OCCASIONALLY, a new product pops up
that appears to have skipped the past five
years completely. We give you the ‘new’
BenQ EW3880R. That’s not to say this epic
38-inch monitor is rubbish, as there’s
lots to like. But the EW3880R is a pricey
screen that feels decidedly dated.
First, let’s cover the basic proposition.
This is 38 inches of gently curved (2300R,
to be specific) IPS panel. The native
resolution clocks in at 3,840x1,600, so it’s
4K in the horizontal, but not in the vertical,
and the aspect ratio is 21:9 ultrawide.
By some measures, this is a prettyCertainly spectacular, arguably
flawed, undeniably expensive
BenQ EW3880R
epic panel. The sheer scale of the screen
combined with the ultrawide aspect
ensures that. But it’s far from novel. In
fact, back in 2016, LG announced the
38UC99, a monitor that ticks every one of
those spec boxes. It’s almost certain the
BenQ’s LCD panel was supplied by LG.
And we have a hunch it may even be that
same six-year-old IPS first seen in the
aforementioned 38UC99.
How come? As you dig deeper into
the specs, the picture becomes less
impressive. The contrast ratio is 1,000:1,
which is pretty pedestrian given 1,300:1IPS panels have been around for years
and the latest IPS tech has just been
given an upgrade to 2,000. Then there’s
the 60Hz refresh rate and the fact that
this screen is, to all intents and purposes,
merely SDR and not HDR.
On that last point, the EW3880R
supports HDR content and will render
HDR colors correctly. However, even in
HDR mode, it’s limited to 300 nits. In SDR
mode, that brightness figure is a mere
230 nits. The EW3880R also lacks any
kind of local dimming, full array, or edge-
lit, so isn’t a truly HDR-capable screen.
But what is it like to use? Unsurprisingly,
it isn’t a particularly punchy display. In
SDR mode, the EW3880R lacks a little
zing. Though it offers the usual IPS
upsides, including a natural color balance
and decent viewing angles, in this age of
high-performance HDR monitors with
full-array local dimming, the EW3880R
just feels a bit old-school.in the lab
78 MAXIMU MPC MAR 2022