BenQ XR3501 35-inch Curved Ultra Wide Gaming Monitor

(As a note I purchased a refurbished one at much lower price than a brand new one). With that being said here are my initial impressions after using it for a few days. My review in a nutshell: A monitor aimed at gamers who want an incredible experience. Pros: This monitor, even at 2560x1080, is beautiful to look at. I do not notice any back-light bleed, and my monitor had no dead pixels/damage. Playing video games and watching movies feels incredibly different since a good portion of your peripheral view is consumed by this monitor. If immersion was quantifiable it would be up there for sure. On top of that the 144hz is very responsive versus a standard 60hz monitor. While some may say 60hz is "enough" for PC gaming, I would agree that its enough, but not enough to go above and beyond. The 35" of screen real estate is a joy to work with, and BenQ has plenty of screen presets (like Photo, Movie, Gamer etc.) and for most people this will be all the customization they need. This monitor will (literately) be the center of attention on your desk. Cons: Cable management in the back is passable, but by no means a fun time. Most connections require a right angle bend within one inch, so this was a minor inconvenience while trying to perfect the look of everything. Next is the lack of height adjustment, while this may not affect some people, my personal desk layout required me to prop the monitor up on 3 small washcloths. While it isn't pretty it gets the job done until a more suitable remedy is brainstormed. The buttons while "labeled" on the bottom bezel are initially off putting until you commit to getting familiar with it. Other thoughts: If you can find this monitor under 600$ and in a suitable condition, jump on it. Sure it may not check off every single enthusiast's requirements, but when sitting in front of the monitor, its hard to deny that it is beautiful. Sure it could have a 3440x1440 resolution, or g-sync, but with Nvidia's DSR you can mimic the higher resolution pretty well without noticing a difference. Above 100hz g-sync begins to lose it's value as the refresh rate itself reduces screen tearing. Just make sure your computer is capable enough to run this as it will beyond a doubt require some more horsepower. While this monitor can be used for common work applications, gaming is where this really shines, and most likely why you are looking at this right now. I will update with pictures/comments as I move beyond the "honeymoon phase" with this monitor. Update 1: After using this monitor for over 4 months now I still wouldn't switch back to a traditional dual monitor setup. While I primarily use this for gaming, using this for just about anything else is still amazing. Sure some games don't support the widescreen resolution, but this monitor has changed how I will play pc games going forward. The hype for ultrawide monitors is deserved. The navigation buttons on the bottom of the monitor are largely a non-issue now, once you have fine tuned some presets the only thing you will end up doing is switching between them. Personally I have night/day presets but the controls are not as terrible as people make them out to be.

When it worked, the windows home screen looked fabulous. Games were...ok. Biggest problem was severe ghosting GtG. Bright spots on a dark background would VERY noticeably dim with any movement. The biggest issue, though, was that the monitor was defective (so the GtG issue may just have been a part of that). There were horizontal lines of flickering pixels in random, but isolated, spots on the screen. After about five minutes the screen would go to a green vertical hash. Called BenQ and they said "Bad monitor, send it back to vendor!". $250 to send back to Vendor! Still waiting for a refund.

Worth the money. For me, display is perfect in either Windows or Linux, doing either productivity tasks or heavy gaming. For the record, I'm using an EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Hybrid via the Mini DisplayPort cable included with the screen and am using Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16. In both OS cases, I can confirm the 144Hz refresh rate. No special configuration was necessary. I saw no need to buy a "better cable" ... the one included is great. I like that this unit has NO speakers (you'd think this is a "con", but I perceive it as a "pro"). Manufacturers should honor what the product does well, and avoid needless expansion for marketing reasons. This screen is marketed as an awesome screen, and that's what it is. To be halfway cool about it, the manufacturer even included an audio input jack and a headphone jack. Bonus points for effort. If (like me) you plan on mounting this screen, there is a mounting bracket you need to buy to make it VESA-compliant. Not a big deal though. The screen (without the desktop stand) is fairly light, making it compatible with most stands on account of its weight. 10/10

Love this monitor, but before I get to what I love about it I will tell you what I don't like about it. 1) It does not have g-sync 2) No internal speakers 3) last but not least, 2560x1080. I saw a reviewer complain about a lack of versa mount which while it does not come with it, one can be purchased separately which is what I did at a cost of $30. Now for the meat and potato's of why I love it and why it only got 4 stars. I purchased this monitor 2 years ago and contrary to other reviews, the black is black... except for the one pixel that is dead. irritating on a black screen but not something I notice any other time. I also own 2 predator x34's and that is what I am going to use as a frame of reference. 1) The black on my benq is blacker than the predator x34. Back light bleed while there is no where near as bad as the x34 2) Even without gsync I have had no problems with screen tearing, ghosting or flickering. 2) The colors are deeper and cleaner than the x34 3) The x34 is 3440 x 1440 and the benq is 2560x1080 but to my eyes, I do not see a difference between the two when gaming, picture editing, or video editing since I set my font to a larger size in order to able to read the words. 4) Of the 4 x34's I have owned in the last 9 months, 2 have died on me and the colors are not consistent from one x34 to another where the benq has not had a color difference between them even with one having a single dead pixel. 5) 144Hz out of the box, no need to go into the menu to overclock like the x34 which comes out of the box at 60Hz and needs to be overclocked from the menu. 6) Even without Gsync my dual EVGA 1080TI in sli rig has no issues driving three of these monitors when gaming in surround at maximum settings at 144hz with a consistent 144 FPS. My x34's tend to run at or below 30 FPS when set to span and ultra settings. 7) They cost less than $650 and perform as well as my $1,000 x34's with better color and less failures. As for why it did not get 5 stars, BenQ customer service sucks! I tried to contact them about the dead pixel and never got a reply to my emails and talking to them is worse than getting a tooth pulled... without Novocaine. Thankfully, one dead pixel across 3 monitors is a very small issue compared to 2 of 4 monitors failing. For the record, ASUS customer service sucks as well, and, if you have to send your monitor in for repair you have to pay for shipping and in most cases after 30 days you will have to pay a fee for repairs even though they have a 1 year warranty. If you take anything away from this review let it be this, don't buy the predator x34.

After arriving, the monitor powered on and was detected by my PC but did not have any picture, just the black screen.I came home to find the box at my door tattered and with a puncture on its side, I'm chalking it up to the shipping and handling but nevertheless am disappointed. If you read other reviews, they will mention what a pain in the ass it is to plug this thing in in the back. This is true. It gets even more frustrating after you are plugging and unplugging on different pc's/power supplies to test and see why it isnt working. I would definitely have given it higher stars if I was able to use the product.

Great Monitor! I've been waiting for a monitor that was ideal for gaming, and this monitor is definitely it!! The 144Hz refresh rate, large curved screen, and 100% RGB color makes the gaming experience so much better. The only thing I wish this monitor had was a height adjustment, and that it was 1440p resolution. After super sampling my games to 1440p and higher though I could barely notice a difference in quality, but still for the price the monitor should definitely be 1440p. Pros: 144Hz, Ultra curved, large screen, 100% RGB. Cons: No Height adjustment, not 1440p resolution (Can't notice a difference between 1440p and current 1080p though).

Not mentioning the shipping time issues, I am having nothing but problems regarding the "control keys" beneath the monitor which allow you to make all on screen adjustments and access the main menu. The last two buttons do not seemingly function at all and I can't seem to do anything but lower the brightness. The button that should allow me to raise it does not work. Basically no functionality of the menu key/control keys residing on the underside of the monitor. I will update review if its simply something I overlooked.

This monitor is gorgeous. Some people might balk that the native res is 2560x1080 but I think it looks great and honestly I don't care to spend the money on a system that could push games running a higher resolution at an acceptable framerate. I've heard some people complain about the way Windows scales on this display as well but I can't say I agree with that, it looks just fine to me. Racing games like Project CARS really benefit from the added field of vision and games with beautiful open environments like The Witcher 3 or Far Cry Primal look absolutely amazing. Although I certainly get away with doing actual work on this thing - make no mistake this monitor is first and foremost for gaming and at 144hz it's really a pleasure to use.

Okay so it's been 3 days since I got this monitor and lete me say to you that it has the worst motion blur that I have ever seen !!! This is umberable I cannot stand playing games because of the extreme motion blur wich gives me headaches. The rest of the monitor is great but you cannot enjoy the 144hz wich so much bluriness hapening

Good colour rendition, nice refresh rate, solid build quality. Edges are a little soft in everything other then games and movies due to pixel density, but about as good as a 2560x1080 display is going to be in that regard. Curve takes a little getting used to, but feels very natural in FPS, RPG, racing games.

Monitor is super great - just beginning to fully enjoy it. Exceptional Delivery. Asked for 24 hrs - Got at my door top : 26.5 hrs Wow wouldn't believed you'd make it on time. Great Thanks.

Love it, great picture, awesome size, no dead pixels or anything.. perfect monitor for gaming.