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BenQ Zowie XL2566K 24.5 Fast TN in 360Hz Gaming Monitor, Motion Clarity DyAc⁺, 1080p, XL Setting to Share, Custom Quick Menu, S Switch, Shield, Smaller Base, Adjustable Height & Tilt, Black

£314.995£629.99Clearance
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DyAc?™ on XL2566K makes vigorous in-game actions such as spraying more clear than DyAc?™ on XL2546K. The clarity helps gamers see the position of the enemy during fast movements or fast moving targets more easily and notice the bullet trajectory more clearly which can help with recoil control and aim. The DyAc+ mode worked very well in practice at further enhancing the visual experience for gaming and reducing blur. Whether or not a competitive or pro gamer would normally play with something like this enabled is debatable, but it’s there as an option for those who like it or who want to experiment. Calibration and profiling can produce very good results if you have a suitable calibration device and software. This was profiled to 2.2 gamma, 6500k colour temp and to the sRGB colour space. You can see the recommended OSD settings above and our calibrated ICC profilefor this display is available now for our Patreon supportersand will be added to our main database in the coming months. General and Office dE colour accuracy – a wide range of colours are tested and the colour accuracy dE measured. We compare these produced colours to the sRGB reference space, and if applicable when measuring a wide gamut screen we also provide the accuracy relative to a specific wide gamut reference such as DCI-P3. An average dE and maximum dE is provided along with an overall screen rating. The lower the dE the better, with differences of <1 being imperceptible (marked by the green area on the graph), and differences between 1 and 3 being small (yellow areas). Anything over dE 3 needs correcting and causes more obvious differences in appearance relative to what should be shown. dE 2000 is used for improved accuracy and providing a better representation of what you would see as a user, compared with older dE methods like dE 1994, as it takes into account the human eye’s perceptual sensitivity to different colours. Connectivity is satisfactory, offering one DisplayPort and two HDMI ports. Regrettably, the HDMI ports only support 2.0 spec instead of 2.1, limiting them to 240Hz. This leaves only the DisplayPort 1.4 connector capable of fully handling 360Hz input, which could disappoint those wishing to connect multiple PCs.

BenQ has optimized this product primarily for speed. We're examining a 24.5-inch 1080p 360Hz gaming monitor utilizing TN LCD technology. Yes, we're talking about TN tech, not IPS or VA. Some critics have labeled TN a defunct technology, but panel manufacturers and display OEMs like BenQ maintain it's still the fastest available and optimal for hardcore competitive multiplayer gaming. The amalgamation of 360Hz and TN is expected to deliver unparalleled motion clarity. However, none are purported to be as swift as this class-leading esports monitor from BenQ, making it intriguing to compare the top-tier OLEDs and LCDs we've tested previously with the XL2566K. Missing features and capabilities available on other gaming screens, although admittedly this is deliberate Any custom resolution/Hz setting may damage your monitor due to out of the operation range different from what the monitor has been designed for, and it may make your monitor out of warranty accordingly. Learn moreI sometimes feel headaches or eyes soreness while using the monitor. What can be adjusted to alleviate the discomfort if I feel unwell? The TN Film panel is not as well suited for general and office uses as competing IPS panels. The viewing angles are the main challenge, with the image showing noticeable changes in gamma and colour tone as you move viewing position. There’s characteristic darkening of the image when viewed from below, and overall the restrictive viewing angles impact viewing experience compared with IPS panels. If you’re using it from a head on viewing position it’s fine really, but the image is not as stable and consistent as other panel technologies. How can I make Variable Refresh Rate (Adaptive-Sync / FreeSync Premium / G-Sync Compatible) work on my monitor? It goes without saying that you need to remember this is a small screen size and with a low resolution compared with many models available today. We certainly missed the larger screen sizes and desktop space that we’re used to using day to day, but again this is not the intended market for the XL2566K. If you are a competitive gamer who takes their game extremely seriously and you want to get the fastest and smoothest gaming monitor to help you be the best player you can be, then you have to get the ZOWIE XL2566K right now. If you are anything other than the aforementioned gamer, it’s best to take your time and really consider what you want out of a monitor.

We will talk about the Corsair 240Hz OLED in a moment that’s included in the pursuit camera photos – park that for now! Out of the box, the monitor is set to FPS1 mode, which BenQ states is optimal for CS:GO gaming. As one might expect, a mode designed to maximize visibility of enemies in CS:GO won't necessarily be color accurate, so this mode does not look very good in standard desktop applications. However, switching to the Standard mode results in reasonable performance. It has decent grayscale performance, and saturation looks quite good, all things considered. This mode may not impress with its accuracy, but it's perfectly usable for desktop applications outside of gaming sessions. Calibrated Color Performance What is the optimal Hz performance for users to turn on the "DyAc", "DyAc+" or "Blur Reduction" function in the OSD? Since everyone is unique, and have different vision conditions and sensation on color and brightness. Thus, The cause of the discomfort to everyone may be very different. Even if the monitor has the same settings and displays the same image, some people may feel uncomfortable, while others may not. Following are a few tips, and we suggest you can try to adjust to alleviate the discomfort condition: Learn more

TN Film panel technology used to be everywhere in the monitor market. It was used in all the main gaming displays, and in most of the general and office displays too. At one point it was the most affordable technology for display manufacturers to use, but it fell out of favour when IPS and VA panels became more widely known and appreciated in the market, when they were improved significantly in performance, and of course when they became more cost effective to adopt. The other driver for the change was the shift to larger screen sizes, with 27″ being about the limit where panel manufacturers felt TN Film was appropriate and viable for a display. This is what settings like Overdrive adjust – BenQ calls it Advanced Motion Acceleration (AMA). But, if you apply too-little or too-much charge you can get ghosting (smeary ghost images trailing on-screen objects) or inverse ghosting and overshoot (blur that leads on-screen objects and edges that continue to move after an object has stopped), or both. For new K series monitors, the way to save settings via the S Switch has been changed. If Gamer1 is selected, the customized display setting is only saved in the monitor. Learn more The XL2566K builds on what has made its predecessors great, and that can be taken quite literally in some cases. The exterior and design is the exact same as that of the XL2546K, but I think that that’s a plus. ‘Never change a winning team,’ they say, and if you ask me the modern XL line of monitors have a design that’s pretty hard to beat. I’ll speak more about the build quality and design in the next section, but I love the fact that they haven’t made any unnecessary changes here. As for power consumption, the XL2566K does a great job. Although it's not the most efficient monitor, it's among the top half of contenders, consuming only 24W of power after calibration.

The bells and whistles are nice to have, but this monitor is defined by its panel speed and almost everything else is irrelevant. If you like your games looking fast, smooth cinematic and immersive, don’t buy this. However, if the BenQ Zowie XL2566K represents a professional tool that will improve your top-level competitiveness, its compromises (and very high price) will be irrelevant. BenQ Zowie XL2566K: Price and release date Still, the XL2566K is an extremely impressive gaming monitor, and if you’re looking for the fastest, most responsive monitor out there at this point in time then this is it. There is also a ‘customizable’ AMA setting with a slider from 0 – 20, allowing you to tweak the overdrive to your liking if you want. We have included some measurements at a setting of 12 which we felt was about as high as you could push it within overshoot becoming noticeable. This basically eliminated the small amount of dark overshoot visible in high mode. The ‘High’ mode is perfectly usable though and will be fine for most people we felt. There’s some pursuit camera photos capturing real-world motion clarity in High vs customizable 12 in a moment. If you do have a PC that can run your game(s) of choice at 360 frames per second, the XL2566K is a dream come true for competitive gamers. It’s basically tailor-made for CS:GO (that doesn’t mean it’s not extremely good for other shooters though, because it definitely is extremely good for other shooters) and that shows in some of the functions. Additional performance improvements can be achieved through full calibration, and the XL2566K is quite easy to calibrate with excellent results. Professional gamers probably won't want to go through this process, as tinkering with contrast and color settings is likely the best way to game, but it's reassuring to know that accuracy is possible, even on a monitor like this.

Although you need a high frame rate camera to really see it in detail, the Zowie XL2566K’s motion performance in competitive-level FPS games is noticeably sharper than 360Hz IPS screens. For human beings in real-time, the result is having a smidge smoother and sharper imagery where even small-moving objects are rendered that bit clearer. The difference is miniscule, but major world championships have been decided by less.

A TN panel, no matter how good it is, is never going to live up to a good IPS panel when it comes to the overall image quality, and that’s something that you should take into account when considering this monitor. This is a monitor that’s geared towards esports, and nothing else. If you’re someone who plays a game or two of VALORANT every week and uses their monitor for content consumption or single player games, this is notthe monitor for you. Everything about this product is geared towards tryhard (I use that affectionately) competitive gamers, and those people don’t really care for visuals all that much.

With that being said: as far as TN panels go, the XL2566K offers a very nice image. It required some tinkering for me to get to my preferred color settings, but once I arrived there I found it to be very passable, and it’s worth noting that the default picture setting is a lot better than what I found on the XL2546K, meaning that you can basically use this monitor straight out of the box. The native contrast ratio of this panel is quite respectable, improving significantly after calibration compared to its out-of-the-box performance. A recorded ratio of 1091:1 isn't impressive compared to VA LCDs or OLEDs, but it's very serviceable for a TN LCD, which typically sit below 1000:1. This level of contrast aligns with IPS LCDs, a positive outcome. Viewing Angles With AMA switched to off, the average G2G response time was 4.6ms which was very good really, but not fast enough to keep up with a high 360Hz refresh rate, which results in a low 27% refresh rate compliance and some added smearing on moving content as a result. Obviously we have no real reason to want to turn overdrive off anyway, so we tested the other modes as well.

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