BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R review: A curved QHD gaming monitor with decent sound

Curved gaming monitors aren’t new. Neither are 165Hz QHD monitors with FreeSync Premium support. Where monitors have typically failed in the past is in sound quality, for those that do include speakers. A few OEMs are tackling that problem and building soundbars into monitors for those wanting such a feature.

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Our BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R review looks at a curved, 165Hz, QHD VA gaming monitor that features 2.1 treVolo audio with dual 2W speakers and a 5W woofer. Read on for our full review!

Specifications

The BenQ Mobiuz EZ3210R gaming monitor we reviewed has the following features and specifications:

Model	MOBIUZ EX3210R
Screen size	31.5″
Resolution (max)	2560×1440
Panel type	VA
Backlight technology	LED backlight
Brightness	300 nit (typical), 400 nit (peak HDR)
HDR	HDR10, VESA DisplayHDR 400
Native contrast	2500:1
Viewing angle (L/R)	178/178
Refresh rate (Hz)	165
Response time	1 ms (MRPT)
Colour gamut	90% DCI-P3
Colour mode	Cinema HDRi, Custom, DisplayHDR, Paper, FPS, Game HDRi, M-Book, Racing Game, RPG, sRGB
Aspect ratio	16:9
Display colours	16.7 million
PPI	92
Curvature	1000R
Display screen coating	Anti-glare
Gamma	1.8-2.6
Audio	Built-in 2.1 Channel (2x 2W + 5W woofer); headphone jack
Audio modes	FPS, Cinema, RCG (racing), SPG (sports), Pop/Live
Tilt	-5˚ to 15˚
Swivel	15˚ L/R
Height adjustment	100mm (3.94″)
Connectivity	2x HDMI v2.0 (HDCP 2.2), 1x DisplayPort 1.4, USB Type-B upstream, 2x USB-A 3.0 downstream
Eyecare	Flicker-free Technology, Low Blue Light, Brightness Intelligence Plus (B.I.+), Color Weakness, ePaper
Gaming features	FPS Mode, Motion Blur Reduction, Color Vibrance, Light Tuner, FreeSync Premium Pro, Black eQualizer
Dimensions	• With base: 488.3 – 588.3 x 7.03.4 x 269.7mm (19.2 – 23.2 x 27.7 x 10.6″) • Without base: 437.3 x 703.4 x 132.1mm (17.2 x 27.7 x 5.2″)
Weight	• With base: 9.7kg (21.4 lb) • Without base: 6.8kg (15 lb)

What’s in the box

• BenQ MOBIUS EX3210R 32″ QHD gaming monitor
• Monitor stand
• Back cover plate
• HDMI cable
• DisplayPort cable
• USB-B to USB-A hub cable
• Power cable with power brick
• Remote control
• Quick Start Guide

Design

The BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R is pretty standard fare when it comes to design for gaming monitors. The back is silver, with the MOBIUZ logo etched into the left-hand side (when looking at the back. Centred in the middle is the stand mount receptacle with a quick-release button below it. Angling out from this towards each of the corners is a thin grooved line. The last half or so of this line, towards the outer edges, is a customizable LED strip. While the LEDs are there, they aren’t very bright and don’t bounce well off of your wall so you won’t be getting a nice glow behind your monitor if you’re set up in front of a wall. Just above where the stand attaches is a rear-facing speaker grille for the 5W woofer with the words “Superior sound by treVolo” printed in grey above it.

Below the stand receptacle is where you’ll find your recessed ports. Facing down towards the floor, there is a power port on the far left, two HDMI 2.0 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.4, a 3.5mm audio port, a square USB-B upstream hub port, and two USB-A 3.0 ports. Once you’re all connected and set up, there is a panel that you can snap onto the back to hide your connection cables.

The monitor is curved, so the edges are closer to the user than the middle. The top and side physical bezels are pretty small, while the bottom bezel is an inch-and-a-quarter in height. Unlike most monitors with a thicker bottom bezel, this one has a decent purpose as it houses dual front-facing 2W speakers. The BenQ logo is on the far left and an HDRi logo is on the far right with a quick toggle button below it. In the center of the bottom bezel is a sensor that can be used to automatically adjust the display brightness and colour modes based on your surrounding lighting and time of day. This feature is powered by the BenQ Brightness Intelligence Plus (B.I.+) technology, which works quite well as I’ve found in the past on other BenQ monitors.

On the underside of the bottom edge, towards the right when facing the monitor, are three buttons. From right to left, these are your power button (which glows white when on and orange when in standby mode), the menu button/direction joystick, and an input/source selection button.

The stand is pretty hefty as well. The main stand is black in colour with a cutout for cable management near the bottom. The feet attach to the stand slightly above the desk, leaving a bit of a gap near the back on each side which is great for sliding your mouse and/or keyboard cable through. The legs themselves are silver, with a and orange and grey striped design on the front, adding a splash of colour. The stand offers height, swivel, and tilt adjustment as well, allowing you to set it up and angle it to your preferences.

I’ve been using a 35″ BenQ EX3510R as my daily work monitor since shortly after I reviewed it back in 2018. With a curvature of 1800R, the standard at the time, it is pretty decent still. However, the 49″ Samsung Neo G9 with its 1000R curvature is insanely immersive for gaming. Over the past few years, I’ve reviewed several other monitors with varying display sizes and curvatures of 1800R, 1500R, and 1000R.

In my opinion, the wider the monitor, the more pronounced the curvature should be. The smaller the monitor, the less pronounced. With the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R, while the 1000R curvature is nice, I do think a 1500R curvature would have sufficed. The steeper curvature on a 32″ screen size does make the dimensions of the monitor seem a bit off. Granted, if you were to put two of these side by side, then the steeper curve would be nice for sure. All that being said, after extended use I got used to the more pronounced curvature.

The monitor also includes a handy remote control, the second such monitor I’ve recently reviewed. The remote is fairly small, measuring 4″ in length, 1 3/4″ in width, and 3/8″ in thickness. Black in colour, the BenQ logo is stamped into the plastic on the bottom. As for buttons, a power and source button sit near the top with a control wheel and an OK button below it. The HDRi and Game mode buttons are below that. Two more rows of three buttons each round out the controls and included brightness, menu, EQ, mute, volume down, and volume up. It’s a simple remote but it’s handy and works well.

While most monitors include an HDMI or a DisplayPort cable, the EX3210R includes both, which is also a nice touch.

Display

The BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R gaming monitor has a 31.5″ QHD (2560×1440) VA display with a 165Hz refresh rate. It also features 90% DCI-P3 coverage, VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification with 400 nits peak HDR (300 nits typical) brightness, and a 2500:1 native contrast. There are various built-in colour modes including Cinema HDRi, DisplayHDR, Paper, FPS, Game HDRi, M-Book, Racing Game, RPG, sRGB, and Custom.

Overall, the colours on the monitor look great, with pretty decent blacks. The DCI-P3 coverage is decent as well, and the various HDR and game modes do a good job of changing different display settings depending on the type of game you are playing.

Assembly

The monitor does require some assembly but it is pretty easy. The stand arm attaches to the feet by way of a screw with a hinged loop on it, making it easy to loosen and tighten. Once attached, the entire base slides and snaps easily into the back of the monitor. The quick-release button makes it easy to remove the stand as well. As mentioned above, there is also a cable cover that snaps easily into place after you’ve connected all the cables you need to.

Ease of Use

Once assembled, the monitor is easy to use. Pressing the power button turns it on and off, the joystick allows you to easily access and change menu settings, and the input and HDRi buttons work as one would expect. The addition of the remote is a fantastic idea as well. At first, I scoffed at its inclusion, after all, I’m sitting within reach of the buttons on the monitor but after a day, I found myself reaching for the remote. With the buttons on the remote, it’s even easier to change your colour mode, audio settings, game mode, source, and access the settings menu.

Performance

As far as performance is concerned, I tried the monitor on a couple of different systems, both of which were able to take advantage of the QHD 165Hz refresh rate on several games. Being a standard resolution, I had no issues with any games skewing or looking odd, nor did I have to jump through hoops to get any of them displaying properly. To give you an idea of some of the framerates you can expect, here are some games tested with a system that had an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, and 32GB of DDR4-3200 RAM in it:

	FHD	QHD
Dirt 5	171 fps	140 fps
Forza Horizon 4	215 fps	204 fps
Forza Horizon 5	118 fps	106 fps
Gears 5	163 fps	136 fps
Gears Tactics	187 fps	149 fps
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Riverside)	249 fps	217 fps
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Lab X)	156 fps	155 fps
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War	217 fps	180 fps
Tomb Raider	164 fps	132 fps
World War Z	272 fps	223 fps

As you can see, a few games easily bested the 165Hz refresh rate, and in all cases, the gameplay was smooth on the monitor. I should note, however, that these framerates are simply an indication of what type of system you need to run to achieve them with this monitor.

The monitor powered on quickly and went to sleep as expected, and I had no issues with it.

Sound Quality

This is one section I’ve almost always disliked when reviewing monitors. Typically, at least until recently, speakers in monitors just haven’t been that great. In a lot of ways, they remind me of the first few generations of phone or laptop speakers — tinny and not very loud. Fortunately, while I’m still not a huge fan of speakers in monitors, companies like BenQ are aiming to change that.

With the BenQ Mobiuz EX3210R, the company has embedded a 2.1 treVolo audio system in the monitor. First, I have to mention that the audio controls are independent of Windows audio controls. As such, make sure to set your Windows volume to 100% before using the monitor for audio, then use the included remote to adjust the volume of your system. The dual 2W speakers do get quite loud, which is nice, and while there is bass, it is a bit hollow at times and not as deep and filling as I’d like. Then again, while it is a separate 5W woofer on the back of the monitor, it isn’t a separate subwoofer device like other soundbar systems. The five audio EQ modes do modify the audio as well, depending on what you’re playing or listening to. With the remote (or on-screen menu), you can change between FPS, RCG (racing), SPG (sports), Cinema, or Pop/Live. Unfortunately, there is no custom EQ on the monitor so you’re stuck with one of the five presets.

While monitors still have a way to go, the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R sounds pretty decent and is almost comparable to the SoundBlaster soundbar I’ve been using for several years. Honestly, it’s nice to note be scoring this section a 5 or 6/10 for once!

Price/Value

The BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R has an MSRP of US$699.99. When compared to a 32″ QHD curved gaming monitor without a speaker, you’ll be paying at least $200-$300 more. In fact, you can get a 35″ ultrawide curved gaming monitor for less. That being said, most of those don’t feature a 1000R curvature, and you’re also getting a pretty decent 2.1 audio system included with the EX3210R. In fact, if you do get a monitor without audio, you’re looking at a couple of hundred dollars for a decent 2.1 soundbar or computer speaker system to augment your system.

If you want to go bigger, the EX3415R offers a 34-inch IPS WQHD panel with a 1900R curvature and 2.1 audio for $999.99 while the EX2710R is $100 cheaper with its 27-inch VA screen, 1000R curvature, and 2.1 audio.

Photo Gallery

Wrap-up

In the past, whenever I received a monitor to review that had built-in speakers, I cringed. It’s nice to see manufacturers starting to take integrated audio on monitors seriously and if the BenQ MOBIUZ EX3210R is any indication, we could soon be seeing more monitors with decent integrated audio. As you’ve read, given the expected gaming performance and the (slightly) unexpected 2.1 audio quality, the EX3210R is a great start to offering a decent integrated audio solution with a monitor.

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