BenQ RL2240HE 22 inch Console Gaming Monitor Reviews

If you’re looking for a 21.5" monitor to play games on (especially consoles), look no further. I owned an HP w1907 for years that I played my Xbox 360 on, and it was a darn good monitor, but this BenQ just blows it away. (Note: A rundown of pros and cons is at the bottom.)

Let me start by saying that I am a pretty hardcore gamer; been playing first-person shooters, racing games, strategy games, etc. for over 20 years (dating back to the NES). Things have come a long way since I started gaming on a 13" CRT, and I can tell you that this is the best screen I have ever played on, hands down.

I play mostly FPS (first-person shooter) games like Halo, Titanfall, Battlefield, etc. I care about things like response time and input lag, as I play seriously with my friends on a weekly (even nightly) basis. BenQ’s motto is "because it matters", and it does. This monitor is pretty much custom-built for gamers; it has a 1 ms (grey-to-grey) response time (5 ms on-off), and the input lag is practically zero. It has a ton of gamer-friendly features like a Black Equalizer and Flicker-Free technology, along with an Instant Mode that reduces image processing as much as possible to reduce input lag.

Ironically, the Black Equalizer and Flicker-Free features are what they hype up, and the first one is mostly a marketing gimmick. I tried it and couldn’t see that it made all that much difference. Can’t speak for the second one, as my eyes never really got tired on my last monitor, but they don’t get tired on this one either. The Instant Mode, which I didn’t know about til I started poking around in settings, is actually the feature that would have sold me on this monitor the quickest. When I move my thumbstick, my reticule mirrors it exactly, with an almost imperceptibly small delay.

The colors are awesome and it’s full HD (1920 x 1080), even though it’s only 21.5". The picture is so crisp, it’s crazy. The stand is super easy to attach, and while I have not tried to detach it, it looks easy enough. And this thing is LIGHT. I can’t wait to take it to LAN parties, my old one was heavy as a brick.

The built-in menus are super intuitive and not confusing in the slightest. I was very pleased. They even let you save 3 custom presets with your own settings, so if you play Game X often, and it has a lot of dark areas, you can bump up the brightness and save it as a preset. Then when you play Game Y, you can switch back to a 2nd preset with more normal settings very easily. Super convenient.

BenQ states that their RL line of monitors is optimized for RTS (real-time strategy) games, and this monitor does come with two RTS-specific presets, one for general RTS use and one specifically for Dota 2. I don’t play RTS on console, so I was a little worried about how it would handle FPS’s, but I can definitely say that this is perfect for FPS’s too.

The inputs on the back are easy enough to get to. I tried VGA at first, but my Xbox 360 definitely looks better using HDMI. I can’t even imagine how the Xbox One is going to look on this thing. Do yourself a favor and get an short HDMI cable if you’re not using one already.

Now for the list of pros and cons.

== Pros ==
Very lightweight
Professional packaging
Crisp, full-HD display
Lightning-fast response time
Virtually no input lag
Stable stand
Easy-to-use menu

== Cons ==
Only 75 hz refresh rate (I believe), so may not be the best for high-fps PC games
Kinda pricey (you can get a 21.5" Asus for 30-40 bucks less, and BenQ’s 24" monitors are only another 20-30 bucks more)
No carrying handle, although the cutaway for the inputs can be used as one

== Neutral ==
Bright yellow back might be a pro to some, a con to others, and some people might not care either way. I like it.
Many of the presets looked kinda washed out, and I had to use the sRGB preset to get it to look good. This is not a problem, but was slightly annoying.
It’s not the biggest screen. 21.5" was the size I wanted, but some may find it too small.

To sum up:
If you play console games, whether Playstation, Xbox, or Wii, I can’t imagine you wanting a better monitor than this. You might want a bigger one, but if you’re looking for something this size, stop thinking about it and buy it. And if you’re currently playing games on the family TV, this will feel like going from a 1985 Volvo to a Bugatti Veyron in terms of performance, and your gaming skill will seem to improve drastically overnight. I will update this review in the future if I feel a need to, but if there is no update, assume that I’m too busy wrecking face in Destiny or Halo to edit this, lol. Just buy it… you won’t be disappointed!

I absolutely love this monitor, the yellow case is just amazing (that was the main reason i wanted it) I have 2 other BenQ monitor’s (BL 2710 PT and a XL2720Z) which are both great monitors,the rl2240he is tiny sitting next to the 27 inch monitor but I dont even notice the size when im playing a game,using it with a xbox one or ps4 is perfect, Refresh rate is 60 to 75 hz ,refresh rate on a xbox or ps4 is 60hz so 120 -144 hz is not needed,1Ms reponse time on the monitor is the same as the 2720z, the Rl2240he has everything a console gamer needs in a smaller size ,HDMI only allows 60hz anyway,and the price is right,all in all its a little gem of a monitor.just need to find some borderlands stickers to put on it

So far this is a new experience for me so far been testing this on my ps4 and so far no complaints I see the difference in frames rates when playing a heavy demanding games such as sf5 batman Arkham knight
Uncharted 4 and a few other frame demanding games….

A few pros and cons I’ll mention in an update