BenQ E2200HD and E2400HD - 1080P FullHD LCDs

Conclusion

These two new 1080P LCDs from BenQ are very similar in many respects, so at first glance you might think it's simply a case of deciding how much you want to spend and whether or not the extra screen size is worth the money. After we dug a little deeper, more differences became apparent. First, let's talk about areas where these displays are the same.

Both are native 1920x1080 LCDs, so if you watch a lot of 16:9 content (TV, movies, or certain games), we will agree with the marketing that these displays are better than the standard 16:10 computer LCDs. For video content, it's probably not as big of a concern, since there are many 2.39:1 DVD and Blu-ray movies now. What will definitely sell some users on these LCDs is their native support for HDTV resolutions, which makes them perfect for connecting the current gaming consoles. There is a major caveat however: you'll need to make sure that your console is able to output 1080P signal; 720P has issues on both LCDs. If you just plan to use your PC to surf the web and do office tasks, we prefer to stick with WUXGA LCDs. The 11% increase in vertical resolution isn't a huge benefit, but all other things being equal we'll take it.

Another area where these LCDs are similar is in their lack of amenities. The base stand is a cheap option that's good enough to hold the display upright, but that's about it. You'll have to spend an extra $30 to get a separate stand that offers height adjustment and pivot functionality. You also won't get any USB ports, and you will need to buy (or already own) a digital cable if you want to use something other than a VGA connection.

Considering all of the similarities, we were a little surprised to see differences in terms of actual functionality. Color accuracy, viewing angles, response times, and input lag are all comparable between the two models, but for some reason the E2200HD does a lot better at supporting various resolutions than the E2400HD. If you always run at the native 1080P resolution, that won't matter, but only a handful of resolutions work completely without issue on the E2400HD. Unfortunately, the only resolution on the E2200HD that has issues is 720P, which is a resolution that quite a few people would probably want to utilize at some point. It seems like a firmware update could correct most of these issues, but updating the firmware would have to be done at the factory.

Ultimately, only the E2200HD is able to set itself apart from the competition. A few other 22" LCD manufacturers offer native 1080P support (i.e. ViewSonic and Dell), and we feel this is an untapped market. There are plenty of users that would like a higher resolution LCD but don't have the money for a 24" or larger display. Some users simply have good eyesight and prefer smaller pixels, and the E2200HD provides that as well, surpassing even the 30" LCDs in pixel pitch. The E2200HD increases native resolution by 18% over the standard WSXGA+ LCDs, and while the price is also higher that's a compromise some users will be willing to make. Coupled with good support for other resolutions and a three-year warranty, the E2200HD is currently the 22" monitor to beat. For the innovations and performance that it offers, we are pleased to award the BenQ E2200HD our Bronze Editors' Choice Award.

As for the E2400HD, it's a good monitor as well but it faces a lot more competition. The price might just be enough to sway some users to choose the E2400HD over some other options, but we were a little put off by the resolution  issues. Still, we use our displays at native resolution 99% of the time (outside of testing), so resolution support at other settings is hardly the end of the world and the E2400HD is still worth a look. However, the E2400HD doesn't do enough to set itself apart from competing options.

One thing we do know is that better aspect ratio control is something all LCD manufacturers should focus on (besides better color quality, of course). Ideally, LCDs should offer at least three options: stretch to fill, stretch but maintain aspect ratio, or display using a 1:1 mapping. The last option is missing from both BenQ LCDs, but we don't feel it's quite as necessary as the first two - mostly it's useful for running at near-native resolutions (i.e. 1280x1024 or 1680x1050). After all, if you run a 22" LCD at 1280x720 using a 1:1 mapping, you end up with a 14.3" equivalent and extremely large black borders. We think that defeats the purpose of buying a larger display in the first place. The other two options should absolutely work properly, however, and far too often that isn't the case.