BenQ GW2490 monitor review: A brilliant office monitor for under £100

If you've ever wondered how little you can spend to get a decent everyday monitor, then you may be surprised to hear that it's less than £100. In fact, the BenQ GW2490 is a 24in Full HD monitor which will leave you enough change to buy two London-priced pints of beer. We'll have a pint of bitter, thanks.

There's understandably little in the way of luxuries, but what is surprising is that there are a few standout features. A height adjustable stand is unrealistic at this price – you'll just have to grab some of those dusty hardback reference books off the shelf instead – but BenQ softens the blow with a 100Hz IPS panel with adaptive sync, DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, and good image quality.

Suffice to say, if you're in the market for a cheap everyday monitor without spending the earth, then you can skip the rest of the review – we can confidently recommend this as the model to buy. If you want to know exactly why we like it so much, though, then read on.

BenQ GW2490 monitor: Design & Features

Pull the GW2490 from its eco-unfriendly polystyrene packaging, and setting it up is a doddle. The basic, plasticky stand comes in two parts and simply slots together, clicking into place with no tools or thumbscrews in sight. If you'd rather attach the GW2490 to a VESA desk or wall mount, then you can remove the plastic panel at the rear to expose the 100 x 100mm VESA mounting holes.

Once it's sat on the desk, it's fair to say this isn't a bad looking monitor. It is, top to toe, black matte plastics, and the combination of subtle curves and clean lines means that it looks pretty smart for a budget buy. The dainty bezel around the sides and top of the panel stops it from looking too frumpy, too. BenQ has done well given the limited budget at its disposal.

Naturally, there's no height adjustability or anything fancy, but the stand tilts back and forth by a useful amount. You'll need to adjust it two-handed, though. We had to use one hand to hold the base and the other to tilt the panel as the light plastic base lifts up easily when you push or pull the top of the panel.

The various ports at the rear are all downward-facing, with the power cable connecting on the right-hand side of the stand and all the other ports on the left. There are two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs and a single HDMI 1.4 input as well as a 3.5mm audio output. However, the fixed height stand means that it's tricky (read: virtually impossible) to connect the cables without lying the monitor down flat – the ports are annoyingly close to the stand's neck, so it's very hard to see what you're doing.

One rather nice surprise is that the BenQ's physical controls and on-screen display are well thought out; we've seen far cruder attempts on monitors at more than twice the price. The buttons are all positioned under the monitor's right-hand edge, and there are three clicky buttons alongside a four-way clickable joystick. Helpfully, the power button lights up with a faint white LED light when it's on, and this changes to amber when the PC is in sleep mode.

That joystick makes light work of navigating the on-screen display. The interface prioritizes quick access to the various picture modes, brightness settings, low blue light mode, and speaker volume. It's only two clicks to get into the menus proper, however, and there you'll find a decent amount of adjustability for all the usual features.

More unusually, BenQ has dedicated a button to the monitor's Low Blue Light Plus mode. While we're a tad cynical about the scientific benefits of such features, this is actually quite a handy implementation: tap the button and each tap takes you through the five strength levels before toggling it off again. Each tap makes the image look significantly warmer and more reddish – it's similar to the iPhone's Night Shift mode – and it's actually quite pleasant for working late at night as it is a little easier on the eye.

You can guess what we're going to say about the speakers. We can confirm that they're there. We can also confirm that they're bad enough to make the average smartphone speaker seem like an audiophile hi-fi system. If you can avoid using them, then that's for the best.

BenQ GW2490 monitor: Display quality

Once you've got used to larger displays with higher pixel densities, going back to a 24in Full HD may come as a bit of a shock. There simply isn't the pin-sharp text clarity of pricier displays. That said, the other aspects of the GW2490's image quality are very good for the money. So good, in fact, that you might just forget about the slightly fuzzy text and lack of overall crispness.

BenQ claims that the GW2490 offers a contrast ratio of 1,300:1, a peak brightness of 250cd/m2, and covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut, which are all good to see on a sub-£100 monitor. What's more, the 100Hz refresh rate is allied with VESA MediaSync accreditation, so there's basic support for AMD Freesync and Nvidia G-Sync.

In our testing, it's fair to say we came away impressed. Brightness reaches a maximum of 225cd/m2, which is about twice as bright as you'll need for office work – but home offices will appreciate having a bit of extra punch for games or movies. Contrast is exactly what you'd expect for a standard IPS panel, too, with a measured contrast ratio of 1,183:1.

Tested against an sRGB color target, the default Standard profile achieved an average Delta E of 1.54 and a maximum Delta E of 4.66. There were a few colors that exceeded a Delta E of 3, which means that they won't look accurate to the naked eye, but this isn't a bad result at all for a sub-£100 monitor.

Subjectively speaking, our test images looked good, and despite the slightly oversaturated reds, pinks, and greens, no one outside of the creative and photography departments is going to notice any issues. Colors are bright and skintones look natural – this monitor produces good-looking images. If anything, the most noticeable issue is that the measured 6,280k white point is just a tad warmer than it should be.

In fact, we managed to improve the color accuracy simply by adjusting the User profile's RGB controls and toning down the overexuberant Green and Red channels. Eyeballing one of our test images and notching down these settings by a couple of clicks improved the average Delta E to 1.16 and reduced the maximum Delta E from 4.66 to 3.9.

While you might miss the clarity of higher resolution displays, the fact that the BenQ's panel has a 100Hz refresh rate adds a welcome smoothness to the overall user experience. Scrolling is significantly silkier than on bog-standard 60Hz panels, and this means that text remains more legible as you scroll up and down longer documents. It's a small quality of life improvement, but it's welcome nonetheless.

In truth, there are no visible nasties to speak of whatsoever. The matte anti-glare coating isn't quite as effective at combating reflections as the best we've seen recently, but it's good. Shining a torch directly at the screen results in a noticeably dimmed bright spot, and the monitor did well to stay legible and glare-free even with our office's multiple spotlights pointing directly at it, and the two skylights above.

Even the backlighting and panel uniformity are respectable. Only one area out of 25 – the bottom right corner – failed to meet the ISO14861:2015 standard for consistent brightness and contrast, with the other 24 areas getting a passing grade. The backlight does get steadily dimmer away from the center of the screen, with brightness dropping by as much as 12% on the left-hand side, but it's not intrusive. Display a solid color across the screen, though, and you may notice that the left-hand side of the panel looks subtly lighter than the right. To be clear, though, this is nit-picking on an £85 monitor.

BenQ GW2490 monitor: Is it worth it?

If you're reading all this while cursing the lack of a height-adjustable stand, then the £140 BenQ GW2490T may just catch your eye. Frankly, though, once you're spending that much there are better value options to be had. For instance, the 5-star Recommended Philips 27E1N1600AE is currently retailing for around £180 and has a crisp WQHD resolution, better image quality, USB-C connectivity, and an adjustable stand.

If you can temper your upgrades, however, then it's the standard BenQ GW2490 that offers by far the best value for money. For the decidedly unprincely sum of £85, BenQ has served up respectable image quality, a slick 100Hz refresh rate, and a thoughtful all-around design. In these days of inflation-busting price rises, we'll drink to that.

BenQ GW2490 specifications