On the 17th of June, 2015 I had the pleasure of attending BenQ India's product launch ceremony at the Urban Terrain Gaming Cafe in New Delhi.
Through this blog post, I'll be writing about the monitors and the launch event. I'm not great when it comes to tech details but I've given it a shot nonetheless. Everything contained in this write up reflects my personal opinions based on what was presented at the launch along with some independent research.
Here goes!
The XL2430T and XL2730Z Monitors
Adding on to BenQ's XL series of monitors, the 2430T and 2730Z are quite possibly the most advanced gaming monitors in their India arsenal.
Both monitors sport upto 144Hz refresh rates, Auto Game Modes or presets for various game genres (FPS/RTS and the newly added MOBA), Black eQualizer; Motion Blur Reduction, 20 level color vibrance and Game Mode to Go.
The XL2430T sports a 24'' screen versus XL2730Z's 27'' inch screen with QHD (upto 2550x1440) resolution. Additionally, the XL2730Z comes equipped with AMD's Freesync technology - an attempt at allowing your graphics card to control the on-screen fps (NVIDIA has a similar technology christened G-Sync). This essentially provides an upgraded alternative to V-Sync as a solution for screen tearing and / or stuttering.
The following video does a better job of explaining how this works than I ever could :
Both monitors have already hit the shelves. The XL2430T is available across multiple retail outlets in India at an MRP of INR 36,000 while the XL2730Z is available at INR 50,000. Additionally, these monitors will be available on Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon.
What's more - the first 100 buyers of both monitors will receive 1 x SteelSeries Fnatic Edition Rival mouse + 1x QCK Asphalt Edition Mousepad (worth INR 8,000) absolutely free.
My take from a Dota 2 perspective : The MOBA mode and RTS mode presets are great. One push of a button and dark spots on the Dota 2 map (Rosh pit, fog below the river slope at mid lane etc.) look a lot clearer. At max settings + vsync enabled I clocked an fps of approximately 100. With Vsync disabled, the fps shot up to a full 120 yet I didn't not notice any screen tearing which usually happens with FreeSync incompatible monitors. T'was truly a memorable bot bashing experience. With that said, given that NVIDIA are the perceived market leaders in India, using an AMD-only compatible technology as a gaming monitor's USP seems debatable.
The Launch Event
BenQ's product launch was held at the Urban Terrain Gaming Cafe - Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. The cafe sports BenQ branding all over and 10 PCs were fitted with the newly released monitors to allow attendees to experience their features first hand.
Presentations, demonstrations, speeches and more
The event kicked off at around 1 p.m. with a presentation by Mr.Rajeev Singh - MD BenQ India that covered a variety of topics ranging from an overview of BenQ global and BenQ India, the company's objectives and mission, the details of their latest product additions and more.
Mr Rajeev Singh kicking off the presentation
This was followed by a short speech by Monika Sharma - Senior Marcom manger who introduced Ben Varghese (former ATE Gaming member and current R4idforce pioneer) to do an official product unboxing. Ben spoke about the benefits of professional players using professional monitors.
Monika Sharma
Ben Varghese talks about the XL2430T and XL2730Z during the unboxing
The presentation concluded with Ankit Jayant (a.k.a Chacha) providing an in-depth explanation and demonstration of the two new monitors. Post this, the experience zone was open to gamers and attendees.
Ankit 'Chacha' Jayant talks about monitor features
To wrap it up, attendees were given a goodie bag that contains brochures and information about BenQ and their gaming monitors, a portable power bank and a BenQ pen drive.
The BenQ Goodie Bag for attendees
My take on the event : Travel arrangements were great and on schedule. Attendees were provided with beverages and food. The only drawback I experienced was the overcrowding at the venue. While Urban Terrain may be a great cafe to play on a normal day (strong pcs are strong), it probably isn't the ideal location to host a gathering of over 40 people at one time, atleast not till they get a couple of additional air conditioners fitted in there. The BenQ presentation was adequately informative and the lack of a Q&A session was made up for by the fact that BenQ's staff were available for a one on one chat right till the very end.
For more information about the XL2430T and XL2730Z monitors visit : gaming.benq.com