Hardware Review: BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U - A Vivid, Fully-Fledged HDR Gaming Monitor

The video game display landscape is a minefield unless you’re an audiovisual expert, and it’s frustrating when you consider it’s arguably the most important part of your PlayStation experience. We all know the PS5 – and, to a lesser extent these days, the PS4 – are capable of outputting extraordinary images, but knowing where to turn for optimum image quality can be irritating. It’s especially difficult if you don’t have the space for one of the larger panels – look, we’d all love our own 70-inch OLED dream screen, but for those living in smaller apartments or even student accommodation, they’re not always viable.

An emerging alternative is the 4K monitor, and Taiwanese firm BenQ has been leading the charge on this front for several years. Now its newest Mobiuz line is targeting gamers specifically, and while its 32-inch EX3210U model will do some robust damage to your bank balance, it’s packing an impressive suite of features – including HDMI 2.1 support for 120fps gaming on Sony’s new-gen system, one millisecond response time, 144Hz refresh rate, HDR, and even an impressive 2.1 speaker system. So, does it live up to its impressive list of specifications?

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Appearance: Hey, Good Lookin'

The first thing you’re going to discover is that the monitor is not understated in the slightest. The rear of the panel looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, with clinical white plastics and sharp edges. It actually aligns relatively nicely with the design aesthetic of the PS5, and even has some rear-facing RGB LEDs that you can program for additional ambience while you play, although they’re not really bright enough to add too much to your setup. Nevertheless, this space-age philosophy expands to the robust stand, which is relatively easy to assemble, and provides a decent amount of flexibility, allowing for the height of the panel to be adjusted, and for it to be titled left-and-right, too. Naturally, there’s a pretty strict limit to the range of motion, but it’s unlikely you’re going to want to swivel the screen all the way around anyway.

While the back of the monitor looks great, however, the forward-facing aesthetics are irritatingly inconsistent. While the base of the stand maintains the sci-fi look of the rear, it’s decorated with a bright red detailing that’s going to stick out like a sore thumb – especially when you consider the bezel on the display itself opts for a basic, black plastic chassis. The aforementioned speakers are very obviously part of the thicker rim at the bottom of the screen, while the subwoofer is tucked around the back. You’ll also find a brightness sensor on the front, which is used to automatically adjust the monitor’s output depending on the light in your room.

There are buttons and a joystick discreetly located on the bottom of the panel, and these can be used to adjust various settings on the display. Handily, however, BenQ has also included a small remote control, which is a little unusual for monitors of this type but provides easy access to various presets and is our preferred option for fiddling with the menus. If you don’t want to deal with another plastic object on your desk then the aforementioned onboard inputs work fine, and have a sturdy and tactile feel to them.

In terms of ports, you get the obligatory DisplayPort for your PC, as well two HDMI 2.1 ports for 120fps output, four USB ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Everything is tidily organised and easily accessible, so you shouldn’t have too many headaches swapping out cables if you’re the type of person who rotates through different tech devices regularly. At this point, it’s worth mentioning that you can independently adjust the settings of the DisplayPort and HDMI, which is convenient if you’re planning to use this monitor for both PC usage and PS5 gaming. Personally, we prefer a dimmer more subtle image when we’re browsing spreadsheets, and a brighter more vivid picture when playing console games, and the EX3210U is able to deliver that.

Picture Quality: True Colours

As we mentioned at the beginning of this review, picture quality is paramount when it comes to picking a display, and in our opinion BenQ has delivered on its lofty promises. The IPS panel employed by the EX3210U is rich and vivid, owing to a truly impressive colour palette. There are a ton of presets to play with, although personally we found fiddling with all of the available parameters in the Custom setting the best. The key here is the flexibility enabled by the monitor, and it truly delivers an abundance of options if you want to experiment – as well as some serviceable “out-of-the-box” configurations if you don’t want to faff around.

One thing that should be noted, however, is that in SDR you’re going to experience a peak brightness of about 250 nits on this monitor, which is low compared to other options on the market. While you can force HDR for all content – which ultimately delivers a much brighter image, as you’d expect – it may not always be accurate if it’s not supported natively. Therefore, if you do intend to use this in a relatively bright environment, you may find the SDR output looks dull and drab. It’s definitely worth considering where you’re going to place the monitor and how it will be affected by daylight; we didn’t have too much of an issue in our setup, but skylights and large windows could ultimately impede visibility, we suspect.

Light bleed can also be an issue, although your mileage may very much vary on this front. We noticed some blooming and overflow in the corners of the panel, but nothing overly aggressive; this may unfortunately come down to a manufacturing monopoly, so if you do pick one of these up, you’ll want to test it in the dark thoroughly to see if your unit is affected. While this can be an unfortunate issue, we have to say the viewing angles on the monitor, along with its overall clarity at 4K resolution, is excellent.

And the HDR is pretty eye-popping, too. There’s some debate over whether the device actually achieves the required 600 nits of brightness to achieve true HDR, with some tests pegging it just below. All we can say is that games like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West truly shine on this screen, with vibrant colours and outstanding clarity across the board. Factor in the support for 120fps gameplay – where software allows it – and you can get some seriously smooth action on this panel, with very little ghosting or artefacts. According to various professional tests, input lag is restricted to just 4ms, which is a little slower than some high performance 1080p monitors but still fantastic for twitch-based games. For those of you planning to use this for PC gaming as well as PS5, it should be noted there’s AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVidia G-Sync compatibility, too.

There are some proprietary features that deserve a mention as well. For example, the Light Tuner claims to analyse in-game illumination in real-time and brighten certain aspects of the picture that appear overly dark. This, we assume, is intended for those survival horror games where you’re tempted to crank the brightness all the way up in order to get a better view of what’s going on. We faffed around with this during some of the darker sections of God of War Ragnarok – specifically the catacombs area in Svartalfheim – but eventually opted to disable it entirely, as we ultimately felt it wasn’t offering enough additional clarity to persevere with. Your mileage may vary. There’s also a Black Equalizer option which, in our opinion, just washes out a lot of contrast.

Also potentially of interest is a Blur Reduction gauge, which seeks to eliminate motion blur from games. The aim here is to provide a smoother, cleaner overall image, but it does come at the cost of the overall brightness of the display. As we’ve mentioned elsewhere in this review, this isn’t the brightest monitor to begin with, so therefore we left it off. It’s also worth adding that a lot of major games these days include their own motion blur toggle in the settings, and while this isn’t a universal option, it is becoming increasingly common.

Sound Quality: Hear Ye, Hear Ye

We’d be remiss to conclude this review without mentioning the built-in speakers, which aren’t the main selling point of the panel, but are a real differentiator. From our perspective, these are the best built-in speakers we’ve ever experienced on a gaming monitor, although it should be noted that the bar isn’t exactly high – even on past BenQ screens we’ve tried. The subwoofer on the rear doesn’t exactly boom, but it provides just enough bass to offer a rounded sound, which is vastly superior to the tinny sound you typically get from devices like this.

There’s no equaliser, so you can’t customise the audio to your tastes, but there are a few presets inspired by specific genres and scenarios, like Sports and FPS. You can also enable the PS5’s Tempest 3D audio to output through the monitor’s speakers, and this adds some nuance to the positioning of sounds, particularly in titles like Returnal, which have exceptional overall mixing. It’s important to underline that this is never going to replace a good standalone speaker setup or a quality headset, but it’s serviceable enough for quick local multiplayer FIFA 23 sessions or watching a show on Netflix, and that already makes it vastly superior to virtually any other gaming monitor on the market.

Conclusion: To Buy or Not to Buy

Should you buy the BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U, then? Well, firstly you’ll need to determine whether you actually want a television or a monitor in the first place. The price ultimately is comparable to the 42-inch LG OLED C2, which has a negligible increase in input lag but can obviously push out a much brighter image overall. In that sense, if you have the spare space available, and you’re not specifically looking for a screen that you can use with a PC as well, we’d probably recommend you go with the TV.

But if you’d prefer a gaming monitor, this is a good option. Sony’s recently released INZONE M9 comes with a suite of PS5 specific features, such as Auto HDR Tone Mapping, and we actually prefer the aesthetic of that panel. However, at 27-inches, it is a little smaller than this BenQ option, and lacks the high quality built-in speakers here. Meanwhile, if you’re willing to spend a little more, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 is future-proof with its 240Hz refresh rate – a first in the 4K monitor space.

All in all, though, the BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U is a good option, pairing vivid HDR picture quality with best-in-class built-in speakers and negligible input lag. As it nears its first anniversary on the market, it could perhaps do with a small price cut, as the competition in the gaming monitor space is relentless right now. But if you can find it discounted, potentially during a Black Friday sale, then this is a solid choice for PS5 and PC gaming.

Thanks to BenQ for providing us with a sample of the Mobiuz EX3210U to test. Let us know if you have any comments about the panel in the comments section below, and also whether you use a gaming monitor in your personal setup.