Verdict: An underpowered contender with a glitch in the audio system

Don't fear, new owners of the BenQ FP72E, your room hasn't been invaded by an angry wasp; just turn down the volume down on the monitor's awful built-in speakers and that furious buzzing will soon go away. And while you ponder the mystery of why this issue passed unchecked through BenQ's quality assurance program, you can also ponder why manufacturers still feel a pseudo-metallic finish adds that certain touch of class. In design terms, we're back in cheap TFT TV territory once again.

Still, at least the buttons are easily accessible and the menu system is reasonably intuitive. Out of the box, the BenQ delivered a bright image, despite its relatively low specifications. A luminance rating of 300cd/m2, a 500:1 contrast ratio and an 8ms response time are hardly headline news these days. However, the picture was ruined by bleached-out colours and an ugly yellow tint. A change to the colour temperature and a sharp reduction in contrast later, and things had improved dramatically. The BenQ also finds it hard to balance deep, near-black greys and light, near-white tones at the same contrast setting, and it's awful with low-saturation tints.

However, in real-world use, it isn't too bad at all. Games are its biggest strength, with surprisingly powerful performance in Prey, in which good definition makes up for a shaky grasp of shadow detail. The BenQ could also summon up a brighter glare from Need for Speed: Most Wanted's sunshine than the Iiyama, LG or CTX displays. DVD playback was perfectly acceptable, although the scenes in Hogwarts lake could have done with a little more mid-range contrast to make things come to life. HD video playback was the weakest spot, with some grainy moments and a clear inability to show subtler colour graduations - a problem that also affected the BenQ in our photo tests.

Our only other major issue with the BenQ is its low height, which means that it isn't the most comfortable monitor for prolonged periods of use. It isn't bad, but with the Asus PM17TE selling at a similar price, you can do better for your money.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• OCZ Core Series 30GB - Hard disks / storage
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - Hard disks / storage
• Asus EAH4870 TOP - Graphics cards
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Sound cards
• Multiwinia - Games
• Zotac GeForce GTX 260² - Graphics cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 - Graphics cards