On paper, that claim appears to be quite accurate. With the MOBIUZ line, BenQ, which has produced gaming monitors for decades and is renowned for its quick panels, is making a strong debut. Although not everything works as it should, the EX3210U is a fantastic gaming monitor for the money and could be a great addition to any setup if you are willing to overlook a few of its minor flaws. Gamers have had to decide between blur reduction and a high sync rate when it comes to monitors. They can choose to use both at once with the BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U. The combination of its adaptive sync and blur reduction offers high-resolution, high refresh rate gaming without causing tears. A 32-inch 4K gaming display has long been missing from the BenQ lineup. With the demand for gaming monitors in this specific form factor skyrocketing, BenQ has chosen to take advantage of the market with the 3210U. This particular 4K model isn’t just for casual gamers thanks to its 32-inch IPS panel, 144Hz refresh rate, adaptive-sync, and extended color.
Design
The Mobiuz gaming range from BenQ isn’t the most gorgeous monitor line available right now, but it’s close. It has a simple, angular design that is typical of the gaming industry, but it contrasts this with a standout white and orange color scheme. This makes the EX3210U stand out from the competition while still being understated enough to blend in with a formal home office. To add some flair to your gaming area at night, a custom RGB accent light is available, but it can only be managed manually through the monitor’s menus. By default, it is not on. The monitor is large and robust, and it comes with a heavy stand that can be adjusted for height, tilt, and swivel. The construction quality is excellent, almost on par with Alienware’s best. The BenQ EX3210U’s size and weight, similar to those of Alienware’s displays, aren’t for everyone. This 32-inch monitor occupies a lot of room on your desk and does nothing to reduce its size. With two HDMI 2.1 connections, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, and a USB hub with four USB-A 3.0 sockets available, the port selection is greater than usual. Although USB-C would have been preferred, it’s excellent to see the most recent HDMI 2.1 standard on this device. Although the downward-facing ports on this style of display can be a headache to connect cables to, you do get a basic cable management opening built into the stand to keep things somewhat organized.
BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U review: Display
Like many other comparable gaming monitors, the BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U’s appearance can vary greatly based on your preferences. The monitor can appear either bright or dark, and either colorful or dull, between Standard and HDR settings. Following the standards, we’ll explore our qualitative experiences. The benchmarks for the Mobiuz EX3210U were broadly consistent with our observations. The screen is normally a touch dimmer than both the Acer Nitro XV282K and the Asus TUF VG28UQLIA, despite the fact that it may get rather bright. However, the color spectrum is slightly more varied. This is apparent in some games and applications, but other times the screen is just too dark to see the color differences. The Mobiuz EX3210U’s visual quality, like that of most other gaming monitors, mostly depends on the presets you select. The monitor’s inability to turn HDR on and off easily is an intriguing feature. Instead, the gadget checks to see if HDR is turned on in your source system and responds accordingly. This is advantageous since, in my experience, the HDR colour palette is more true, especially when it comes to blues and greens. On the other side, it is more challenging to compare settings when you can’t switch between them at will. This is annoying because the Standard brightness really performs better and some of the HDR gaming presets are a little too dark. If you want a screen that is optimized for first-person shooters, racing games, role-playing games, or one of three distinct HDR types, the Mobiuz EX3210U does have quite a few different presets. It’s simply a shame that some of them are too dark to be enjoyable and that, for other games, like Doom Eternal, the screen tends to switch modes on its own. Although auto-switching profiles is an unusual feature for a gaming monitor, it would have been nice to have had a bit more control over the pre-set modes.
Image quality
Although the BenQ EX3210U is a gaming monitor, it places almost as much focus on excellent image quality for viewing and creating content. Even though there are a few problems with the monitor, this is generally good news. Only 263 nits are measured for SDR brightness, which is significantly less than many competitors. The monitor’s maximum HDR brightness is significantly higher, so this is a little perplexing. It implies that BenQ purposefully reduces the monitor’s brightness. you can read our article on BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U review. There might be valid explanations for this. Dark scenes might frequently appear worse when viewing SDR video at a brightness level exceeding 200 nits. If watched in a dark space over time, it might even grow uncomfortable. However, it’s preferable to allow people increase brightness as needed. The EX3210U has a major issue with contrast. Only 540:1 was the contrast ratio that we observed. IPS gaming monitors, like the EX3210U, are infamous for having poor contrast, but the EX3210U performs even worse than usual. For depth and dimensionality in both games and movies, a lack of contrast is bad news. When compared to TVs with superior contrast, content frequently appears flat. Dark scenes appear blurry with obvious bright patches along the edges of the screen due to poor black level performance. But the EX3210U is not the only one. This problem is shared by direct rivals such the Asus ROG Strix PG329Q and Viewsonic XG320U. The EX3210U struggles with contrast but excels in color performance. It provides 100% of the sRGB, 100% of the AdobeRGB, and 95% of the DCI-P3 gamuts. The EX3210U more than meets the requirements for a wide-gamut display based on these excellent numbers.
Interface
The BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U includes a robust menu system that you may navigate using the provided remote control or buttons on the monitor’s bottom. In either case, the user interface could be a little confusing. Depending on which button is pressed, a slightly different menu system, such as an HDR selector, a volume dial, or a more comprehensive settings screen, will appear. Additionally, the “menu” and “power” buttons have a remarkably similar feel, which can result in some frustrating errors. Even if it doesn’t run very quickly, the menu structure is generally understandable after you take the time to figure it out. If you intend to utilize the remote control, it is a useful feature that the text can be read from a distance.
BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U review: Gaming and Hands-on
The EX3210U’s color is its best feature. The breadth is enormous, and Windows’ initial startup makes it clear. Rich colors throughout even give the desktop backdrop image a whole new perspective. No hue is less vivid than another. Because of the excellent balance, even though you’re viewing more color than was originally encoded into the SDR content, it still looks completely natural. Both images and text-heavy content include a lot of detail. You can sit close to a 4K display at 32 inches without noticing any pixelation. It’s the low resolution of the material, not the monitor, that causes jagged lines to appear. With my gamma adjustments in place, the image has a respectable amount of depth, and since the gamma is a touch higher than spec, there is no washout or obscured detail. The three HDRi emulation modes that we tested in Windows proved to be challenging to use. Even though display HDR is the least harsh, it still blurs shadow detail. To make up for the greater contrast, you can increase Light Tuner, but you’ll lose it in the process. While using HDRi to play SDR games, we got a similar situation. They are not viable because there is too much black crush. Emulation is eliminated by using Light Tuner to restore the detail. However, HDR content itself is fantastic. The Display HDR mode is accurate in every way, including color gamut, luminance tracking, and grayscale. Thanks to the edge-zone-dimming backlight, the EX3210U is BenQ’s greatest HDR display to date. This display represents a significant improvement even if a complete array light would be preferable. We anticipate BenQ bringing this capability to their other Mobiuz gaming screens. Great evening situations in Call of Duty WWII made excellent use of the HDR capabilities of the EX3210U. The light flashed on the faces of the warriors, casting a nearly mystical image of a courtyard lit exclusively by campfires. Surfaces made of metal and stone popped with precise detail. Horde mode, which was recently added to Doom Eternal, is something we frequently play. The backdrop was stunning, and the EX3210U had no trouble keeping up with the fast-paced action. We observed frame rates of over 130 frames per second, and the display was responsive and fluid thanks to superb visual processing. Although we extol the merits of faster speeds from lower-resolution screens, we had no issues with the prowess of this monitor. Using the Blur Reduction simply strengthened this impression. The only thing we have against it is how aggressively it reduces light output compared to other BenQ monitors we’ve evaluated. Although the motion is smoother as a result, some additional light would be helpful. For its backlight strobe, BenQ has not provided an adjustable pulse width, which would be helpful in this situation.
BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U review: Performance
The flat IPS panel of the EX3210U has a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels in a conventional 16:9 aspect ratio, a 144Hz refresh rate, and a 4ms response time. Additionally, it is HDR10 and VESA DisplayHDR 600 compatible, indicating that it is also positioned as a console monitor. Additionally, it has excellent color accuracy, scoring 99% Adobe sRGB and 98% DCI-P3. The colors are vivid and strong. We are extremely sensitive to color changes and oddities as professional designers with over 20 years of experience, so we are thrilled with the BenQ. The OSD offers a few professional color modes, but you can also easily adjust it to your own, preferred settings. Generally speaking, the EX3210U displays content beautifully, including movies, games, and web browsing. We spent a lot of time playing Ghost of Tsushima on the PlayStation 4 Pro (which is ideal as a PS5 monitor or Xbox Series X monitor for new-gen 4K120Hz gaming), Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, and Assassin’s Creed Origins on the PC. Thanks to adaptive sync, 4K games run smoothly without juddering or tearing. Their clarity and sharpness are just stunning. Additionally, when you save settings for each individual device, the monitor automatically switches to those settings. The HDR performance is respectable but not outstanding. The restricted local dimming is primarily to blame for this. The EX3210U uses edge dimming, which is unable to produce the required contrast. In fact, dark information typically makes the corners of the screen appear washed out, especially when seen off-center. The HDRi Intelligent HDR function is great, despite this. The optimal settings are selected automatically based on the type of screen content. Impressively, HDRi can also be used with SDR content, effectively simulating HDR for you. With different modes for Game, Cinema, and Display HDR, it does an excellent job of bringing out detail and contrast in the image. We discovered that the Display HDR mode had the best color and contrast range for our tastes.
Price and availability
Conclusion
Like many of the brand’s best-selling products, the BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U is a fantastic gaming monitor. Even though its color accuracy is a little off, the screen’s 4K 144Hz performance offers vibrant colors and respectable HDR performance. We adore the monitor’s general design and use, which makes it a wise buy if you play games on several platforms.
