BenQ SW271 27 Inch 4K Photography Monitor, 3840 x 2160 UHD, HDR, IPS, 99 Percent Adobe RGB, 100 Percent sRGB, 10 bit - Grey

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After I launched the software for the first time, it immediately recognized the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and showed me the following screen: If you want to see more of your image, or need to view and edit 4K video, then this should provide a suitable solution. Once calibrated the image displays excellent colour, and viewing photographs is a pleasure. The BenQ SW271 impresses with its business style design and thin and flat bezel around the top and sides of the screen. There is a blue ring for putting the cables through. A weight of 16.4kg is quite heavy, although the stand has no problem supporting the weight, whilst offering ease of adjustment for height, tilt and orientation. The power light and on/off button isn't too bright a white.

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The SW271 is supplied with modular shade which is invaluable when working in brighter situations. (Image credit: BenQ)We were also able to confirm BenQ’s claims that this monitor boasts a Delta E of less than two in pretty much every color patch we could test. Using the new Delta E 2000 standard, the monitor records a maximum Delta E of just 1.51; using the older (but often referenced) Delta E 1976 standard, two patches peak over 2.5, but nothing ever got close to 3.

SW271C｜27-inch 4K AdobeRGB USB Type-C Photographer - BenQ

One of the toughest tests for any monitor is how well a monitor can display white. So we've taken a photo of the screen displaying 100% white, with white balance on the camera set using the central point of the monitor. The monitor has a slight magenta / pink hue on the right-hand side of the monitor and a very slight green cast on the left-hand side of the monitor. Overall, it looks like the uniformity results for the SW271 looks pretty decent, especially when compared to the BenQ SW320 that demonstrated fairly poor uniformity, particularly in the corners. Still, I did not expect to see a sharp drop in uniformity right outside the center zone – as you can see, the right side of the center area looks quite a bit different. I also looked at the Eizo CS2730/31 but they only use 8 bit + 2 bit FRC panels. There is much debate about this, with some saying true 10 bit is crucial while other say it cannot be seen by the human eye so 8 bit + is fine. I would great appreciate your opinion ColorConsultant and/or Nasim on where the true 10 bit qualification should fall on my list of considerations. Night & day when talking about color uniformity. That SW271 is an useless unit regarding color uniformity. Also calibration software is better (but some PA271Q units exhibit some kind of calibration problem so right now CS/CG are safer)Response time is 5ms grey-to-grey, which should be good for video (and gaming), as response times below 8ms are generally considered good by today's standards. The monitor also features a built-in USB3 hub with two ports, and an SD card reader. True 10bit panel for an SDR display (ALL of them are SDR even if they admit HDR10 signal) offers nothing different from an 8bit+dither.

BenQ SW271 review | Digital Camera World

As you can see, the right bottom side is just a tad more pink compared to the left side, which is a common issue with many BenQ monitors. Although it is not as bad as on the SW320 I reviewed previously, it is still definitely there. Overall brightness uniformity is also a problem and you can see a bright hotspot in the middle, which is quite common to see on most monitors of this level.Thank you for your time, extraordinary knowledge and opinions. What you recommend will greatly influence my final decision on a monitor. FYI, for the most part, I use PS and LrC to edit in Windows 10. Earlier last year I had a chance to test the BenQ SW320 monitor, which turned out to be a solid choice for my photography needs. I was able to calibrate the display using both BenQ’s native Palette Master Element software and DisplayCAL, which provided me with great results at the end (you can see my calibration results in my detailed BenQ SW320 Review). I wanted to explore BenQ’s product line even further and this time I will be taking a closer look at the smaller 27″ version of the monitor, the SW271. Quite a few things have changed since last time I looked at BenQ monitors and with the most recent updates to calibration software, it seemed like I could get even more out of these wide gamut displays. Let’s take a look at what I was able to achieve with the BenQ SW271 in my environment. Keep in mind that this is what you normally get with most budget options on the market. Unless you are ready to move up to NEC and Eizo monitors that offer good overall uniformity and uniformity compensation features, most other monitors are going to struggle in this department. Verifying Factory Calibration I would even say the same for true 10bit end to end communication (Photoshop 10bit and that stuff)… a dithered 8bit communication ( or 10bit comunication dithered to 8bit in some step) should be visually equivalent: Lightroom, CaptureOne and ACR, all use dithered outputs, all render “10bit test ramp” smooth. You just need to ensure that your calibration caused no banding (realiable HW cal or good GPU)