Tenda MW12
The latest in old-school, cutting-edge, ancient, gaming monitor tech designed for modern-day eSports professionals.
In a world where gaming monitors are competing to offer the most immersive game reproduction, best viewing angles, biggest curved screens, brightest colours and most jaw-dropping HDR contrast – all in an effort to make the latest games look pretty – BenQ’s latest Zowie XL2546K looks on from the wings with a pitiful disgust. This is a monitor that has been designed, first and foremost, to play the eight-year-old CS:GO FPS video game (and its derivatives) at a world championship-winning level.
This 24.5-inch, 1080p monitor, with a matte, anti-glare coating, doesn’t just use the ancient TN panel technology to reduce the image ghosting and blur that’s inherent in LCD panels, it also has a 240Hz refresh rate to add an extra layer of motion smoothness and further reduce ghosting and blur. These features are not unique, but BenQ’s skunkworks Zowie team has layered its proprietary “DyAc+” technology on top of all this to further reduce ghosting and blur to the point where even spray firing, recoil control and screen-shake caused by explosions can leave your crosshair and enemies displayed in sharp relief. BenQ itself says that some of the image enhancements offer a one percent improvement that won’t be noticeable to everyone, but international CS:GO tournaments have been decided by smaller margins.
It’s not only the panel technology that has been designed for pro gamers, but the ergonomics too. The screen doesn’t just offer generous adjustments in terms of tilt, height and swivel; all of these increments are measurable with embossed notches so you can sit-down and adjust everything to near-millimetre accuracy without having to eyeball your setup. This is important at tournaments where competitors share screens and is useful for gamers to instantly set up their monitor after transporting it to a LAN. To this end, there’s even a carry handle at the top and a PVC screen-protector included in the box. Also included are sidemounted sightscreens to reduce glare and hide distractions. There’s also a fold-down hook at the rear to hang your headset on.
The monitor’s bezel isn’t particularly thin at 13mm so it’s not great for tiling. The screen itself is held firmly by the small-footprint base.
The OSD can be operated by a mini-joystick at the rear or an ‘S-Switch’ wired remote that makes settings simple to access. Settings for different games or users can be saved on the monitor and shared using BenQ’s Setting to Share app – handy considering all the image adjustments. The adjustments themselves are designed to butcher colour accuracy and contrast to make it easier to identify enemies hiding in shadows and highlights; this, together with the old-school TN panel technology (with its poor viewing angles), means it’s not great for graphical work or watching movies. It does however present a perfectly usable Windows Desktop for office work.
If competitive FPS gaming is your profession or your passion, then the BenQ Zowie XL2546K can be regarded as a professional tool that’s reasonable value at $899. However, if you want games to look amazing and immersive, look elsewhere.
NICK ROSS When it comes to the old-school monitor technology that competitive FPS gamers like, this represents the pinnacle of current evolution.