BenQ PD2710QC designer monitor review

Looking for the best new monitor for your creative work? Here, we review the BenQ PD2710QC…

High-quality IPS LCD panel? Check. Generous 27-inch proportions? All present and accounted for. Expansive 2560 x 1440 native resolution? Affirmative. One hundred per cent sRGB colour space support? You've got it.

From the get-go, then, BenQ’s PD2710QC is an appealing LCD panel packed with features to please graphics professionals. But then there are plenty of other similarly equipped monitors to choose from. Happily, however, the PD2710QC has one or two additional tricks up its sleek, minimalist sleeves.

Top-class connectivity

For starters, it packs a USB Type-C dock with full support for DisplayPort alternate mode plus charging. The upshot, importantly, is that you can connect this monitor to a laptop computer via a single USB Type-C cable and both drive the screen at full native resolution and charge the laptop at the same time. You can also connect and use peripherals via the monitor’s multi-port USB hub.

USB Type-C is popping up on all manner of portable computers. But the PD2710QC’s capabilities will be of particular appeal to owners of Apple’s 12-inch MacBook. That laptop has a single USB Type-C port for everything: video out, charging, attaching peripherals, the works. So the PD2710QC’s solves all your MacBook connectivity problems in one fell swoop.

As for anyone who isn’t planning to make use of the fancy new USB Type-C interface, the PD2710QC also sports a pair of conventional DisplayPort sockets, a Mini DisplayPort input and an HDMI port. 

It’s also a very simple screen to set up thanks to the full range of tilt, height, rotate and swivel adjustments, and a particularly user-friendly on-screen menu.

BenQ PD2710QC: image quality

It’s no slouch in the looks department, thanks to a slim-bezel minimalist design and high-quality construction.

All of which just leaves the not-so-minor matter of image quality. Out of the box and without any calibration, the BenQ PD2710QC is distinctly usable, with nearly perfect contrast, little to no evidence of colour compression together with all the usual benefits of an IPS panel, which include superb viewing angles, decent response and vibrant colours.

It’s even better after calibration and achieves low deltas to target values in terms of gamma, colour space and colour temperature. All of which means the PD2710QC makes for an extremely appealing overall LCD panel package.

Not a truly high-end professional display

The downsides are two-fold. First, this isn’t a truly high-end professional display. Its colours are eight-bit per channel, not 10-bit per channel, and it doesn’t fully support the latest super-sized colour spaces. And yet it’s a serious financial investment, even if that’s broadly in line with similar semi professional-grade monitors.

Alternative monitors to the BenQ PD2710QC

4k display: Iiyama ProLite X4071UHSU-B1 ($1,737 / £509.74)
Not only is Iiyama’s 40-inch beast physically huge, it also offers a massive 3840 x 2160 native resolution. That’s four times the resolution of a 1080p display and over double the resolution of BenQ’s PD2710QC. This means the monitor’s great for multi-tasking and also for viewing large images pixel-for-pixel. However, its VA panel type means this LG screen can’t come close to the BenQ’s accuracy. So it’s not suitable for colour proofing. (It's also vastly more expensive in the US right now.)

Bigger budget: Asus ProArt PA329Q ($1,582.15 / £1,322.54)
At nearly double the price of the BenQ, this Asus panel isn’t a direct competitor. But it does put the PD2710QC’s capabilities into context. The Asus’s first advantage is its full UHD 3840 x 2160 pixel grid. It also goes beyond the BenQ’s 100 per cent coverage of the sRGB colour space and adds 99.5 per cent coverage of the Adobe RGB space, too. And with a quantum dot-enhanced backlight, the ProArt PA329Q boasts enough visual pop to make the BenQ look downright dingy.

Should you buy the BenQ PD2710QC monitor? 

• Also read: The best 4K monitors for designers

For sure, you can get more screen inches and pixels to work with for the same money if you’re willing to give up further colour accuracy. But if you’re after a production-quality display with top-notch connectivity, the new BenQ PD2710QC is well worth a look. 

This article was originally published in issue 157 of ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Buy issue 157 or subscribe to ImagineFX.