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The EX271UZ presented some unique challenges during testing and calibration. I’ll share the story below.
Grayscale and Gamma Tracking
First up is the EX271UZ’s default mode, Fantasy. It has a purple tint, which isn’t unusual, but the gamma tracking is all over the place. I measured with Local Contrast both on and off and got similar results.
To try and fix this, I first tweaked the RGB sliders, which dialed in grayscale excellently. But no combination of the gamma and Light Tuner would produce a straight line. I got it closer to the reference, but it’s still wonky. This is obviously a choice on BenQ’s part because they certainly know what they’re doing, given my long experience with their displays.
The solution is to pick one of the fixed color modes, either Display P3 for wide gamut or sRGB for the correct SDR color. You can’t change the color temp or gamma, but they track close to the mark. These modes match the factory calibration data sheet that comes in the box.
Comparisons
Fantasy is clearly one of the EX271UZ’s interpretive modes, with a grayscale error of 8.35 dE. This is well above the visible threshold of 3dE. The post-calibration chart shows the result for Display P3, which is much better at 1.32 dE. The best grayscale score I recorded was 0.64 dE, but that was after calibrating Fantasy mode with its wonky gamma, which was not acceptable to me.
The gamma result also reflects Display P3 mode and has a reasonable value range of 0.24 with a 3.18% deviation from 2.2. The actual value was 2.27, a tad dark but completely acceptable.
Color Gamut Accuracy
Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.
Surprisingly, the gamma result I spoke of earlier for Fantasy mode did not affect color gamut accuracy too severely. There is slight oversaturation across the board and a magenta hue error. But visually, the EX271UZ’s color looks much better than its skewed gamma would suggest. Fantasy might be fine for some users, but for me, the accuracy of Display P3 looks better.
Display P3 and sRGB are spot-on with no visible errors. The numbers are impressive, with 1.09dE for Display P3 and 0.90dE for sRGB. That’s pro-level accuracy.
Comparisons
All the OLEDs here are very color-accurate, but the EX271UZ stands out with its 1.09dE score because that comes from a fixed mode that the user can’t calibrate. It doesn’t get much better than that. In the volume test, it comes up slightly short of the other Quantum Dot screens but is still more colorful than the non-QD panels, with 102.96% DCI-P3 coverage. SRGB coverage is an ideal 99.75%.
Test Takeaway: The EX271UZ delivers excellent color, grayscale, and gamma accuracy in its two fixed color modes: Display P3 and sRGB. The interpretive modes have decent gamut results, but exhibit significant gamma errors that cannot be corrected. The EX271UZ is a little challenging to set up, but since you’re reading this review, you know how to dial in the best picture.
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