Computer Shopper - UK (2020-07)

ISSUE389|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JULY2020 31

THEGL2780ISan unusual monitorinthatit
doesn’t sacrificemuch to hitarelatively low
pricepoint. Most monitors below £150 tend to
be 24indisplays or smaller, butthisone is a
whopping27in, giving you loads of space to
spread out windows and applications.
The catchisthat the BenQ GL2780 doesn’t
use an IPS panel.Instead, it employs TN tech.
Besideslowercolourvibrancy, this means that
at extreme viewing angles thepicture quality
falls off dramatically.Ifyou’reonly going to sit
directly in front of it, however,it’s one of the
better budgetTNmonitors we’veseen.

PUREANDSIMPLE
In addition to themonitor itself, BenQ supplies
adeskstand –which youhavetoattach
yourself using asmall thumbscrew –aswell as
an HDMIcable and akettle-type mainslead.
That’sall prettystandard, as is thedisplay’s
design.The bezels are thick,and the housing
is made from plain black plasticatthe front
with acurved, patterned rear.It’spractical
rather than pretty, butthat’s no bad thing.

Thereare plenty of nice touches, including
apoweradaptor that’s housed within the
monitor, so there’snodangling power brick to
worry about. Youalsoget acable tidy built
intothe stand. Youcan’t adjust the height of
the monitor,but that’s not unusual at this
price, andyou at least get tilt adjustmentand
100mm VESA mountcompatibility.
Forabudget monitor,the GL2780 is
unusually well fitted out when it comes to
connections,withHDMI,DisplayPort, dual
link DVI-D andVGA outputs all included.
This means most
laptops and PCs are
covered, unless yours
happenstoonly have
USB Type-C ports.
Even then, you
don’t necessarily
need to miss out:
you can always buy
acheap Type-C-to-
HDMI cable.
That’sitfor video
inputs, but youalsogeet3.5mm
audioinputsand outpuuts,

ppositionedunderneaththemonitorinthe

bottomleftcorner,soyoucanhookupapair

ofPCspeakersoraheadset.

BAND OF COLOURS

Stretching aresolution of 1080p across a

27in screen means things canlookalittle

pixellated, butthisisfar from adeal-breaker

because –outside of this middling sharpness

and thenarrow viewing angles of theTN

panel –the picturequalityisremarkably

good. TheGL2780 goes prettybright –all the

wayupto326cd/m^2 –and the contrastratio

is an excellent 1,316:1, which helps prevent

colours from lookingwashedout.

Colourperformanceisgreatforthemoney,

too. Using acolorimeter we found sRGB

gamut coverage to be 92.4%, which is good,

but it’s colour accuracythatsteals the show.

Average delta-E comes in at just 0.99,whichis

downrightsuperbfor abudgetdisplay.

There arenoissues with brightness

uniformity across thepanel, either, with no

patchiness or backlightbleed anywheretobe

seen. That’sarelief, as even farmoreluxury

monitors have been knowntolet the backlight

shine alittle toobrightlyaround the edges,

bbut there’s simply

none of that here.

Aside from

coomprehensive

coonnectivity,sensible

deesign andgreat

coolour performance,

thhereare someextra

feaatures youmight

waant to take noteof

as well. Topofthe list

isaanautomatic

brightnessmoode,which lowers

the intensityoofthe backlightto

matchtheammountofambientligghtinyyour

room.Itdoesthiswiththehelpofasmalllight

sensorjuttingoutofthebottomofthescreen,

anditworkswellenough–thoughmanually

adjustingbrightnessisn’tdifficulteither.

Thenthere’sthe75Hzrefreshrate,a

modest step up from the usual 60Hz. Most of

the time this will manifestasmerely smoother

mousemovement, but there is an advantage

herefor playing games,providing you’re

running thematframerates above 60fps.

There’s also ablue light reduction mode –

useful if you tend to use the monitor late at

night–and, finally,integrated speakers. These

aren’t exactly the last word in sound quality,

andwe’drecommendapair of desktop

speakers (or headphones) forgames and

films, butthey’re perfectlyadequateifall you

want to do is watchthe odd YouTube clip.

ECONOMIC RELIEF

The BenQGL2780 costsjust £145, whichisa

great price forsuchapractical,feature-packed

monitor. With excellent image quality anda

huge expanse of display, it’s astupendously

good screen forvery little money.

That said,highdemand seems to be

causing pricestofluctuate; during testingwe

noticeditwas going for£130. Youmight

therefore want to hold on untilstocksare

replenished and the price has fallen.

JonathanBray

BENQ GL 2780

★★★★★

£145•Fromwww.ebuyer.com

VERDICT

Awell-connected 27in monitor with great
image quality,all at abudget-friendly price

FULLHDMONITOR

SCREEN SIZE27in•RESOLUTION1,980x1,080•

SCREEN TECHNOLOGYTN•REFRESH RATE75Hz•

VIDEOINPUTSHDMI,DisplayPort, DVI-D, VGA•

WARRANTYThreeyears RTB•DETAILSwww.benq.eu•

PART CODEGL2780

SPECIFICATIONS

CONNECTION PORTS

HDMI DisplayPort

3.5mm

microphonejack

3.5mm

headphone jack

DVI-D

VGA

Withexcellentimage qualityand ahuge expanse of display,

this is astupendously good screen for very little money