When comparing BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 vs Asus ROG Swift PG348Q, the Slant community recommends BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is ranked 23rd while Asus ROG Swift PG348Q is ranked 41st. The most important reason people chose BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is:
You can move between different display modes with a click of a button because using the configurable fast-access switch attached to the base of the monitor.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Has a remote
You can move between different display modes with a click of a button because using the configurable fast-access switch attached to the base of the monitor.
Pro Reduces the eye strain
The ZOWIE XL2720 causes noticeably less eye strain than the majority of competitors in its price range because the monitor is flicker-free and has a mode that reduces the intensity of blue light.
Backlight flickering and high-intensity blue light emitted by LEDs are among the main factors related to eye fatigue that is caused by extensive use of computer monitors.
Pro Decent ergonomics
You can adjust the monitor’s tilt angle, swivel angle, and height so you won't have much trouble configuring it according to your setup.
Pro Responsive OSD buttons
The five capacitive OSD buttons are built very well and react quickly each time you press them.
Pro Highly responsive
The monitor's input lag stays at the fantastically low value of 3.2 ms making the ZOWIE XL2720 one of the most responsive gaming monitors in its price range.
A monitor’s input lag represents the delay between your GPU generating a frame and the frame starting to appear on your monitor.
Pro Intuitive OSD
The OSD is organized in a user-friendly way so all of the settings in the menu are only a couple of clicks away. Additionally, you can customize the OSD menu.
Pro Displays motion well
The monitor's excellent motion handling capabilities allow the BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 to display fast-paced content free from motion blur and ghosting because of its panel's high native refresh rate and fast pixel response time.
Motion blur and ghosting effects are eliminated by the panel's quick pixels that need only one millisecond to change their color because of the monitor's full pixel response time of 1 ms. Such fast color change prevents fast-moving objects from leaving artificial trails.
The monitor’s 144 Hz panel refreshes every seven milliseconds making motion appear smooth and fluid.
Pro Good picture quality
Regarding its picture quality, the ZOWIE XL2720 is on par with the majority of gaming monitors in this price range as it offers sufficient contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma response.
While the monitor's dark scene performance is mediocre, it can still display vivid and accurate colors and eye-catching intermediate tones. It can recreate average-looking dark scenes with blacks that are neither overly flat, nor profound as the monitor's native contrast ratio is limited to 915:1. The colors pop and appear relatively accurate since the ZOWIE XL2720 combines relatively high peak brightness of 315 nits with almost unnoticeable color accuracy error dE of 2.2. Mid-tones look good and saturated thanks to the monitor's gamma response of 2.06 which is only 6.3% away from the ideal value.
Pro Great for gaming
The BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is one of the best gaming monitors in its price range because it offers low input lag, flawlessly-handled motion, and high native refresh rate combined with decent overall picture quality.
Pro Built-in USB hub
You can connect up to three peripheral USB devices to your computer using the monitor's inbuilt USB 2.0 hub. This would come in handy for those who use a laptop and have a lot of stationary USB devices.
Pro Adjustable base
Getting the perfect viewing angles isn’t that complicated with the Asus PG348Q as it supports all the necessary ergonomic adjustments.
Pro Ergonomics, size, usability
Ergonomics: It can be lifted up and down, turned right and left, and tilted up and down. So basically the screen can be adjusted to any dimension to suit your view angle.
Size: It has an optimum size (34") that looks great in games, movies and provides a lot of space to use your Windows applications side by side without ALT-tabbing between them. Any size smaller than this is a small screen (such as PG279Q) and any screen larger than this is too large for your eyes at a desktop PC-user distance.
Quality: Asus quality is behind this monitor. So no bug, no technical problems.
Pro Curved display
The monitor’s 3800R curve offers you an extra level of immersion as you can feel the panel surrounding you.
Pro Suitable for content creation
This Asus PG348Q is an excellent tool for content creators who like to capture, edit, and upload their gaming footage to YouTube or some other popular media services as the monitor offers a great amount of on-screen real estate, combined with the full sRGB coverage.
Pro Has speakers
The monitor’s pair of 6 W integrated speakers sound surprisingly good and will come in handy outside of gaming.
Pro Has a USB hub
You can use the monitor’s integrated USB 3.0 hub for charging and interconnecting peripheral USB devices. The hub consists of a single upstream and four downstream USB 3.0 ports.
Pro Excellent viewing angles
The PG348Q looks good even from sides as the monitor offers some of the best viewing angles on the market. You’ll notice some color and shadow shifting only when the viewing angle exceeds 50 degrees, which is an outstanding result, as even the best IPS panels usually start to degrade at the 40 degrees angles.
Pro Adequate motion handling
The Asus PG348Q recreates relatively good-looking motion, with only some minor trails of motion blur following fast-moving objects on the screen. While fighting motion blur, the panel’s main weapon is the overdrive feature which allows each pixel of the Asus PG348Q to change its color within only five milliseconds. Unfortunately, some tiny trails of motion blur manage to get through.
Alternatively, you can use Asus’s ultra-low-motion-blur feature to eliminate the unwanted effect of motion blur, but that would cost you G-Sync, which can’t be used together with the ULMB.
Pro Lag-free
Even while playing fast-paced FPS games, the Asus PG348Q feels highly responsive because of its low input lag of only 5,3 ms. Even though there are some faster panels available on the market, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to feel the 5,3 ms delay.
Monitor’s input lag is a time delay needed to process a frame generated by a computer.
Pro Supports G-Sync
G-Sync reduces stutter and eliminates screen-tearing as it allows the Asus PG348Q to synchronize its refresh rate to the framerate of a Nvidia GPU.
The monitor supports G-Sync in the 30-100 Hz range.
Pro Gamer-centric features
The Asus PG348Q comes with a rich selection of gamer-specific features, which include an FPS counter, timer, and multiple crosshair options. You can find those in the monitor’s GamePlus menu. All the elements are customizable.
Pro Excellent picture quality
The monitor’s native contrast ratio, peak brightness, gamma, and color uniformity are on par with what the best gaming monitors on the market offer.
The Asus PG348Q displays fascinating images, with crisp and vivid colors, accurate intermediate tones, and deep blacks. Colors pop and look vibrant thanks to the monitor’s peak brightness of 309 nits. Mid-tones look life-like since the monitor’s average gamma deviation is only 1.3% off from the perfect value. Blacks look rich and consistent because, while the panel’s native contrast ratio of 1081:1 manages to push blacks to relatively intense levels, the monitor’s overall uniformity dE of 0.78 ensures that the dark tones don’t blend with bright spots nearby. Such high color uniformity is a rare feature even for high-end monitors.
Moreover, the PG348Q’s color inaccuracies are virtually invisible to the human eye, because of it’s small color gamut error dE of 1.71.
Pro Excellent for gaming
The Asus ROG Swift PG348Q offers a combination of picture quality, responsiveness, and motion handling capabilities only the best gaming monitors can match. It is also equipped with a bunch of top-notch gaming features, like G-Sync, crosshair, and FPS counter.
Cons
Con Lacks adaptive sync
The BenQ ZOWIE XL2720 is not compatible with either Nvidia's G-Sync or AMD's FreeSync.
Con Lacks speakers
The ZOWIE XL2720 does not have inbuilt speakers.
Con Expensive
Priced just a bit below the $380 mark, this is a pretty costly 27-inch FHD monitor.
Con Price
A bit expensive.
Con Poorly situated USB ports
Once the monitor’s back lid is closed, you can’t access its integrated USB hub.
Con Needs calibration
To achieve the best monitor’s picture quality and color accuracy you need to calibrate some of its settings. Fortunately, all the critical calibration parameters are available online.
Con Requires a beefy computer
Only the best hardware can unleash the monitor’s full potential while running the latest AAA games on maximum graphics settings. In fact, the Asus itself suggests using ‘GTX 980 Ti or above’ for smooth gameplay.