BenQ B2201PT review

Although it has a viewable size of 22in, BenQ’s new BL2201PT seems larger. Partly this is due to the thicker than usual bezel, but the chunky stand also adds to the effect. The reason for it is that this monitor is height-adjustable and can rotate to portrait mode.

At its lowest point, the bottom of the screen is around 110mm from the desk, but it can be raised by around 120mm – more than most height-adjustable displays. The base of the stand has a shallow recess, which is useful for storing pens and business cards – or any other knick knacks you have lying around.

Surprisingly, given the low price, there are VGA, DVI and DisplayPort inputs. The latter is still incredibly rare, but could be useful if you want to run a trio of monitors in Eyefinity mode with a suitable AMD graphics card. Eyefinity requires that at least one monitor has a DisplayPort input – otherwise you have to buy an active DisplayPort converter to use a monitor with a DVI or HDMI input. You’ll also find a 3.5mm audio input as a pair of tiny speakers are built into the bottom edge of the screen’s bezel.

Unlike most new monitors, the BL2201PT has a resolution of 1,680×1,050. This isn’t much lower than Full HD, but it feels more cramped in day-to-day use. The LED backlight is rated at 250cd/m2, so it isn’t as bright as those using traditional fluorescent tubes – they tend to be rated at 300cd/m2. Usually the difference isn’t hugely noticeable, but the BL2201PT also suffers from undersaturated colours that look washed-out. This has the side effect of making it look dimmer.

Contrast is acceptable for undemanding office work, but if you’re planning on using the monitor in portrait mode, bear in mind the poor vertical viewing angles. When you rotate the monitor by 90 degrees, this becomes the horizontal viewing angle: when you move off-centre to the left or right, colours quickly change, with whites becoming yellow and blacks turning to red, for example.

Image quality, then, is not the BL2201PT’s strong suit. It does have some clever features, though. One is the proximity sensor that automatically puts the monitor into standby when you’re away from your desk for more than 30 seconds. Unless you’re buying hundreds of monitors for a business, you won’t see a great saving as, at full brightness, the BL2201PT uses only 26W. This drops to 18W in Eco mode, which claims to be only 30 per cent dimmer, but looks around half as bright.

We also like the option to enable a blink warning – reminding you to blink 20 times every 20 minutes. As most computer users tend to have dry eyes from lack of blinking, we applaud this inclusion. However, these bonuses aren’t enough to offset the relatively disappointing image quality. If this doesn’t bother you, and you need the height adjustment and portrait mode, it’s good value. Gamers wanting a bargain monitor with a DisplayPort input might just about be able to live with the dismal colours, but you can get a better-quality 22in monitor for less (see Editor’s choice, below).