BenQ VA GW2750HM 27-Inch Screen LED-lit Monitor,Gloss Black

I've been out of the monitor game for awhile. From what it comes down to it's TN vs VA vs IPS. I found this monitor on sale for around $200 and decided to pull the trigger on it. What I was ultimately looking for was a large monitor with decent specifications and had HDMI & DVI. VGA, speakers a plus. I play both PC and Xbox 360 games on stream and at LAN's, so having a monitor that was capable of handling both kinds of inputs is a plus. I thought this monitor knocked it out of the park - 4 ms (GTG) response time? 27"? Speakers? Heck yeah! A company that I follow through ESPORTS? Oh boy!I also watched Linus' review of the monitor and understood it had some problems but what doesn't?Unpacking the monitor was fairly straight forward. Monitor snaps in and thumb screws to the base. It is extremely light! It also has a very very attractive look. I was really excited to hook it up.Upon connecting it all up I was almost instantly disappointed. The colors look bright and the blacks are good. The viewing angle is exceptional, which is what I heard about VA's. Good to go so far. Then I saw the ghosting.Oh god. The ghosting.This thing ghosts more than Patrick Swayze. I felt like I was misled on the response time. The actual response time is 12ms which to someone who really cares about things like response time, input lag and latency, is really high. I immediately noticed ghosting in RTS and First Person games. The colors of the grass changed from green to dark green whenever you moved. Dark, gray planets turned even darker when you panned over them.The monitor has an "AMA" feature, short for "Amazing!" AMA is a technology similar to the "Smooth Motion" technology that is in some TV's today. It's kinda like 120hz, but isn't. It interpolates the next frame so it looks more smooth. It wasn't. It definitely reduced the ghosting but it's still very noticeable. I chalked up a lot of this to the technology of the monitor by it being a "VA," so I sucked it up and tried to enjoy the 27" goodness of this monitor.When I attempted to calibrate in the menu another level of frustration came across - the on screen display. It is atrocious, laggy, and a lot of the features aren't available. It was very frustrating navigating through the different color schemes and trying to calibrate. Putting buttons on the right side of the monitor vertically is a headache.Lastly, what triggered me to return the monitor was the HDMI HDCP handshake. I cannot toggle to the HDMI connection without power cycling everything or reconnecting the HDMI cable to my Xbox. I never had a problem like this with my other monitors. I want to be able to switch it to HDMI mode and be able to play.The speakers are adequate for being built in, but I never took it to max.In closing, I was very disappointed in the technology but I took it as a learning experience. I feel that this monitor would be fantastic for those who don't notice or care about "ghosting" or want a good bang for your buck. This monitor is starting to dip to the $200 range and that's what got me into it. It's a good "budget" monitor, especially for what you get. If you're more patient than I am and want to put up with the headaches I got, go for it.Pros:HUGE! 27"Aesthetically pleasingVery lightweight, LED technologyGreat viewing anglesCompetitive pricingPlenty o' hookups (HDMI, DVI, VGA, Headphone Out) with built-in speakersCons:On screen display is laggy and frustrating to navigateHDMI didn't work consistently, probably due to the HDCP handshakeExtreme ghosting, especially without the "AMA" technology

Been using this for about 3 weeks now for gaming and I really like it. The colors very bright and vivid. Supposedly, the colors aren't perfect out of the box and require a bit of tweaking to match what is recognized as perfect standard. I looked into this a bit on some websites and attempted to follow along to make the right adjustments, but honestly, seemed like a waste of time as I just wasn't seeing much difference. Guess serious photo editors might get into all the perfect tweaking but to me, it looks beautiful at default settings. I docked a star for the ghosting. It truly is an issue for gaming. I have NOT seen any ghosting on any games more than a year old so far. In newer games though, it happens a lot if the background colors are bright behind the foreground focus. Examples: playing Dragon Age Inquisition, most areas have no ghosting. But when going into the desert areas, where the sand is bright, and lots of sunlight in the area, the ghosting is bad. To describe what it looks like, if you run your character across the screen with the sand behind them, you see a blue-ish trailer streaking behind them a couple of feet, almost like they are on fire with blue flames. It's definitely distracting, but doesn't detract too much from the value of the monitor at it's current price. So for the folks that are saying they have not seen any ghosting, it's because they have not played in the right areas of the right games yet. When they do, they WILL see the ghosting. It's a matter of fact with this technology, it's un-avoidable, unless you want to pay near $1000 for one of the newest IPS models on the market. There are a couple (and I do mean only a couple) that have managed to NEARLY eliminate the ghosting. It is still there, but on a much less noticeable scale. There may be certain games that I have not played that have bright enough backgrounds that will render this monitor un-usable for those particular games, due to the ghosting. From my experience to date though, it's fine. I would recommend this monitor if asked.

Absolutely love this monitor. I got it on sale, a steal for $200. I use it for my high end gaming PC and it works great. Turns on and responds very quickly and displays games beautifully. BenQ is a known and respected brand throughout the gaming community and it's easy to see why. Great HD monitor, big enough to play games, but not so big that it's out of price range.Update: May 2016 - Still works perfectly. A+

I have been using two monitors, this is perfect for me. The color is very vibrant, took me 8 months of searching reading reviews and product information before I finally to take a chance with this one. I have never heard of BenQ always have had ACER or LG monitors. Full time student so being able to spread out my work is really convienence, also watch tv and movies online plus some gaming. Price is great.

Bought it for the husband as a Christmas present so he could enjoy Battlefield 4 and his new fancy video card. The resolution is beautiful and the size is perfect for a desk. You get the big screen feel without have to sit 8 feet away!

This unit was delivered in perfect condition and the set up was easy to do. This monitor works really well for my son's gaming experience and he is very happy with it.

Screen works really great. Gooc colors, energy star, good options for plug-ins. I switched from Samsung 19'' for a 27''. My Samsung was top shape, but wanted bigger...