BenQ PD2706U Evaluation

The BenQ PD2706U is a replacement for/upgrade to the BenQ PD2705U.  

When we first started looking at BenQ's Designer range - which we prefer to call 'Content Creator' monitors - we wrote an introduction to how these monitors fit into the landscape of monitor choices for people who want to use them for imaging work purposes.

If you're not sure where your needs sit, then it would be well worth reviewing that article from 2023:

..the long and the short of it is that their are two BenQ ranges, with different target markets:

BenQ PhotoVue Monitors - AKA the SWxxx Range - are the best monitors BenQ make, for serious imaging work - as they offer highly accurate colour and excellent control.  This is the range you should be looking at if you're a professional image maker (Photographer, video editor etc), or a serious enthusiast.

BenQ DesignVue Monitors - AKA the PDxxx Range - are monitors with very good colour, designed for common content creation tasks.  This is the range to look at if there are budget constraints, for beginning photography enthusiasts, and for content creation work (marketing, CAD, graphic design, web design etc etc).

We carry both and will be happy to help you decide on the right model.

The PD2706U is a 27 inch, 4K, wide-gamut monitor at a very reasonable price. 

There is a more stylish and somewhat better model - the PD2725 (still our favourite in the DesignVue range) - and again we have an evaluation of that one:

...but you get quite a lot of the PD2725 features with the PD2706, for a very competitive price.  So let's have a look at this new model that is already proving popular.

The PD2706U is very similar to the PD2705U model that came before it.

Other than the new silver (space gray-like) bezel tone, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart physically.

How I Evaluate Monitors

I evaluated the PD2706U like I do all monitors - by swapping it in place of my primary monitor (currently an Eizo CS2740 at work and and Eizo CG2700X at home).  This means I am, in this case, swapping in just about the cheapest, most basic model we range, for the best/most-expensive model.

I then use it, for as much as I effectively can, for at least a week, and try to evaluate as many of the features in practical real-world contexts, as I can.  Along the way I assess the monitor in the context of 23+ years of professional monitor use for colour accurate work (being literally the only person in Australia to have extensively used just about every generally available colour accurate monitor made in the last two decades!).

I also try new monitors in dual-monitor mode (i.e. alongside my normal monitor) - and with two computers attached, if that is supported.

I try the monitor both uncalibrated, as it comes out of the box, and calibrated.

It's good to remember I am testing this monitor side by side against some of the finest - and costliest - monitors made for colour accurate work.

The one line summary is that this monitor is ideal - and definitely up to the task of - enthusiast and content creator level work.  Perfect if you're e.g. a camera club member looking for a much better than normal monitor for your photography work.

For genuinely colour critical work (professional photography/retouching, fine art print, pro video etc) - you'll want to look at the BenQ SW or Eizo ColorEdge ranges instead.

Without Calibration

With the exception of the wider gamut, the PD2706U behaves very similarly to the PD2705U we looked at last year.

Out of the box the colour is good - definitely no major issues, as would be expected with a monitor that offers out of the box deltaE < 3 accuracy, and is Pantone and Calman certified.

Many will be completely happy to pop this out of its box and onto their desk, and use it as is with excellent colour results.  They will want to turn the brightness down to something reasonable - like all monitors, out of the box, it's at 100% brightness, far too bright for comfortable desktop use.

Like all of the more affordable colour accurate options, there is a slight coolness to the backlight tint, noticeable in both the whites and the blacks.  It is at the level I'd expect for a monitor in this class - good, but definitely noticeable against the warmer, more natural backlight tones of the more expensive monitors.

Native contrast (1200:1) - is very good, but there is of course definitely still some IPS glow visible in the blacks - it's inherent in IPS panels and the price we pay for their overall colour accuracy. (If you're not working in a quite dark room you'll never even be aware of this!)

I calibrated the BenQ PD2706U using a Calibrite Display Plus HL and using Calibrite profiler software.  I experimented with various options, but most of my use was calibrated to our typical 5800K whitepoint, Gamma 2.2, and from there I tried both reduced contrast for print work, and full contrast for general editing work.

Post calibration the monitor's colour improves distinctly from the pre-calibrated state.

The native blue tint of the backlight is noticeably lessened in the whites, less so in the blacks, which are still noticeably cool against a reference monitor.

The wider gamut is very noticeable with saturated imagery (I do a lot of bird photography, for example), - and appreciated.  Being able to see these colours accurately means I can edit these colours accurately.

Is this monitor as good, once calibrated, as the Eizo ColorEdge I have next to it?  Of course not.  But it's certainly a lot closer than the price tags indicate.  As ever it's the difficult things that the better monitors do better - deep shadow details and neutral greys in particular. 

This monitor is clearly not the be all and end all of advanced fine art soft proofing monitors.   For example, if you're using the benchmark Epson P906 printer, with precise custom profiles for your papers, and want the ultimate screen to print match - then you'll definitely want to invest in a model higher up, where you will gain a yet wider gamut, and direct hardware calibration support for the best control and accuracy, needed for precise soft-proofing.

But alongside a typical enthusiast printer - like the Epson EcoTank photo models, you can still set up a surprisingly effective modern digital darkroom, with a monitor like this, for a much lower price.

And - more realistically for a monitor like this - for the typical 'content creation' tasks - say on a marketing desk where you're prepping images for web banners or brochures, or you're doing the artwork for your latest podcast, or graphics for your next YouTube masterpiece - the colour performance is excellent and reliable - and, in my experience, you'll find it impossible to find anything else as good or feature-filled at this very reasonable price point.

VESA has this to say about DisplayHDR-400:

The BenQ PD2706U can accept and display HDR inputs, something simply not possible with the PD2705U. The input support is for basic HDR10 signals, so no full Dolby Vision here of course (I'm not sure on HLG, and don't have a file to hand, but I can't see it in the specs).

There is a global dimming backlight, and whilst in desktop use the monitor's maximum brightness is ~350 nits, peak brightness (i.e. in small areas of a scene), in HDR mode, can hit 400 cd/m2.

These two features, in a nutshell, in-effect raise the native 1200:1 panel contrast (already pretty good for an LCD!), to more like 5000:1 when displaying HDR.  It's a trick, versus a native high contrast panel - but in practise quite an effective trick, and the same one used in many televisions etc. to improve contrast and thus create a more authentic HDR visual, from a relatively humble panel. It's more effective at the highlight end, lending scenes with specular highlights (or e.g. in frame light sources like dancing flames or torches piercing the gloom) - a real sense of dazzle and life.   The shadows and dark scenes, though, even with dimming, remain weak and milky by any real HDR standard. 

Compared to my benchmark (my Panasonic OLED at home) - it's therefore hard for me to describe the experience as true HDR.  But then, compared to just about all other desktop monitors - with most still lacking any HDR support - it's vastly better, for watching (or working on) modern, high quality video - than any 'normal' desktop monitor.  Frankly, given it's very accurate colour and decent HDR performance - it's better than most of the populations current TVs according to my quick around the office spot survey!