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

Product Information

Today we're testing a product that we've wanted to get our hands on for some time now: the BenQ Zowie XL2566K. We've spent a considerable amount of time over the past six months evaluating some of the fastest monitors on the market, be it the latest 240Hz OLEDs or the 1440p 360Hz IPS LCD that debuted last year.

It’s perhaps a very specific example, but I noticed that spraying in CS:GO just felt a lot smoother and clearer on the XL2566K when compared to IPS panels. In case you’re not familiar; spraying in CS:GO violently shakes your screen, and that can cause a blurry mess if your display isn’t up to par. I’m not saying that the two IPS panels I compared it to made spraying a blurry mess, but I did definitely notice a difference. 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. 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.That is Overdrive/Response Time Compensation (RTC) function in RL/XL series. This technology is based on applying an over-voltage to the liquid crystals to motivate them into their orientation faster. We will usually quote a "grey to grey" (G2G) response time figure on displays using this technology since they are normally the fastest transitions available. Learn more This is a TN Film panel and absolutely designed for gamers, so it’s unlikely you’d want to be doing any colour critical work on it anyway, but we would have liked to have seen a ~100% sRGB gamut in this day and age on any screen. Keep in mind also that this screen would give you no support for wider colour gamut content which is increasingly common nowadays (including HDR content) so you’re limited to a more traditional ~sRGB standard gamut here. That also means that you cannot work with wider colour spaces like Adobe RGB (photography) or DCI-P3 (HDR content creation) if you wanted to, although as we say this isn’t a screen aimed at those uses at all.

Upon examining across the refresh rate range, the High mode emerges as an excellent choice, maintaining performance in the 3 to 4ms range right down to 60Hz, with acceptable levels of overshoot. This provides a single overdrive mode experience as well as elite speed, resulting in a highly optimized configuration, particularly below 240Hz. The setup in this mode was far better than FPS 1. Gamma was now very close to 2.2 across the greyscale which was great news. While some grey shades were still a bit too cool (6% deviance average across the greyscale) they were closer to our 6500K target than the FPS 1 mode, and we also had a more accurate white point with only 3% deviance, measured at 6678K. This leads to a much more accurate greyscale with 1.5 dE average, and also an improved contrast ratio too at 1010:1 which was very good for a TN Film panel. I want to accompany this previous paragraph with a (pretty obvious to some, but I’ll mention it anyway) disclaimer: this won’t make you an aiming God if you’re coming from a 240Hz monitor, or a good 360Hz IPS monitor. The difference isthere, and this is the smoothest and clearest panel I’ve ever used for gaming so far, but we’re talking razor-thin margins here. Margins that can and will matter for people who are very serious about their gaming, but small margins regardless.

Catch every detail of motion and enjoy the most fluid gameplay by ZOWIE native TN 360Hz refresh rate monitor, which ensures a flawless view of fast-motion consistently. The BenQ 360Hz TN Film panel IS faster than the 360Hz IPS panel of the Asus in practice, with sharper and clearer images which shows there is still place in this super high refresh rate gaming space for this panel technology. 360Hz TN Film vs 240Hz OLED Comparison Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 with 240Hz OLED panel Firstly the resolution is of course low by modern standards at only 1920 x 1080. This is well established and appropriate for a screen of this size (24.5″) but leaves you with a much smaller area to work with than common 1440p, 4K or similar resolutions. It also leaves you with a larger text size than 27″ 1440p or other common screen sizes like 34″UW 1440p for instance. The text size is perfectly adequate for a smaller screen size like this, but you lose a bit of the sharpness and pixel density if you’re used to those other options. Anything higher on a screen this small would be impractical without introducing the need for software scaling, so 1080p is fine. Colour accuracy in this default FPS 1 mode was poor as well with a 6.4 dE average. BenQ will often set their gaming screens up in these FPS modes out of the box but they are not what we would call “accurate” in any of our measurements really. Perhaps for competitive gaming you might prefer the set up here, but it’s not great for anything else. Thankfully BenQ do provide a much better mode in the OSD menu which we will test now. Default Setup – Standard Mode

The interesting (and good) thing about this blur reduction mode on the XL2566K is that it has barely any impact to the screens brightness! We had measured 338 nits in normal mode (DyAc off) earlier, and with DyAc enabled we could still reach up to 323 nits. The screen actually defaults to 100% brightness when you turn DyAc+ on, so you will probably want to turn this down to something more comfortable, but it does give you a nice bright image and a wide adjustment range to play with, unlike many blur reduction modes on other screens which are often very dark. Pursuit camera photos in DyAc+ mode (Premium)The foot of the stand is also nice and small, giving you flexibly in positioning of your screen and peripherals for gaming. Can I share my settings with a friend whose monitor is not on the list of XL Setting to Share compatible monitors? I have an upgrade plan for my PC for the near future. Before that, if I set XL2566K to 240Hz, will it perform better or worse than XL2546K with the same 240Hz setup? 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.

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. The other interesting comparison we’ve included here is against a 240Hz OLED panel we had chance to see in person earlier this year, featured in the Corsair Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240. There’s quite a few 240Hz OLED panels being released to market in the near future (27″ 1440p, 45″ ultrawide and 49″ super ultrawide) so it’s interesting to compare here too. Should you still consider a TN Film panel in this day and age? Does it have anything left to offer for gaming? Read on to find out As I said earlier, the XL2566K looks exactly the same as its predecessor, the XL2546K. For me, that’s a huge plus, as I’m of the opinion that ZOWIE pretty much nailed it on that front. One thing that I love about the monitor is that it has such a small footprint. The panel itself isn’t the thinnest or sleekest, but the stand has a very small footprint, especially when compared to some other gaming-focused monitors out there. I seriously don’t get the need for monitor stands with the wingspan of a bald eagle; it looks impressive, but it’s infuriating how much space some monitors take up on your desk. 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

Specifications

This is certainly a compromise to achieve the speed and functionality desired by competitive gamers. The maximum brightness of 353 nits peak is average, but as mentioned earlier, it's commendable to see that strobed brightness is also high, at 330 nits. If desired, you can run this display at 42 nits, though this might not be the optimal configuration for professional gaming.