BenQ EX321UX Review: 4K 144Hz IPS Mini LED Gaming Monitor

The BenQ EX321UX is a 32″ 4K 144Hz IPS gaming monitor sporting an 1152-zone mini LED FALD backlight with a wide 99% Adobe RGB and 99% DCI-P3 color gamut, which promises an amazing HDR viewing experience without the fear of OLED burn-in – here’s how it handles out tests!

Image Quality

We’re using our Datacolor SpyderX Pro colorimeter and DisplayCAL software to see how the monitor behaves out of the box and if there are any settings you can make to improve the SDR image accuracy.

The first thing that caught our attention was the high brightness and exceptional color vibrancy due to the panel’s wide color gamut! The monitor is based on BOE’s ME315QUM-NM1 panel with a quantum-dot enhanced backlight.

We measured a whopping 189.5% sRGB gamut volume, as well as almost complete coverage of DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB color spaces.

The color gamut and volume (color brightness) even surpass that of Samsung’s QD-OLED panels.

There are five ‘quick menu’ modes: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo.

These are not picture presets, but rather five ‘scenarios’ in which you can assign up to three different shortcuts (such as brightness, crosshair, local dimming, etc.) and any ‘Color Mode’ to quickly swap between. You can also assign them to specific input sources.

The Color Modes are the typical picture presets and include: Sci-fi, Realistic, Fantasy, Cinema, Display P3, sRGB, Custom, Gamer 1, Gamer 2, Gamer 3 and Display HDR (for HDR signal only).

Gamer 1 to 3 presets are the same as Sci-fi, Realistic and Fantasy, respectively, and you can assign customized settings to them.

The default color mode is Fantasy, which due to the monitor’s wide color gamut, has a high Delta E average of 5.18 (target is < 1.5) and a maximum of 11.44 (target is < 3).

The color temperature is close to ideal at 6377K (the target is 6500K). Gamma is way off though, with an average of 2.59 (the target is 2.2). This mode also restricts the color gamut a bit to 161.6% sRGB volume, whereas only the Custom mode has the panel’s full native gamut.

The Fantasy, Sci-fi, Realistic, Cinema, Gamer and Custom presets all have similar inaccuracies. These are intended for use for specific scenarios (Sci-fi when playing a Sci-fi game, etc.), but only make the image less accurate. Of course, it’s up to you to use them if you prefer that sort of look.

In Windows, we recommend using the sRGB color mode as it offers the most accurate image quality with excellent factory calibration. The average Delta E is only 0.81, the maximum is 2.08, color temperature is close to 6500K, while gamma tracking is significantly improved with a 2.16 average.

This mode will also clamp the gamut down to 101.7% sRGB volume (97.9% sRGB coverage), which prevents over-saturation.

If you want a bit of extra color vibrancy when viewing SDR content, you can use the Display P3 mode instead since it also has an accurate image quality with average Delta E of 0.79, maximum Delta E of 2.53, 6500K color temperature and 2.14 average gamma. The native gamut is reduced from the native 134.3% down to 106.3% DCI-P3 volume (98.8% coverage) to avoid over-saturation.

You should also use the Display P3 mode in MacOS.

Note that local dimming cannot be enabled in sRGB and Display P3 modes because it’s not intended for SDR content. Instead, you have a Uniformity mode, which improves image uniformity at the cost of contrast ratio.

With Uniformity disabled, we measured a native (without local dimming) static contrast ratio of 1254:1, which is excellent for an IPS panel. However, the edges of the screen are a bit darker (up to 10%) than the center, causing a minor vignette effect.

Image accuracy is also a bit lower with Uniformity off, with an average Delta E of 0.81 and a maximum of 2.08, while the gamma average is 2.11, but this is still an excellent result.

Once you enable Uniformity, the image uniformity is improved, but the contrast ratio is reduced to 706:1, so blacks won’t appear quite as deep. In the end, it’s up to you to decide which option you prefer.

With Uniformity enabled, the maximum brightness is 450-nits (minimum is 19-nits), with it disabled, brightness can reach 703-nits (37-nits minimum) in the sRGB and DCI-P3 modes, which makes the monitor suitable for use in both dim and bright rooms.

Moving on, the 4K UHD resolution provides you with a high pixel density of roughly 140 PPI (pixels per inch) on the 31.5″ viewable screen of the BenQ EX321UX monitor.

As a result, you get incredibly sharp details and text with plenty of screen real estate, while scaling is optional (100%, 125% and 150% scaling options are all viable, depending on your preference).

Note that you will need a mid-range to high-end GPU for 4K gaming with decent image settings and frame rates.

Thanks to its IPS panel, the monitor has 178° wide viewing angles, which means the image quality won’t degrade in quality when viewing the screen at skewed angles. Additionally, 10-bit color depth is supported via dithering (8-bit + 2-bit FRC) for smoother gradients with less banding when viewing supported content.

Local Dimming in SDR

Note that local dimming is not intended to be used in SDR. Non-HDR content doesn’t contain any information about how bright a certain object should be, so gamma will not be accurate.

If you still wish to use local dimming in SDR to gain deeper blacks and higher brightness, you’ll have to choose between Sci-fi, Realistic, Fantasy, Cinema and Custom color modes – all of which have very high saturation.

In this case, we recommend going with the Custom mode since it has the most accurate color temperature (6523K) and using a color clamping software, such as AMD’s Custom Color option in Radeon GPU drivers, novideo_srgb for NVIDIA graphics cards and dwm_lut for Intel GPUs.

Related:What Is sRGB Emulation Mode And Why Is It Important?

These applications clamped the gamut down to ~115 sRGB volume in our tests, which gets rid of intense over-saturation and leaves just a touch of extra vibrancy.

Alternatively, you can use our ICC profile with novideo_srgb or dwm_lut to create a 3D LUT and clamp the gamut to a specific color space.

Using local dimming in Custom mode and SDR, we measured a maximum brightness of 1322-nits and a contrast ratio of 6269:1 (on a 4×4 ANSI checkerboard pattern).

The brightness varies depending on APL (Average Picture Level, white window test size), but the oscillations in brightness during regular use aren’t noticeable.

The monitor has a mini LED FALD (full-array local dimming) backlight with 1152 dimming zones. These zones dim areas of the image that are supposed to be dark while allowing other parts that are supposed to be bright to benefit from the display’s high brightness.

However, even with so many zones, in some scenes (fireworks, stars in the night sky, etc.), the light from a small bright object can bleed into the surrounding dimmed zones and cause a halo or bloom effect.

The blooming is a lot more noticeable when viewing the screen at an angle, but from a normal viewing position, we didn’t find it to be bothersome on the BenQ EX321UX in most scenes.

OLED panels have per-pixel dimming, that is, they can individually turn off pixels for true blacks, so they don’t have this issue.

However, they don’t have nearly as high brightness – while they can reach up to 1300-nits for small < 3% APL, their brightness is much lower for larger APLs (275-nits for 100% APL, for instance, whereas the EX321UX reaches over 1,400-nits in HDR mode). They also have the risk of permanent image burn-in and temporary image retention.

In the end, the choice between the two technologies comes down to personal preference. Generally, OLED displays are better when viewing dark content in a dark room, whereas mini LED LCDs excel at displaying brighter content and can easily mitigate glare even in very bright rooms.

Calibration

We’ve also calibrated the display and you can download our ICC profile here. However, note that this profile contains corrections for our particular unit, so it might not yield the same results for you.

The calibration was done in the Custom mode with Shadow Phage disabled (this feature improves visibility in dark scenes by altering the gamma curvature) and Light Tuner set to ‘0’.

We also used a custom color temperature preset with red color channel reduced to 92, green 100 and blue 99 for a 6628K white point (the closest we could get to 6500K).

The gamma tracking is now accurate and the average Delta E is reduced to 1.04, though the maximum is still a bit high at 3.49. We used a brightness setting of 14/100 for 130-nits.

HDR

For HDR testing, we’re using HCFR software. We also replaced our Datacolor SpyderX colorimeter (limited to 1,000-nits) with the Calibrite Display Pro HL, which can measure up to 3,000-nits! We also used it to measure the brightness in SDR with local dimming enabled.

The BenQ EX321UX has five HDR modes: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Realistic, Cinema and DisplayHDR.

We highly recommend sticking with the DisplayHDR mode since it has the highest brightness (reaching up to 1433-nits!) and it’s most accurate when it comes to color temperature (6315K) and PQ EOTF tracking.

Here’s how the brightness compares to MSI’s MPG 321CURX with a QD-OLED panel and the ASUS PG27AQDM and the KTC G27P6S with W-OLED panels.

Note that these measures refer to white luminance. We also measured color luminance for red, green, blue, yellow, cyan and magenta colors at different APLs. In the charts below, you can see how the BenQ EX321UX compares to the KTC G27P6S with a W-OLED panel and the MSI MPG 321CURX with a QD-OLED panel.

When looking at cyan luminance at 100% APL, for instance, the EX321UX achieves 1074-nits, while the QD-OLED and W-OLED panels sit at around 205-nits.

In real use, cyan won’t really look or feel 5 times brighter on the EX321UX due to the way the human eye perceives brightness, but we still think it’s important to point out the difference in luminance to illustrate why mini LED displays can look significantly brighter and more colorful in some scenes.

The monitor can also sustain high brightness levels for long periods of time. Even after a 5-minute stress test, the brightness didn’t drop.

The Display HDR mode has the most accurate PQ EOTF tracking, while the other modes (Sci-fi, Cinema, Realistic and Fantasy) can have odd visual artifacts, such as banding, so we don’t recommend using them.

For most APLs, ranging from 100% to 10%, the monitor (yellow line) has a slightly lower brightness than intended (gray line) around 30% white, and then a bit brighter than intended around 80% white. For small highlights, 1% – 5% APLs, the brightness is a bit lower for 30% to 70% white, and then again, a bit brighter around 80%. Overall, a decent result.

Thanks to the monitor’s exceptional color gamut, saturation results are excellent as well, which results in a vibrant and accurate HDR viewing experience.

We also measured brightness in a few real scenes.

	Sunlight in ‘A Perfect Planet’	Sign in ‘Cyberpunk 2077’	Small flash from ‘Chasing The Light’	Large flash from ‘Chasing The Light’	Lightning in ‘A Perfect Planet’	Solar flare in ‘A Perfect Planet’	Sunlight in‘ A Perfect Planet’
KTC G27P6S (W-OLED MLA+)	317-nits	645-nits	739-nits	313-nits	602-nits	183-nits	216-nits
MSI MPG 321CURX (QD-OLED) Peak 1000 nits	538-nits	731-nits	974-nits	328-nits	549-nits	108-nits	113-nits
MSI MPG 321CURX (QD-OLED) True Black 400	429-nits	455-nits	452-nits	310-nits	450-nits	201-nits	207-nits
BenQ EX321UX (Mini LED IPS)	792-nits	1231-nits	1140-nits	1440-nits	579-nits	309-nits	317-nits
MSI MPG 341CQPX (QD-OLED) Peak 1000 nits	520-nits	672-nits	970-nits	Not measured	Not measured	Not measured	Not measured
ASUS PG27AQDM (W-OLED)	515-nits	741-nits	Not measured	Not measured	Not measured	Not measured	Not measured

Even though the monitor supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, we didn’t run into any issues with HDR playback using a Radeon graphics card, which seems to be a common problem for some FreeSync Premium Pro certified OLED models.

In the video below, you can see the monitor showing a few HDR clips. It’s important to note here that it’s not possible to realistically represent a monitor’s HDR performance via a video, but it can be useful to showcase the local dimming performance.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the low level of blooming when a bright object is displayed on a dark background, which seems to be BenQ’s priority when it comes to tuning the local dimming algorithm.

However, this also causes some issues in other scenes.

When displaying an ultra-wide video with black bars at the top and bottom of the image, the bars aren’t completely dimmed – we measured a black level of around 0.17 nits instead of 0.

Further, blooming is more likely to occur with bright objects on lighter backgrounds, which you can see in the video above from 3:00 to 3:10 with the flamingos flying over the water.

Even with 1152 dimming zones, it’s not possible to tune the local dimming algorithm perfectly, so there must be some trade-offs. It would be nice if there were a few different local dimming intensity levels like on some displays, but we feel that BenQ did a good job regardless as blooming was rarely immersion-breaking.

Performance

The BenQ EX321UX has a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, which provides you with a huge boost in motion clarity as opposed to the standard 60-75Hz displays.

It also boasts a fast pixel response time speed with four overdrive modes under the AMA (Advanced Motion Accelerator) option: 0, 1, 2 and 3.

For response time and latency testing, we’re using OSRTT.

Here are the results with the variable refresh rate disabled at fixed refresh rates of 144Hz and 60Hz.

The AMA 3 mode is too aggressive as it pushes the pixels to change too fast and causes inverse ghosting (overshoot).

At 144Hz, AMA 2 has the fastest response time at 2.53ms average GtG (gray to gray pixel transition), but overshoot can be noticed in some scenes, so we recommend using the AMA 1 mode – it’s only slightly slower at 2.69ms GtG but there’s no inverse ghosting with just 6.37% average overshoot error.

At 60Hz, AMA 1 has a bit more overshoot, but it’s still usable, while the pixel response time speed performance is excellent at 3.19ms GtG average. If you do notice inverse ghosting, you can dial it back to ‘0’ to completely remove it and still get a fast 3.88ms response time.

Here’s how the monitor’s pixel response time performance looks in Blur Busters’ UFO ghosting test. We’re using the 960 Pixels Per Sec test with the camera’s shutter speed set to 1/4 of the refresh rate with fixed focus, ISO and color temperature.

And here’s how the BenQ Mobiuz EX321UX compares to a slower VA panel, OLED panels at 120Hz and 240Hz, and a 360Hz TN panel with and without backlight strobing.

Now – when variable refresh rate is enabled, the pixel response time speed is slightly slower.

The best mode at 144Hz/FPS is still AMA 1 but with a bit slower 3.98ms response time speed and 4.33% average overshoot error. At 60Hz/FPS, we also recommend using the AMA 1 mode – it has a bit higher 6.3% average overshoot error, but the response time speed is faster at 4.2ms in comparison to 4.77ms with AMA 0, which leads to higher refresh rate compliance of 96.67% instead of 80%.

Overall, the pixel response time performance is excellent as there’s no noticeable trailing behind fast-moving objects.

Further, the BenQ EX321UX has AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support for tear-free gameplay up to 144FPS. While it doesn’t have official G-SYNC Compatible certification, VRR works with compatible GeForce GPUs without any issues.

HDMI 2.1 VRR is supported as well, and we haven’t run into any flickering issues when using local dimming and VRR at the same time.

Next, here are the input and display latency test results with local dimming disabled.

The display lag is low at only 3.91ms at 144Hz, 4.41ms at 120Hz and 8.79ms at 60Hz, which is imperceptible, that is, you won’t be able to notice any delay between your actions and the result on the screen.

The local dimming algorithm adds a bit of processing delay, so with it enabled, display latency is increased to 12.17ms at 144Hz, 13.86ms at 120Hz and 20.60ms at 60Hz.

We didn’t notice the increased latency during everyday use or gaming. Of course, the extra ~10ms of delay is a lot for competitive FPS games. Most eSports titles don’t support HDR anyway, so you should simply disable local dimming in competitive games.

Next, we found one dead pixel in the top right corner and one stuck green pixel in the top left corner that randomly appears and disappears. Due to the display’s high pixel density, we didn’t find them noticeable during everyday use though.

We didn’t find any frame skipping, pixel inversion, excessive backlight bleeding or IPS glow, or image retention issues.

However, the monitor uses PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to regulate brightness below 100%. Luckily, it uses a high 4kHz frequency that’s invisible to the human eye and shouldn’t cause any issues even to sensitive users.

We did catch some subtle flicker at lower brightness levels, usually when dropping the brightness to 0 when testing, but it would disappear when increasing it by 1 or 2 notches – this was with VRR, B.I.+ and local dimming all disabled.

Features

Beneath the bottom bezel of the screen, there’s a directional joystick for quick and easy navigation through the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu. You’ll also find a dedicated power button and a hotkey for input source selection.

Additionally, the monitor comes with a remote controller for faster and more convenient adjustments. You can turn the monitor on/off, change inputs, HDR modes, enter the quick menu and main menu, summon the refresh rate tracker and HUD, change audio mode, brightness and volume.

BenQ doesn’t offer a desktop application for OSD-related adjustments, but the monitor supports DDC/CI, so you can use third-party apps, such as ControlMyMonitor, to adjust some settings using your keyboard and mouse.

The BenQ EX321UX does support two applications: DisplayQuickit for firmware updates and Color Shuttle, which can download customized picture settings for supported games and apply them to Gamer color modes.

Pressing the joystick (or the ‘OK’ button on the remote) opens up a quick menu, which allows you to quickly swap between the different scenarios and color modes with three different shortcuts assigned, and to enter the main menu.

It also makes the HUD appear at the top of the screen, which conveniently shows the current resolution, refresh rate, HDR and VRR state.

The main OSD menu is well-organized and offers plenty of useful features. Apart from the typical image settings (brightness, contrast, color temperature, etc.), the BenQ EX321UX monitor also offers several advanced settings, including sharpness, saturation (Color Vibrance), five gamma presets, automatic input detection, aspect ratio control (full, aspect, 1:1, overscan), RGB range and DSC on/off toggle.

Useful gaming features include two crosshair overlays, a refresh rate tracker, Light Tuner and Shadow Phage (improve visibility in dark scenes by altering the gamma curvature) and Color Vibrance.

The BenQ EX321UX also supports the Brightness Intelligence Plus technology, which consists of a sensor that can automatically adjust screen brightness according to ambient lighting.

Other settings include color weakness, low-blue light filter, audio output control (headphones or eARC), audio (volume, gain, mute), audio presets (surround, cinema, standard), OSD options (language, time, lock), Auto Power Off timer, power LED indicator, USB-C Awake (power in standby mode on/off) and USB-C config (2.0 or 3.1 Gen 1).

KVM is also supported, allowing you to connect two PCs to the screen and control both via one set of keyboard and mouse connected to the monitor.

Design & Connectivity

The stand of the monitor is very sturdy and the design overall has a premium feel to it with a good range of ergonomics, including up to 100mm height adjustment, -5°/20° tilt, +/- 15° swivel and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility. You cannot pivot the screen into the portrait position though.

The bezes at the top and sides of the screen are ultra-thin at just 1mm with a 5mm black border before the image starts. The bottom bezel is a bit thicker at 25mm and there’s a chin on it that houses the B.I.+ light sensor.

The profile of the display is quite thick due to the FALD backlight – up to 50mm at the widest point on the top and 30mm at the sides. There are also two cooling fans inside, but they’re silent.

Next, the screen has a light matte anti-glare coating that prevents reflections without making the image too grainy.

Connectivity options are abundant and include three HDMI 2.1 ports with 48 Gbps (one with eARC), DisplayPort 2.1 (with UHBR10 transition mode, so DSC is still required for 4K 144Hz 10-bit) and a USB-C port with DP Alt Mode and 65W Power Delivery.

You’ll also find two USB-A 3.0 ports and a USB-C port at the rear of the display, as well as a headphone jack, an extra USB-A 3.0 port and another USB-C port beneath the bottom bezel of the screen on the left side for easier access.

In the box, along with the monitor and its stand, you’ll get a power cord, the external power supply, an HDMI cable, a USB-C cable, a USB-C to USB-A cable, a quick start guide and a warranty card. We didn’t get a DisplayPort cable with our unit, though that might vary depending on the retailer.

Price & Similar Monitors

The BenQ EX321UX goes for $1,100 – $1,200.

It definitely offers better value than the Acer Predator X32 FP and the ASUS PG32UQXR, which go for the same price yet have half the local dimming zone count at 576.

There are also the Samsung Neo G7 and Neo G8 models with curved VA panels, 1196 dimming zones and refresh rates of 165Hz and 240Hz, respectively, but these have issues with scanlines, slower response time, unstable VRR performance and odd local dimming algorithm that limits larger APLs in brightness (for instance, just 300-nits for 100% APL and 550-nits for 50% APL).

The main mini LED alternative is the Innocn 32M2V with the same 1152-zone mini LED FALD backlight, which can usually be found for $700. However, it has clunky OSD controls, not as good design quality and only a 1-year warranty. Sadly, we were not able to test it in detail to see how its local dimming behavior compares to the EX321UX.

As far as OLED alternatives go, MSI’s 321UP with 165Hz, and the 321UPX and 321URX with 240Hz 32″ 4K variants can be found for $830 – $950 in the US. The choice between OLED and mini LED will mainly depend on your personal preference.

In the video below, you can see how the BenQ EX321UX compares to the MSI MPG 321CURX with a QD-OLED panel in several scenes. Overall, while watching various content side by side, we came to the conclusion that some scenes look better on the EX321UX, other scenes look better on the 321CURX, and there are scenes that look very similar on both displays. So, in the end, it comes down to personal preference.

Due to their higher brightness, mini LED LCDs are better suited for brighter rooms and showing bright content (scenes in daylight, snow, etc.) at the cost of occasional blooming in certain scenes.

OLED displays are superior at showing darker content (scenes at night and with contrasting elements, such as fireworks, stars in the night sky, etc.) thanks to their infinite contrast ratio and per-pixel dimming, but you have to mind the lighting in your room due to their limited brightness.

At around 4:18 mark in the video, you can see how QD-OLED struggles with scenes with a lot of bright elements, such as the snow scene where the monitor’s ABL (Automatic Brightness Limiter) kicks in and causes those jumps in brightness for a few seconds.

In the next scene, at around 4:41, you can see the blooming artifacts following the flying birds on the BenQ EX321UX. To be fair, both of these scenes are extreme examples that we haven’t encountered while watching other content, but it’s a good illustration of how both technologies have their strong and weak points.

With mini LED displays, you also don’t have to worry about burn-in, which makes them more suitable for professional use, including productivity and color-critical work.

OLED monitors, on the other hand, offer a higher 240Hz refresh rate, instantaneous response time speed and lower input lag in HDR, which makes for a more responsive gaming experience.

Still, we find that 144Hz is plenty at 4K UHD given how demanding it is, while the response time performance of the BenQ EX321UX is very good and latency only becomes an issue for competitive FPS games (where you can simply disable local dimming).

For more options and information, be sure to check out our best HDR monitors buyer’s guide.

Conclusion

The BenQ EX321UX is an exceptional gaming monitor that thanks to its stellar brightness brings life to bright HDR scenes the way OLED displays simply cannot.

Of course, it’s not without its flaws as there’s some visible blooming in certain scenes and darker content still looks better on OLED panels, but you don’t have to worry about burn-in.

Next, the monitor’s high resolution and IPS panel with impressive color gamut and factory calibration even make it suitable for color-critical work, while motion performance is excellent with a fast response time speed and smooth VRR operation up to 144Hz.

Local dimming does add around 10ms of delay, but it’s not noticeable during everyday use and gaming. You can easily disable it in competitive titles as you won’t benefit from it anyway.

You also get premium design quality and extensive connectivity options!

A bit lower price would make it a lot easier to recommend, but even at $1,200, it’s definitely worth considering given its features and other mini LED alternatives.

Specifications

Screen Size	31.5-inch
Resolution	3840×2160 (Ultra HD)
Panel Type	IPS
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	144Hz
Response Time	1ms (GtG)
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync Premium Pro (48-144Hz), HDMI 2.1 VRR
Ports	DisplayPort 2.1 (UHBR10), 3x HDMI 2.1, USB-C (DP Alt Mode, 65W PD)
Other Ports	Headphone Jack, 3x USB-A 3.0, 2x USB-C
Brightness (3% White Window)	1093 cd/m²
Brightness (10% White Window)	1125 cd/m²
Brightness (100% White Window)	1433 cd/m² (HDR) 1322 cd/m² (SDR, LD: On) 703 cd/m² (SDR, LD: Off)
Contrast Ratio	1000:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC) 99% DCI-P3, 99% Adobe RGB
HDR	VESA DisplayHDR 1000
Local Dimming	1152-zone mini LED FALD
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)