BenQ FP71E

Features And Specifications
Just over a couple of months back, we had reviewed the BenQ FP71G LCD monitor. Its excellent picture quality and vibrant color reproduction made quite an impression. Today, we have another monitor from BenQ with a similar model number except for the last letter. So let's find out if the BenQ FP71E is any different from the one we tested in the recent past.

The BenQ FP71E is a 17" LCD with a pixel pitch of 0.264 mm. It has a maximum brightness level of 300 cd/m" and a contrast ratio of 500:1. The horizontal and vertical view angles stand at 140 and 130 degrees respectively. Frequency response ranges between 31 KHz to 81 KHz (Horizontal) and 56 Hz to 76 Hz (Vertical). It supports a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 at 32-bit color depth. Just like FP71G, it has a response time of 12 ms. Now, most of the 17" LCDs from major brands have a response time of 8 ms and given that BenQ has a 8 ms LCD internationally (FP71E+), I was surprised (and a touch disappointed) on seeing the 12 ms specification on this one. I agree that the response time would only matter in high frames per second applications like games but 8 ms is fast becoming a standard for 17" LCDs and I believe everyone should at least stick to it, if not better it.



The FP71E is an elegant looking monitor with a mix of silver and black. The buttons for accessing different features of the monitor are present along the bottom edge of the device along with a headphone jack. A pair of speakers is present on the front panel. The connectors at the back include a D-Sub, a DVI input and a standard power input. The VGA cable, the DVI cable and a standard power cable were bundled in the package along with a heavy detachable stand.

We tested this LCD with the de facto monitor benchmark, DisplayMate, to get a bearing on how well it performs when put through various test patterns. DisplayMate first lets you tune a monitor to get the best possible display settings and then runs it through a series of test patterns to test everything from color, brightness and contrast to screen geometry.


Performance and Conclusion

The display was quite bright and contrast was pretty good too. There are four brightness presets namely Standard, Movie 1, Movie 2 and Photo, of which Movie 2 is the most usable. The screen geometry was perfect like in case of most LCDs. The color reproduction was quite good except for some minor issues with the bright green shades. There was a slight bleeding of green in a few color tests. Also, certain shades of green weren't reproduced perfectly. The text wasn't very crisp either. This observation held good when using the D-Sub connector. As soon as we shifted to the DVI input, things seemed a lot better. The picture quality was a lot sharper and even the bleeding of green seemed to vanish. This is one monitor ideally suited for DVI. If you remember, the FP71G was one of the rare monitors to pass the Horizontal color registration test to perfection. Unfortunately that wasn't the case in this one. There was a slight mismatch of red and green patterns.



In the gaming tests, there weren't any serious ghosting problems, but just like in case of the FP71G, you couldn't help noticing a slight blur in games like Counter Strike. This was thanks to its 12 ms response time. Also, I noticed a couple of dead pixels on the screen. That might be a piece fault but something that should not have been there.

The BenQ FP71G is available for a street price of Rs. 14,500 with a 3-year warranty. The cost is 500-700 Rupees higher than Samsung's 713N which has similar features and an 8 ms response time. However, you get an option to use a DVI input and a pair of speakers which is missing in the Samsung. If gaming isn't one of your top priorities, and you are looking for a reasonably priced 17" LCD with a DVI input, the BenQ FP71E is not a bad option. But if you plan to plug your monitor into a standard VGA out (D-Sub), then skip this one as there are better options available.


Have an opinion on this product?Disagree with the review? Send in your experiences, opinions, rants, raves,and death threats to the reviewer. We love attention!