BenQ BL2205PT business monitor review
BenQ BL2205PT monitor
£122Pros
- Good image quality
- Reasonable colour accuracy
- Great adjustability
- Eye care tech
- Good price - especially if don't pay VAT
Cons
- No frills
- Menu a bit fiddly
The BenQ BL2205PT could be the monitor you’re looking for if you’re in the market for a business-oriented screen for around £100.
The BenQ BL2205PT is definitely aimed at the more office-based uses.
While it may have the basics covered, video and picture editors should be looking elsewhere. The same goes for you gamers too.
What this monitor aims to do, however, is provided solid business use at a budget-friendly price.
So, how does it do?
BenQ BL2205PT design
The design of the BL2205PT will fit inconspicuously in to any office environment.
You get an understated, all-black look featuring a narrow black bezel around the 21.5-inch matte screen.
The right-hand bezel area is where you will find a series of indicator lights. These are for the menu buttons which are actually around the back of the bezel. The buttons cover duties of power, menu and three others which can be user assigned as menu shortcuts.
It is good to see that the BLP2205PT features height and angle adjustment.
Around the rear of the monitor is where the connectivity ports live. Here is a D-sub (VGA), DVI , and a DisplayPort v1.2 socket. You also get a headphone jack and an audio line-in port.
Nope, I’ve not missed anything out there. No matter how many times you check, you wont find a HDMI port here.
BenQ BL2205PT set up
Getting started with the monitor is pretty straight forward.
To put it all together, once out of the compact packaging, is simply a case of putting four screws through the backplate and fitting them. Then just screw on the base and you are good to go.
In order to get the perfect position, the screen is adjustable up and down by 15cm. You can also tilt it back and forth.
As team work is all important, the stand swivels generously so you can share what’s on your screen.
Menus
Pressing the top button hands you the BL2205PT menu. This is split into 5 areas: Display, Picture, Picture Advanced, Audio & System.
I have used slicker OSD (on-screen display) menus. It is a blessing, then, that you are able to attribute shortcuts to your most used tweaks.
The Picture Menu contains the basic settings of Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness. Dive in to the Advanced menu and you can adjust Gamma, Colour Temperature, Hue and Saturation.
BenQ BL2205PT performance
The BLP2205PT utilises an LED backlight to illuminate the 21.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) TN panel.
The screen has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a claimed maximum brightness of 250cd/m2 with a native contrast ratio of 1000:1.
Pixel response time is claimed at two milliseconds, grey-to-grey. The monitor specs are rounded off with promised viewing angles of 170 degrees horizontal and 160 degrees on the vertical plane.
Kind to eyes
The BL2205 features BenQ’s proprietary Flicker-free Technology. It has the Low Blue Light Mode which aims to reduce the strain of blue spectrum light.
The Low Blue Light Mode is preconfigured to one of the hot keys and provides default 30% reduction for multi-media, 50% for Web-surfing, 60% for ‘Office’ and Reading gets a 70% reduction.
The monitor also features an anti-glare panel which is pretty good at keeping reflections down and is something else that will preserve your peepers.
Image Quality
Overall image quality is probably the most important part of this business screen.
If documents are your thing, and for most office workers it is, you’ll be glad to know that text is sharp and clear in all modes.
I found that I needed to tweak the sharpness up a bit from the standard settings but that might be my eyes.
The viewing angles are quite narrow, but I guess that’s why they have the swivel function.
Everything looks pretty good across the whole panel. Yes, the corners do get a little washed out but no more than some other TN panels I’ve seen.
Speed and fatigue
Slinging Project Cars up on my machine did task the BL2205, but I expected that. The same goes for movies too for that matter. This is down to the monitor only having screen refresh rate options of 50, 59.94 or 60Hz , where the majority of films call for a 240Hz output for optimal viewing.
If your office allows you to play top level games or watch video, they should really supply you with a gaming screen.
Contrast out of the box is decent, as is its brightness.
BenQ’s Eye-care features do really work, from what I experienced. Using the BL2205PT for extended periods felt comfortable. The Reading Mode, in particular, is very gentle. Sitting in front of this monitor for an 8 hour day, with regular breaks of course, would result in minimal fatigue.
Colour Accuracy
The BL2205PT ships in the sRGB Picture Mode. I expected this to follow the industry standard of the same name. Unfortunately, it seems a little off to me.
This can be remedied through the User Mode if you require better on-screen accuracy. But, as I said earlier, this is not really an editing screen.
For the most part though the BL2205 performed well enough for standard tasks and viewing.
BenQ BL2205PT review conclusion
If you spend most of your time working on documents with occasional distractions from your favourite social sites, then this monitor could be the one for you.
The BL2205 is inexpensive and performs well for the price.
You get really good images and eye-care tech and flicker-free functioning that will allow for comfortable working days.
I am really impressed by the adjustable stand and range of connections. The lack of HDMI shouldn’t cause much issue thanks to the inclusion of DisplayPort 1.2.
BenQ BL2205PT price and availability
Amazon has the BL2205PT available now for £122.
