Time after time, professionals and enthusiasts have asked for a QHD monitor that's smaller than 27 inches. Those have arrived, but only quite late, and only in mobile phones and laptops, which is not what we've been asking for. No, we wanted a desktop monitor that's smaller than 27 inches with a 2560 x 1440 resolution. Now, after many years, it seems BenQ is here to deliver, as the company just announced its BL2420PT – a 23.8-inch monitor with a QHD resolution.

The panel in the BL24020PT is made by AUO, with model number M238DAN01.0. This is an AHVA panel, which is often marketed as IPS because the display characteristics are very similar. Due to the high resolution, it has a dot-pitch of 0.205 mm, or a density of 123.41 PPI. The panel has a gray-to-gray response time of 5 ms, a 1000:1 static contrast ratio, 178 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles, and a 300 cd/m2 brightness.

It also has a true 8-bit color depth and covers 100 percent of the sRGB color space. A non-PWM LED lighting system takes care of backlighting.

For connectivity, BenQ has fitted the monitor with DVI, VGA, HDMI 1.4, and DisplayPort 1.2 interfaces. There is also a line-in jack for driving the two 1W speakers, as well as a headphone jack.

­ The BL2420PT also comes with a very capable stand. It can be tilted with a range of 25 degrees, pivoted 90 degrees for portrait viewing, has a 140 mm height adjustment range, and can swivel 45 degrees to each side.

We're happy to see that someone has finally made a smaller-than-27-inch QHD monitor, but with 4K monitors already available on the market… unless the price is right, this may be a case of "too little, too late."

No word on availability yet.

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