It’s not precisely straightforward for a gaming monitor to face out. Once you hit a couple of key specs—at the least 1440p, 120 Hz, 0.1-ms response time, and some others—nearly any show will do. Some firms fight this by enhancing their colour replica or cranking these specs even larger. Then there’s BenQ, which determined to make this ludicrously giant 48-inch mannequin I’ve spent a couple of weeks testing.

As a show, the BenQ Mobiuz OLED gaming monitor—particularly mannequin EX480UZ—is spectacular. On a spec sheet, it ticks all of the bins you’d need whereas enjoying video games. It has a 4K OLED panel, a 120-Hz refresh fee (we’d wish to see 144-Hz, but it surely’s not dangerous), and even HDR assist.

The solely downside is that it’s large. Average pc screens are sometimes within the 22- to 24-inch vary. This one is 48 inches. That isn’t simply twice as massive as a typical monitor. Due to how math works, doubling the diagonal dimension means quadrupling the realm. So when you’re studying this text on a 24-inch monitor, think about three extra of them stitched collectively. All sitting in your desk.

It’s rather a lot to soak up.

(Giant) Picture Quality

Before we fixate on this behemoth’s dimension, let’s discuss the way it performs. In common, gaming screens usually forego some options that you just would possibly come to count on from, say, a tv. High dynamic vary (HDR), a color-enhancing function that’s current on this BenQ show, is usually absent from gaming screens. But it’s one of the best upgrades you can make to get higher image high quality, so it’s good seeing it right here.

BenQ’s implementation can also be significantly good. Unlike most LED screens, which depend on an LED backlighting system to light up the display above, OLED shows are a single layer of pixel-sized natural LEDs able to solely lighting up the pixels a picture wants. This means a lot deeper black ranges. Where an ordinary monitor nonetheless appears a bit grey when exhibiting a black display, an OLED is totally darkish; the pixels are literally black. This higher distinction between mild and darkish already improves the image on non-HDR video games, however once I performed video games that supported HDR, the picture was about as crisp because it might get. 

The monitor additionally helps AMD FreeSync, which helps an AMD graphics card sync as much as the display for no dropped frames as much as 120 Hz, which is extraordinarily welcome—if anticipated at this level, on condition that this function is in most TVs and screens—once I play Overwatch. Any recreation that has fast-paced motion goes to profit from a super-high body fee.

But after we discuss image high quality, we’re not speaking purely about pixels. Lots of different elements have an effect on the viewing expertise, like how distant you’re sitting from the show. This is why a number of gaming screens can get away with a mere 1440p show. Despite 1440p being lower-res than 4K, it’s normally sufficient for particular person pixels to be almost invisible on smaller shows, when sitting at a standard distance out of your desk.

But this BenQ show isn’t any normal gaming monitor.

The Burden of Breadth

The first time I arrange this monitor, I attempted to fireside up a recreation of Overwatch and nearly instantly needed to cease. I don’t precisely have a small desk—its floor space is about 2.5 ft deep by 5 ft extensive—however I needed to take away each of my 27-inch screens to make room for it. Despite this, and irrespective of how far again I sat in my chair, the display was overwhelming.

Overwatch’s killfeed—a working feed of which gamers have died within the upper-right nook of the display—was now towering over me. What I might beforehand test by glancing with my eyeballs abruptly required me to maneuver my whole head to see. If I wished to see my very own well being stage within the recreation, properly that’s all the best way down within the lower-left nook. My neck started getting sore as I attempted to catch essential info.

The vibrant show additionally began to develop into a critical detriment. The vivid OLED display was nice for blasting out mild to create a compelling image. The solely downside is that this image was a few ft from my face. And it was filling my peripheral imaginative and prescient. I began to really feel a robust sensory overload the longer I sat in entrance of it. It was simply an excessive amount of of a superb factor.

“That’s a TV”

It didn’t take lengthy earlier than I merely couldn’t stand having this factor on my desk anymore. After a few video games, I unplugged it and put my outdated screens again. But perhaps I’m utilizing it improper, I assumed. I imply, this factor is mainly a TV—which, notably, can also be what everybody who noticed it in my residence stated. “That thing is basically a TV.”

So, I moved it from my desk to the lounge. And it felt much more at residence there. Suddenly, the 4K panel didn’t really feel fairly so pointless. When I used to be sitting 10 ft or so from the monitor, it was now not as overwhelming, and I might admire how detailed the image appeared. It wasn’t one of the best TV I’ve ever seen, but it surely supplied a extremely good image as I performed via a few of my PS5 video games.