BENQ RL2450H

Over the last few years, BenQ has been steamrolling ahead with various products on offer and in the process have been further establishing their name in a market they are already popular in, i.e. computer peripherals. Last year, we saw the BenQ EW2430V, a monitor that superceded our expectations as it featured a VA panel. One of these is the BenQ RL2450H, an LED monitor that is designed for those looking for gaming at a somewhat affordable price. Read on to know more about this offering from BenQ.

SUGGEST RETAIL PRICE

RL2450H – RM910

Unlock the Power, Unleash the Battle

The RL2450H has been co-developed by internationally well-known StarCraft II team, StarTale to give you superior RTS gaming experience. This 24"W LED monitor is packed with the latest features: the Black eQualizer, Height Adjustment Stand, RTS Mode, Display Mode, Smart Scaling, 2ms GTG, HDMI and 12M:1 dynamic contrast ratio. 

 

The Collaboration

In the effort to expand its professional gaming monitor line, BenQ joined forces with the world-renowned StarCraft II team, StarTale, to create the all new RL Series. The collaboration delivered competitive gaming monitors that offer top-level gamers an absolute gaming experience for their RTS game play.
The tremendous partnership also led to the creation of cutting-edge features meticulously designed to fulfill specific gaming purposes – particularly to acquire, assess and respond to critical combat information readily. Just as the XL product team worked with the Counter- Strike legends to develop the FPS Mode, the RL product team also worked closely with the StarTale players to fine-tune the RTS Mode, exchanging visits to ensure the display performance of the monitors would improve user accessibility and comfort.

The All New Black eQualizer Gives You Total Visibility

Poor visibility in dark scenes can cost even the most skillful gamers their game. The Black eQualizer color engine technology is designed to offer an unprecedented level of control and visibility. Dark scenes are brightened without over-exposing the bright areas to preserve vital details, enabling gamers to spot their enemies easily in critical combat and react quickly in any situation.

Exclusive RTS Mode Ensures You Would Play Like a Pro

The RTS Mode was co-developed with leading StarTale players to optimize color and contrast exposures for better accessibility and total comfort. This out-of- the-box preset automatically fine-tunes your monitor accordingly for optimum RTS gaming, allowing you to see your enemies more visibly among the distractions and darkened areas. Built to give you the competitive edge, the exclusive RTS Mode will be your ultimate secret weapon.

 
Design and Build Quality
If by chance, one happens to glance at this monitor, they are sure to stop for a second look. The monitor has been built for gaming and it is designed in the exact fashion. Dressed in matte black with red highlights, this display is one of the better looking monitors available nowadays. The bezel is not that thick, which gives it a sleek overall appearance, even though it is a fairly large monitor. The bezel features only the logo and apart from it, there are just dots at the bottom right, which show where the controls are. The bezel feels really sturdy, which is a great thing as most monitors that are in the market feature bezels that are made of a lesser quality plastic, as compared to this model.

The controls for this monitor are located at the side and the dots on the front of the bezel do not do much to differentiate between the different options. This is a design feature, which we did not much appreciate as a new user would need to fiddle around with the buttons a bit before getting accustomed to the layout. The only button, which features a denotation on the bezel is the power button. There is also an LED indicator on the button, itself, which actually makes the legend on the bezel rather redundant. The build quality of these buttons, however, are really good and it appears that it can last for the life of the monitor. 

Connectivity options for the monitor are located at the back and these include ports for D-sub, DVI-D, HDMI and a Headphone Jack. These connectors are downward facing and if one needs to wall mount the monitor, they can flush it easily against the wall. The stand of the monitor is sturdy and it allows one to tilt the angle of the display. This stand is built well, but there is a slight wobble present. The base has been designed a bit differently and it is quite small, but comes with an extension in the front, which is large and it helps in balancing the monitor. The build quality of the entire cabinet is really good and it looks like it can be used for quite a few years without looking shabby.

Features
Judging by the spec sheet, the BenQ RL2450H is loaded with features that would definitely warrant a purchase. It comes fitted with a TN panel that offers a crisp response time of 2ms, which will be great for gamers. This 24-inch monitor features a 16:9 aspect ratio and supports a resolution of 1080p. With support for this full HD resolution, it keeps on par with many of the high-end monitors that presently populate the market.

The user interface of the monitor is designed well and it is one of the better ones that we have seen in the recent past. It is very easy to navigate through and as soon as one gets acquainted with the controls, they can easily maneuver through the different settings. The interface is similar to that on most other BenQ monitors and all the options onscreen are self explanatory, so there is no confusion that arises while navigating through it. There is no lag noticeable as well, while scrolling through the different options.


The picture settings are quite detailed as well, as it offers one the option of adjusting various settings, such as brightness, contrast, gamma and a host of others. An interesting feature found here is that one can alter the display mode as well and view content as per different screen sizes at different aspect ratios. This can be useful depending on the aspect ratio of the content that is viewed. BenQ have also added picture modes as well, such as Movie, Photo, RTS, Gamer, Eco and a handful of others, which can be used as quick presets for content based on what is being viewed. Overall, this is a very feature-rich monitor with gaming at its core.

Performance
While testing the performance of the BenQ RL2450H, it was observed that the buttons at the side of the display were extremely responsive allowing one to easily navigate through the OSD. The interface is extremely fluid with no lag noticed, while navigating through it. We calibrated the display using the Spyder3 Elite colorimeter and we observed that the hightest deviation in brightness from the centre point was visible at the top left corner of the screen.