BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM review: A 27″ IPS QHD gaming monitor with audio and fast refresh rates

Based on your setup and preferences, there’s a gaming monitor for everyone. Not only do they come in different sizes, but also different resolutions with various refresh rates. While FHD (1080p) monitors give you the best fps for shooters, some people prefer better visuals. Not only that, the latest video cards are more than capable of pushing decent fps while providing better visual quality. While not everyone can run a 4K monitor at decent gaming framerates, more systems are more than capable of QHD resolutions, offering a nice sweet spot between framerates and visual quality, especially in smaller-size monitors.

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

In our BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM 27″ QHD IPS 240Hz Gaming Monitor review, we look at a solid monitor that has decent picture quality, a higher refresh rate, and comes with 2.1 treVolo audio. Read on for our full review!

Specifications

The BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM 27″ QHD gaming monitor with 2.1 audio we reviewed has the following features and specifications:

Screen Size	27-inch
Panel Type	IPS
Backlight Technology	Local Dimming
Resolution	2560×1440
Brightness	400nits typical, 600nits peak (HDR)
Native Contrast	1000:1
Viewing Angle (L/R) (CR>=10)	178°/178°
Response Times (GtG)	1 ms
Response Times (MPRT)	1 ms
Refresh Rate	240Hz
Color Gamut	98% P3
HDR	HDR10, VESA DisplayHDR 600
Color Mode	Cinema HDRi, Custom, DisplayHDR, ePaper, FPS, Game HDRi, M-Book, Racing game, RPG, sRGB
Aspect Ratio	16:9
Display Colors	1.07 billion
PPI	109
Display Screen Coating	Anti-glare
Color Temperature	Bluish, Normal, Reddish, User Define
Gamma	1.8 – 2.6
HDCP	2.2
Built-in Speaker	2.1 Channel (2Wx2 + 5W Woofer)
Audio Settings	FPS, Racing Game, Pop/Live, Cinema, Sport Game
Headphone Jack	Yes
Tilt	-5˚ to 15˚
Swivel	15˚/15˚
Height Adjustment Stand	100mm (3.93 inches)
VESA Wall Mount	100 x 100mm
Connectivity	DisplayPort v1.4, 2x HMDI v2.1, USB Type-B (upstream), 2x USB 3.0 (downstream)
Eye Care	Flicker-free Technology, Low Blue Light, Brightness Intelligence Plus (B.I.+), Color Weakness, Paper, TUV Certificate (Flicker-free, Low Blue Light)
Gaming Features	FPS Mode, Motion Blur Reduction, Color Vibrance, Light Tuner, FreeSync Premium Pro, Black eQualizer
Dimensions (H x W x D)	422.1 – 522.1 x 609 x 194mm (16.6 – 20.6 x 24 x 7.6″)
Weight	7.6kg (16.8 lb)

What’s in the box

• BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM QHD gaming monitor
• Stand
• HDMI 2.1 Cable
• DisplayPort Cable
• USB-B to USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 upstream cable
• I/O cover
• Remote control
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty Card

Design

Like most of the BenQ MOBIUZ lineup, the EX270QM doesn’t stand out as a gaming monitor when viewed from the front. The back is a bit more stylish and is silver in colour 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 2.1 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. Just to the right of this is a small lock slot for securing your monitor to your desk if you need to.

The top and side physical bezels are almost non-existent 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 and a joystick. 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 dark grey 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 an orange and grey striped design on the front, adding a splash of colour. The stand offers height (up to 100mm/3.93 inches), swivel (15˚/15˚), and tilt (-5˚ to 15˚) adjustment as well, allowing you to set it up and angle it to your preferences. In addition, the back of the legs are angled up, leaving a gap between the bottom of the legs and your desk, allowing you to easily slide your keyboard, soundbar, and other cables underneath it.

The monitor also includes a handy remote control. 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 EX270QM includes both, which is also a nice touch.

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.

Ease of Use

Once assembled, the BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM 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. 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.

When you first turn on the EX270QM, you are asked if you want to enable full functions like the ability to change the picture mode, colour settings, and B.I./B.I.+. Turns out, BenQ has these functions “disabled by default to minimize power consumption in compliance with the international energy standards.” It’s as easy as selecting o.k., but it is an extra step. You can also cancel for lower power consumption, but then you’ll be missing out on key features.

Display

Given the size and resolution, the display panel on the EX270QM is sharp and crisp, and the colours are decent as well with 98% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage. On the HDR side, it features VESA DisplayHDR 600 with 600 nits peak HDR brightness (400 nits typical). BenQ HDRi enhances standard HDR by integrating adaptive technology. You can read more about it on the BenQ website or in the video below.

Overall, the colours on the monitor look great, with pretty decent blacks. The 98% 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. There are also various built-in colour modes including Cinema HDRi, Custom, DisplayHDR, ePaper, FPS, Game HDRi, M-Book, Racing game, RPG, and sRGB so that you can fine-tune the display to your personal preference. Furthermore, you can adjust and toggle FPS Mode, Motion Blur Reduction, Color Vibrance, Light Tuner, FreeSync Premium Pro, and Black eQualizer while gaming for an even more personalized picture.

It’s not easy to accurately capture display image quality in a photo, but here is an example:

Performance

I had no issues with the monitor’s performance when using the BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM 27″ QHD gaming monitor. It turned on pretty quickly, and the included remote worked great for quickly accessing the menu or changing settings on the fly. Gaming was also a treat with its 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms MPRT response time. When combined, these features make gameplay smooth and I encountered no stuttering or screen tearing.

As far as actual gaming performance is concerned, a decent mid-range rig will be fine, but a high-end rig is required to take full advantage of high refresh rates at QHD graphics settings. When tested on a gaming PC with a 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-12900K processor with liquid cooling, 2 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 Solid State Drive, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3090 graphics card with 24 GB GDDR6X dedicated memory, and HyperX® 64 GB DDR4-3733 MHz XMP Heatsink RAM, here are the average framerates for the games I tested on their highest graphics quality settings:

	FHD	QHD
Call of Duty: Warzone	178 fps	153 fps
Dirt 5	162 fps	138 fps
Forza Horizon 4	226 fps	210 fps
Forza Horizon 5	120 fps	107 fps
Gears Tactics	190 fps	139 fps
Heroes of the Storm	300 fps	260 fps
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War	208 fps	173 fps
Tomb Raider	425 fps	299 fps
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Riverside)	263 fps	213 fps
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Lab X)	179 fps	181 fps
World War Z (with Vulkan enabled)	324 fps	242 fps

As you can see, even with a pretty beefy rig, you’rhard-presseded to get 240 fps to match the refresh rate on most games at their highest settings. However, the framerates are still fantastic for smooth gameplay.

In addition, with HDMI 2.1 and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support, this gaming monitor works perfectly with the Xbox Series X for 1440p@120Hz gaming. Games like Forza Horizon 5, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and Call of Duty: Warzone looked gorgeous and ran smoothly when I had the console hooked up to it. It will also support the PlayStation 5 running at 1440p@120Hz gaming settings. While QHD is below the maximum 4K setting of both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles, if you have a smaller space and only have room for a 27-inch monitor, the picture quality looks just as crisp on a 27-inch QHD as it does on a 48-inch 4K display (more on that in a future review).

Sound Quality

Like its other gaming monitors, BenQ has embedded a 2.1 treVolo audio system in the BenQ Mobiuz EX270QM 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 EX270QM sounds pretty decent and is almost comparable to the SoundBlaster soundbar I’ve been using for several years. Of course, it won’t replace a good headset in FPS games like Warzone 2.0 but it worked well enough for most other games.

Price/Value

With an MSRP of $799.99, the BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM will set you back a pretty penny. That being said, so will most monitors this size with the same resolution, refresh rate, and HDMI 2.1. Most competing options with similar specs are a bit cheaper, however, most don’t come with integrated audio.

Photo Gallery

Wrap-up

If your system can handle it, or you have an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, the BenQ MOBIUZ EX270QM 27″ QHD gaming monitor is an excellent choice. While it doesn’t have the greatest speakers, they do sound much better than other monitors — and even laptops — with integrated speakers.

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Last Updated on March 3, 2023.