2780Q ($599) is primarily geared toward gaming—with a 144Hz refresh rate and support for AMD's FreeSync technology—but this 27-inch monitor has some unusual features that set it apart. These include a remote control, and—most noteworthy—a surprisingly good speaker system, bolstered by a subwoofer to provide crisp bass. It does well at handling HDR content, and BenQ offers a further enhancement through its own HDRi technology, more about which in a moment. The Razer Raptor 27 remains our top-pick gaming monitor at its screen size, but thanks in particular to its superior audio, the EX2780Q earns its own Editors' Choice as an all-around entertainment monitor with a gaming bent. A Stylish Frame, an HDR Twist A bit about HDRi, as it's a newly coined term: HDRi is BenQ's own technology, geared to better displaying HDR content. (According to the company, the "i" stands for intelligence.) While HDR improves the contrast and dynamic range (the ability to render subtle gradations of light or shadow) of a scene, HDRi seeks to further enhance HDR images. It has both hardware and software components. A sensor on the monitor's bottom bezel measures ambient light, letting the EX2780Q adjust its screen brightness in response to changing conditions. In addition, HDRi generally brightens dark regions without overexposing bright areas, resulting in a more balanced image. It also automatically tweaks color balance and saturation, depending on the displayed content. The EX2780Q provides two different HDRi modes: Cinema HDRi, and Gaming HDRi. In testing, I found that generally the HDRi modes (and especially Cinema HDRi) provided better contrast than when the monitor was set to DisplayHDR (unmodified HDR). Belying the new tech it houses, the EX2780Q's cabinet is simple and handsome, with a matte-black shell and a bronze-colored bottom bezel and base. When affixed to its stand, the EX2780Q measures 18.1 by 24.2 by 7.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 13.1 pounds. The top and side bezels are barely there, while the textured bottom bezel is 1.3 inches thick. The base is a rectangular ring, which, in addition to supporting the monitor, can serve as a corral in which to stash the remote and other small peripherals. The stand provides tilt control, but it lacks swivel, pivot, or height adjustment. The 27-inch, 10-bit IPS (vertical alignment) flat panel has a native resolution of 2,560 by 1,440 pixels, known as QHD, at a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. Its pixel density of 109 pixels per inch (ppi) is fine for a gaming monitor, but it's not ideal for tasks such as editing photos. (All else being equal, the greater the pixel density, the sharper the image should be.) The EX2780Q's relatively modest selection of ports includes two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort input, a USB-C port, and an audio-out jack. The USB-C port supports data transfer and video input, as well as power delivery of up to 60 watts, which is enough to quickly charge a laptop even when displaying content from it over the connection. You can control the onscreen display (OSD) via a miniature joystick controller on the back of the monitor, mounted near its lower right corner. Its menus are easier to navigate with the joystick than with the button-based control systems found in many monitors. If the joystick isn't convenient enough, you can also manipulate the EX2780Q's OSD with the included handheld remote, with which you can access the OSD menus, enable HDRi, and control volume with the touch of a button. There is also a volume-control wheel on the bottom of the monitor, near the left-hand edge. The OSD offers seven main-menu choices: Input, Picture, Color, Audio, Eye Care, Custom Key, and System. From Input, you can switch among HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C inputs. The Picture menu lets you control brightness, contrast, sharpness, and the like. The Color menu lets you choose among 11 color modes, including Standard, Low Blue Light, three gaming modes, two Custom modes, and M-book (a mode for the MacBook. You can also switch between HDR modes. From the Audio menu, you not only can control the volume or mute the sound, but you can also switch through five audio modes: Live/Pop, Cinema, Dialogue/Vocal, Game, and Rock/Party. Eye Care offers access to the Low Blue Light setting (again) and several similar tweaks. Custom Key lets you set up two customizable color modes, and last up is the System menu, on which you control FreeSync, USB-C configuration, OSD settings (such as language), and the like. BenQ covers the EX2780Q with a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and the backlight. The monitor ships with an HDMI 2.0 cable, a USB Type-C cable, and a DisplayPort-to-mini-DisplayPort cable. Great Audio (for a Monitor) BenQ touted the EX2780Q's audio quality in my pre-review briefing, and for good reason. For most displays (gaming-oriented or otherwise), audio is at best an afterthought. If built-in speakers are included at all, they tend to sound tinny, with poor low-frequency (bass) response, and distortion at higher volume levels, if they can even achieve them—in many cases, the audio is notably soft. Although mediocre speakers may be better than no speakers at all, we generally recommend that monitor buyers get a pair of powered external speakers if projection and audio quality matters. Unless you're hosting a dance party in a medium-size or larger space, though, you probably will be just fine with the EX2780Q's own sound system. The EX2780Q combines a pair of 2-watt speakers with a 5-watt subwoofer. It employs digital signal processing (DSP) to offer the five audio modes mentioned above. To test the setup, I cranked up a host of songs and music videos, including many with strong bass lines, such as Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," The Beatles' "Come Together," and The Clash's "The Guns of Brixton," with the audio set to Rock/Party. The monitor setup had excellent bass and good treble response. It wasn't perfect; in a couple of cases, the bass dominated the treble, and although the volume should be fine for a small room, it won't knock your socks off. Audiophiles may still want to add external speakers, but for most consumers, the built-in speaker system should more than suffice for casual listening. Notably Bright, With Good Color I did our luminance, color, and contrast testing using a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, an X-Rite i1Basic Pro 2 color profiler, and Portrait Displays CalMAN 5 software. BenQ rates the EX2780Q's luminance (that is, the brightness per unit area) at 350 nits (candelas per meter squared) and its contrast ratio at 1,000:1; the latter is standard for an IPS panel. I measured its luminance at 224 nits in Standard color mode, 349 nits in Cinema HDRi, and a whopping 470 nits with DisplayHDR enabled. Its contrast ratio also slightly exceeded its rating, at 1,091:1. BenQ claims that the EX2780Q covers 95 percent of the DCI-P3 color space, which it effectively matched, covering 94.4 percent in our testing (see the chart above). The area bounded by the triangle represents the limits of the DCI-P3 color space, which was designed for cinema video. As expected, most of the points are a little bit within the triangle, and fairly evenly spaced. This is very good coverage, as DCI-P3 is a considerably wider color space than sRGB. I also viewed selections from our suite of test video clips, as well as a series of photos stored on my Dell XPS 13 laptop. The EX2780Q did well at handling HDR video, which was notably brighter and exhibited better contrast than when I viewed the same content in standard definition (SDR) mode. Cinema HDRi—BenQ's HDR emulation—was similar to DisplayHDR (true HDR), though Cinema HDRi frequently showed better contrast. The results were similar with photos, with both Cinema HDRi and DisplayHDR showing similar results, with both brighter than SDR. Gaming Chops Like many BenQ gaming monitors, the EX2780Q is not overloaded with gaming features (say, LED backfill/ambient lighting or a range of gaming-specific menus, for instance), but the few it has do count. It employs AMD FreeSync adaptive-sync technology, and it supports refresh rates of up to 144Hz. In testing the input lag with an HDFury 4K Diva, the EX2780Q even edged out the Razer Raptor 27, with an excellent score of 1.5 milliseconds (ms) to the Raptor's 1.7ms, and just shy of our record-low score of 1.4ms, turned in by the MSI Optix MPG341CQR. (All of these were tested at a 60Hz refresh rate.) See How We Test Monitors The monitor did well in handling gameplay and some canned benchmark runs with the titles Final Fantasy XV, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Far Cry 5, showing a minimum of artifacts. I switched among Game HDRi, Cinema HDRi, DisplayHDR, and SDR modes, and Cinema HDRi showed the best contrast. Kick Out the Jams If you want a monitor to use just for gaming, you might want to invest in the slightly costlier Razer Raptor 27, which supports both FreeSync and G-Sync (the latter through G-Sync Compatible status, not dedicated G-Sync hardware) and has some nifty creature comforts like a 90-degree tilt for easy access to its hidden ports. It cranks out results similar to the EX2780Q's in brightness, color, and input-lag testing. But the BenQ adds a sweet sound system and handles HDR (both DisplayHDR and BenQ's HDRi enhancement) like a boss. For its ability to handle games, video, and photos while providing superior audio—the best I've heard on a computer monitor in recent years—and extras like a remote control, the BenQ EX2780Q also earns our Editors' Choice as an all-around entertainment monitor with a focus on gaming. BenQ EX2780Q Bottom Line: BenQ's EX2780Q is primarily a gaming monitor, but its punchy sound system and deft handling of HDR make it a winning all-around screen for general entertainment, too.

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