I'm loving the 240Hz aspect of it though, even if it can't do adaptive sync. We could easily have higher refresh rates and higher resolutions if manufacturers would stop pussyfooting around any just make some DP1.4 monitors already.
There are true 8-bit TN panels that do not use FRC, used in such monitors as the Asus PG278Q. I would get with BenQ if you aren't certain of the specs.
Seriously, if what you're saying is true, BenQ paid ACTUAL MONEY for that brand! That's even more absurd than it having been developed in-house by a bunch of drunk guys in the marketing department pulling something out of the clear blue because they were under a "give me something or you're all fired" deadline!
Yes. Companies pay ACTUAL MONEY for brand names that are known for niche markets they want to sell products to. Before Zowie's brand was bought by BenQ, BenQ sold gaming monitors and peripherals, but had mixed success because non-gaming merchandise was sold under the same brand name.
Zowie sold popular (and still popular to this day) driverless mice, with flawless sensors and great lift-off performance as a no-nonsense gaming solution. People still use Zowie mice because they're still excellent products.
BenQ is marketing "Zowie" monitors so that gamers that like Zowie mice will get interested in buying their gaming monitor lineup.
It's no different than Toyota having their regular lineup of vehicles and their Lexus lineup of luxury vehicles. Or, in the PC world, ASUS selling their standard stuff and ASUS ROG selling their gaming products.
There's nothing wrong or silly or absurd about this. BenQ just wants to differentiate its lineup of products under two brandnames.
There's the inevitable car comparison. I have to admit I don't see that as often on AT as I do at other tech sites.
Anyway, don't make assumptions that I'm making declarations about product quality or functionality. I'm poking fun at the brand name itself and at BenQ for continuing to use it after acquiring the company. Of course there will be a number of brand loyalists or people who fancy themselves aspiring eSports gaming professionals that will pick a product and swear by it. With star-struck swoons, they'll follow in the footsteps of their corporate-sponsored idols when they proclaim, "It makes the clicking better to click with a Zowie!" People do that with professional atheletes playing actual sports all the time, why should it be any different with the competitive computer gaming that the computer industry is trying to get off the ground and into the mainstream? If BenQ can turn a profit from those people by transferring their wealthy, they absolutely should. In the end, the laughability comes from the brand name and just that. I'm not mocking the hardware in the slightest.
Here's another example of a company that acquired another, yet still continued to use that brand name: AMD bought ATI (and acquired their Radeon graphics card technologies), but continued to sell their graphics under the ATI brandname for a few years afterwards. They eventually transitioned back to just using the AMD brandname.
The same will likely happen here. It might take some time, but for now BenQ's trying to use that sub-brand to get more traction in the gaming peripherals market.
People like driverless, no frills gaming mice with little marketing crap. Zowie was doing very well for themselves in their niche.
It's ironic how you blame a marketing department for the name, but Zowie does so well for themselves by having a nice product, not with high numbers and gimmicks.
I like no-frills mice that don't rely on anything but a native OS driver too. I also agree that gimmicks and pointlessly high number specs (presuming that's what "high numbers" means) leave me unimpressed. That's why I have a cheap-o from Dell that I got as inventory excess from my company's free-to-a-good-home box. Works great and racks up kills that make the occasional shooter I play a school girl gigglefest for me.
So...as I said before, it's got nothing to do with the hardware or its function. There's no need to advocate product quality at me. I'm just amused by the brand name because I find it hilarious that something like that slipped through the cracks at a decent sized company.
as if benq rolls off the tongue, chinese/taiwanese brands are still chinese/taiwanese names, there's nothing unusual about zowie in the context of benq, this isnt corsair
I have to wonder if G/Free-Sync would see diminishing returns with ever higher refresh rates anyhow. On a 60Hz monitor, the maximum timing error (the amount of time between when a frame could be presented and when it would actually be presented) for which G/Free-Sync could correct for would be 17ms, but on a 240Hz monitor, that error is reduced to only 4ms. Any judder introduced at that point would be very hard to spot.
It more likely prioritizing low input lag as much as possible and the target demo that really needing variable. If they are using this monitor they likely can also afford a very high end system which is going to be running e-sports titles that typically low req, which also may be further run at low graphics settings just to reduce on distractions.
They do. If you want to avoid tearing you can enable VSync and only have a max delay of 4.167ms (vs 16.67ms at 60 hz) on a 240hz panel. Alternately without vsync any tearing artifacts will only be visible for 1/4th as long.
It seems like adaptive sync would be unnecessary in this market. The latency gain from it would be incredibly small, and most likely people are running without VSYNC anyway.
Yes, there's very little noticeable tearing at 144hz as compared to seeing it all the time on my 60hz screen. When I upgraded to a freesync capable GPU (on my already freesync capable monitor) I didn't notice much of a difference.
Freesync really matters most when you happen to prefer to play a not-fast-paced-action game, such as Skyrim, and would prefer to increase graphical sliders for scenery, over increasing FPS past a certain point.
Yes it is but there could still be a use because we are seeing even higher resolution display these days. Reaching 120 fps on a high end machine will be difficult, probably through lowered effects/detail.
Doesn't sound like that was money well spent seeing the lack of name recognition around here. I remember their mice, but not fondly. I remember them as "that knockoff brand that people who can't afford Logitech or Razer mice buy".
Zowie is the most popular brand of mouse in pro LAN competitions of CS:GO, Overwatch etc. I don't think they are the best either, but a lot of those guys get familiar with a shape/feel and don't want to change.
That's like thinking the party with the most guests (ie: Logitech/Razer) is the only party worth paying attention to.
Yes, even a party with only two guests can be one of the best parties you've ever had if it's something meaningful to you. Such as your own birthday party after a dozen other friends decided they couldn't make it for your special day, at least the two guests that showed up really cared.
Zowie doesn't have the marketing budget of giants like Logitech and Razer, yet somehow they're one of the few that knows how to use flawless sensors in mice with familiar and standard shapes and sizes, without obtrustive drivers, with the flawless sensor performance gamers want. And they sell these mice at a fraction of the cost (and weight) that Logitech and Razer sell their mice at.
Seems just about perfect for professional eSports (MOBAs, FPS, and RTS). All the big eSports can hit 240 Hz easily making screen tearing a non-issue. 1080p TN panel is also fine.
The Zowie brand is know for making gaming mice. Korean SC2 and broodwar pros are known for using the Zowie mico. I have a gaming mouse pad from them that's also quite nice. I had heard of Zowie significantly early than BenQ.
Der Zowie XL2540 integriert ein 24,5 Zoll großes Full-HD-Panel in TN-Technologie. Er soll bis zu 400 cd/m² hell sein und einen Kontrast von 1000:1 sowie eine Grau-zu-Grau-Reaktionszeit von einer Millisekunde aufweisen. Neben DVI-DL bietet er zwei HDMI-Anschlüsse, DisplayPort 1.2 sowie Kopfhörer- und Mikrofonbuchsen. Über eine abgesetzte Bedieneinheit namens S-Switch lassen sich drei verschiedene Profile für Games oder andere Nutzungen aufrufen.
Not much, the only reason for high Hz LCD/OLED monitor is to address their sample&hold way of handiling frames, which is why a 85-100Hz CRT feels so much smoother since the frames are constantly refreshing.
In fact. the final goal should be 480Hz to make them CRT-like in ghosting effect.
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Kazetsubaki - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
The article says it's a TN panel but the specs grid says it's an IPS. Which pannel is it?Brandon Chester - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
It's TN. I've fixed that, and also corrected the mention of 8bit color which is almost certainly not the case for a TN.Kazetsubaki - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Thanks! It's hard to go back to a TN pannel after experiencing a good IPS. =\nathanddrews - Friday, November 11, 2016 - link
I'm loving the 240Hz aspect of it though, even if it can't do adaptive sync. We could easily have higher refresh rates and higher resolutions if manufacturers would stop pussyfooting around any just make some DP1.4 monitors already.yeahokay - Monday, November 14, 2016 - link
There are true 8-bit TN panels that do not use FRC, used in such monitors as the Asus PG278Q. I would get with BenQ if you aren't certain of the specs.ikachu1 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
It's a TN panel http://zowie.benq.com/en/product/monitor/xl/xl2540... (scroll down to 'Specification')BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
What are BenQ's people thinking with their branding? The ZOWIE for eSports? Ugh...marketing departments.limitedaccess - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Zowie is a brand with cachet in that target market that was acquired by Benq a year ago.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Seriously, if what you're saying is true, BenQ paid ACTUAL MONEY for that brand! That's even more absurd than it having been developed in-house by a bunch of drunk guys in the marketing department pulling something out of the clear blue because they were under a "give me something or you're all fired" deadline!JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Yes. Companies pay ACTUAL MONEY for brand names that are known for niche markets they want to sell products to. Before Zowie's brand was bought by BenQ, BenQ sold gaming monitors and peripherals, but had mixed success because non-gaming merchandise was sold under the same brand name.Zowie sold popular (and still popular to this day) driverless mice, with flawless sensors and great lift-off performance as a no-nonsense gaming solution. People still use Zowie mice because they're still excellent products.
BenQ is marketing "Zowie" monitors so that gamers that like Zowie mice will get interested in buying their gaming monitor lineup.
It's no different than Toyota having their regular lineup of vehicles and their Lexus lineup of luxury vehicles. Or, in the PC world, ASUS selling their standard stuff and ASUS ROG selling their gaming products.
There's nothing wrong or silly or absurd about this. BenQ just wants to differentiate its lineup of products under two brandnames.
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
There's the inevitable car comparison. I have to admit I don't see that as often on AT as I do at other tech sites.Anyway, don't make assumptions that I'm making declarations about product quality or functionality. I'm poking fun at the brand name itself and at BenQ for continuing to use it after acquiring the company. Of course there will be a number of brand loyalists or people who fancy themselves aspiring eSports gaming professionals that will pick a product and swear by it. With star-struck swoons, they'll follow in the footsteps of their corporate-sponsored idols when they proclaim, "It makes the clicking better to click with a Zowie!" People do that with professional atheletes playing actual sports all the time, why should it be any different with the competitive computer gaming that the computer industry is trying to get off the ground and into the mainstream? If BenQ can turn a profit from those people by transferring their wealthy, they absolutely should. In the end, the laughability comes from the brand name and just that. I'm not mocking the hardware in the slightest.
JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Here's another example of a company that acquired another, yet still continued to use that brand name: AMD bought ATI (and acquired their Radeon graphics card technologies), but continued to sell their graphics under the ATI brandname for a few years afterwards. They eventually transitioned back to just using the AMD brandname.The same will likely happen here. It might take some time, but for now BenQ's trying to use that sub-brand to get more traction in the gaming peripherals market.
Inteli - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
People like driverless, no frills gaming mice with little marketing crap. Zowie was doing very well for themselves in their niche.It's ironic how you blame a marketing department for the name, but Zowie does so well for themselves by having a nice product, not with high numbers and gimmicks.
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
I like no-frills mice that don't rely on anything but a native OS driver too. I also agree that gimmicks and pointlessly high number specs (presuming that's what "high numbers" means) leave me unimpressed. That's why I have a cheap-o from Dell that I got as inventory excess from my company's free-to-a-good-home box. Works great and racks up kills that make the occasional shooter I play a school girl gigglefest for me.So...as I said before, it's got nothing to do with the hardware or its function. There's no need to advocate product quality at me. I'm just amused by the brand name because I find it hilarious that something like that slipped through the cracks at a decent sized company.
kn00tcn - Friday, November 11, 2016 - link
as if benq rolls off the tongue, chinese/taiwanese brands are still chinese/taiwanese names, there's nothing unusual about zowie in the context of benq, this isnt corsairsilverblue - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Soon to be followed by Zoinks (for FreeSync support) and Jeepers (for GSync support), I suppose?BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Congrats, I almost choked on my tea from laughing when I read that! :DGuspaz - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
I have to wonder if G/Free-Sync would see diminishing returns with ever higher refresh rates anyhow. On a 60Hz monitor, the maximum timing error (the amount of time between when a frame could be presented and when it would actually be presented) for which G/Free-Sync could correct for would be 17ms, but on a 240Hz monitor, that error is reduced to only 4ms. Any judder introduced at that point would be very hard to spot.limitedaccess - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
It more likely prioritizing low input lag as much as possible and the target demo that really needing variable. If they are using this monitor they likely can also afford a very high end system which is going to be running e-sports titles that typically low req, which also may be further run at low graphics settings just to reduce on distractions.DanNeely - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
They do. If you want to avoid tearing you can enable VSync and only have a max delay of 4.167ms (vs 16.67ms at 60 hz) on a 240hz panel. Alternately without vsync any tearing artifacts will only be visible for 1/4th as long.saratoga4 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
It seems like adaptive sync would be unnecessary in this market. The latency gain from it would be incredibly small, and most likely people are running without VSYNC anyway.JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Yes, there's very little noticeable tearing at 144hz as compared to seeing it all the time on my 60hz screen. When I upgraded to a freesync capable GPU (on my already freesync capable monitor) I didn't notice much of a difference.Freesync really matters most when you happen to prefer to play a not-fast-paced-action game, such as Skyrim, and would prefer to increase graphical sliders for scenery, over increasing FPS past a certain point.
zodiacfml - Friday, November 11, 2016 - link
Yes it is but there could still be a use because we are seeing even higher resolution display these days. Reaching 120 fps on a high end machine will be difficult, probably through lowered effects/detail.rocky12345 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
As others have said about the name Zowie I was also going WTF were they thinking and for esports as well..wow...lollimitedaccess - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Zowie is actually an existing brand that was acquired by Benq. Zowie already has presence in that e-sports hardware demographic due to their mice.Flunk - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Doesn't sound like that was money well spent seeing the lack of name recognition around here. I remember their mice, but not fondly. I remember them as "that knockoff brand that people who can't afford Logitech or Razer mice buy".Demi9OD - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Zowie is the most popular brand of mouse in pro LAN competitions of CS:GO, Overwatch etc. I don't think they are the best either, but a lot of those guys get familiar with a shape/feel and don't want to change.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
That's like being the most popular person at a party where there's only two guests.JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
That's like thinking the party with the most guests (ie: Logitech/Razer) is the only party worth paying attention to.Yes, even a party with only two guests can be one of the best parties you've ever had if it's something meaningful to you. Such as your own birthday party after a dozen other friends decided they couldn't make it for your special day, at least the two guests that showed up really cared.
Zowie doesn't have the marketing budget of giants like Logitech and Razer, yet somehow they're one of the few that knows how to use flawless sensors in mice with familiar and standard shapes and sizes, without obtrustive drivers, with the flawless sensor performance gamers want. And they sell these mice at a fraction of the cost (and weight) that Logitech and Razer sell their mice at.
http://mousearea.com/best-csgo-gaming-mouse-2016/
Has multiple Zowies near the top of the list. Just because you haven't heard of them before doesn't make it a terrible brand, dude.
Dug - Monday, November 14, 2016 - link
Point wasn't that it's a terrible brand. It's a terrible name.Dr_Orgo - Thursday, November 10, 2016 - link
Seems just about perfect for professional eSports (MOBAs, FPS, and RTS). All the big eSports can hit 240 Hz easily making screen tearing a non-issue. 1080p TN panel is also fine.The Zowie brand is know for making gaming mice. Korean SC2 and broodwar pros are known for using the Zowie mico. I have a gaming mouse pad from them that's also quite nice. I had heard of Zowie significantly early than BenQ.
SantaAna12 - Sunday, November 13, 2016 - link
I have used Logitech, Razer and Zowie. I currently "party" with Zowie. I find it a step above Razer, and Logitech a distant third.SandroHaag - Saturday, November 12, 2016 - link
Der Zowie XL2540 integriert ein 24,5 Zoll großes Full-HD-Panel in TN-Technologie. Er soll bis zu 400 cd/m² hell sein und einen Kontrast von 1000:1 sowie eine Grau-zu-Grau-Reaktionszeit von einer Millisekunde aufweisen. Neben DVI-DL bietet er zwei HDMI-Anschlüsse, DisplayPort 1.2 sowie Kopfhörer- und Mikrofonbuchsen. Über eine abgesetzte Bedieneinheit namens S-Switch lassen sich drei verschiedene Profile für Games oder andere Nutzungen aufrufen.https://gear2game.ch/zowie-xl2540-62-23-cm-24-5-zo...
blzd - Sunday, November 13, 2016 - link
Be interesting to see how much of a visual difference this offers versus 120Hz.Lolimaster - Monday, November 14, 2016 - link
Not much, the only reason for high Hz LCD/OLED monitor is to address their sample&hold way of handiling frames, which is why a 85-100Hz CRT feels so much smoother since the frames are constantly refreshing.In fact. the final goal should be 480Hz to make them CRT-like in ghosting effect.