Upsizing Your Monitor

Hi, your helpful WFH Upgrade Guide here again.

If you're still spending time working from home you need to know it's no longer acceptable to be locked down to a laptop.

Don't get me wrong, I love laptops. Laptops are great. Well, some are certainly greater than others but obviously many of us need a mobile computing solution and laptops are great for that.

What I'm saying is, working from home is not a mobile situation. Even if you've embarked on a bold, new, hybrid worklife and you're in the office some days and home others, you're not doing yourself any favours by peering into a tiny screen and typing on a cramped keyboard for hours on end.

That doesn't necessarily mean you need to bin your laptop in favour of a whole new desktop setup - in fact, I'd suggest the opposite. If there's a way to convert your laptop into a desktop computer, moving your virtual worklife around becomes even easier and more seamless.

Also, when all the work is done, no matter how whizzy your laptop is, nobody really wants to game on a 13-inch screen.

BenQ has a couple of primo monitor upgrades for you to consider, the MOBIUZ EX2710U and EX3210U.

To begin with, if you've never experienced working with a 27-inch plus sized screen, do yourself a favour; find one and try it out. I've been playing around with both these 27 and 32-inch displays for a couple of weeks now and it's been blissful. While I usually use a 24-inch display with a smaller secondary screen off to the side, the jump in size to 27 or even 32 inches means I don't need that second display at all.

If you weren't aware, Windows 11 has a convenient layout feature that lets you divide your open windows into even shares of the screen - thirds, quarters etc - and this means I can easily arrange different browser windows side by side, just as I would with my two smaller screens. There's more than enough space.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The BenQ MOBIUZ gaming monitors are surprisingly easy to set up. They're packed securely in their boxes complete with their stands, remotes and an impressive selection of high quality cables.

Assembling and attaching the stand is a completely tool-free operation and only takes a few seconds. I love the stand. It's very solid and quite hefty. It swivels 15 degrees in either direction, tilts up and down and the height adjustment is generous at 100mm. All of these operations are easily performed without any special release of clamps or loosening and tightening anything. The mounting is set at exactly the right amount of resistance to support the monitor while making adjustments effortless. I'm not totally convinced about the not-quite-red/not-quite-orange accent colour along the front of the legs but at least it's not green.

Then it's just a matter of plugging these beasts in - and there are more than enough ports to plug things into; 2 x HDMI2.1 ports, a DisplayPort1.4, a USB Type B port for upstream connectivity and 4 (yes, FOUR) USB 3.0 ports for other peripherals - perhaps a dongle for wireless mouse, keyboard, camera or headset. So that's essentially a whole USB hub you've just plugged into your PC. 

As I've already said, there are some classy cables included too - HDMI, DisplayPort and USB-to-USB Type-B - one small issue though; all those ports are frustratingly tricky to access, tucked up behind the central mount of the stand. This is not an area you'll be wanting to access on a regular basis - in an effort to keep the rear panel of the MOBIUZ monitors looking almost as good as the front, BenQ has allowed only the bare minimum of space to slide plugs in and out - even the headphone jack is hidden back there out of reach.

I'll admit it does look nice and tidy though, once you do manage to get everything plugged in - especially when you've fed all the cables through the tidy-hole in the stand and replaced the cover over the top of all those messy, messy plugs. The rear of the monitor also features four RGB LED strips - these are programmable to your preference although if your monitor is against the wall, provide only a fairly dim ambience in a darkened room.

Obviously it's round the front where the real action is though. Using the small remote control you can access quite a library of settings - for sound as well as video. There are BenQ's HDRi presets to suit either gaming, cinema or every day display modes, but of course you can dig deeper to adjust all the usual brightness, contrast and others if you like - even creating a different profile or "scenario" for each connected device. There's a unique Light Tuner option offering 20 different colour choices depending on whether your more of an FPS or RPG player - the choice really is all up to you.

Needless to say, these 4K IPS screens look great and I've been especially impressed by the anti-glare coating - there's simply no reflection ever, even with bright light from windows directly behind. Amazing.

I enjoyed watching House of the Dragon just as much as working my way through a few more levels of my Marvel's Avengers campaign. Colours are vivid and even dark areas come across well. The 144Hz refresh rate keeps things lovely and smooth and having the remote makes accessing the various settings menus a breeze.

While BenQ has also put a similar amount of effort into its built-in treVolo sound system, I found the results here came up a little short. Again you can choose different presets for different kinds of games and viewing experiences and some of the 3D effects are actually pretty convincing. But as with most built-in sound systems on most displays, there's a lack of sheer power. Bass isn't really the booming force I'd prefer for explosions and dance beats and to be honest, I'd just like a bit more volume. It's enough... but if you're serious about a fully immersive, surround sound experience, some kind of external speaker setup is probably the way to go.

The same can't be said for the built-in microphone though. At first, I didn't even realise there was a mic - you have to dig into the settings a bit to turn it on which is a shame as the quality is impressive. You have the option of omni or more directional pickup and it really does sound crystal clear - a great option for online meetings and video calls - pity there isn't a camera built-in too.

As you can tell, I love both these screens - of course the 32-inch EX3210U is my favourite although it's almost too big for my desk! Which is why it's my favourite. Please, work-from-homers, I'm begging you; try a bigger screen. It's not just a matter of making your games look cooler, your productivity will go up, I guarantee it. Leave your laptop closed and plug it into one of these. You won't regret it.

    

Click here for more information on the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210U 4K 32-inch gaming monitor.

Click here for more information on the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210U 4K 32-inch gaming monitor.

Or just buy one here...