BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U review

When it comes to spec sheet satisfaction, it’s very difficult to not fall in love with the Mobiuz EX3210U. It’s for a proper seven-course gaming meal and with a bit of BenQ garnishing to sweeten the taste. Speakers, remotes, game-specific settings and more. It’s all here. Of course the most prized feature — the HDMI 2.1 ports are here and there are two. Along with one DisplayPort 1.4.

That said, what makes the BenQ special is that it also has an IPS display with a 1ms (MPRT) response time and AMD FreeSync Pro. However, there are some caveats. This FreeSync Pro monitor is not G-Sync certified but you can still enjoy the sweet givings of Nvidia’s G-Sync from the Nvidia Control Panel. When we tried the Nvidia G-Sync Pendulum test, the frames were smoother and better with G-Sync enabled. Obviously, if you have an AMD GPU then it's going to work even better. 

During gameplay on PC, the BenQ Mobiuz handles frames cleanly. There’s barely any frame tearing or ghosting. Especially at higher frames (144Hz). Obviously, you’ll need Ambani's wallet and Nvidia’s RTX 3080 to push 144 frames at 4K on most games.

On the PlayStation 5, the story is slightly different. The FreeSync Premium Pro stays off with or without HDR but there is Variable Refresh Rate. This means all games look smooth even when playing on 4K@30 (Resolution mode) or on upscaled 4K@60 (Performance mode) or even FullHD at 120 (Frame rate mode). 

Dirt 5 is the best game to experience all three modes on the PS5, and the BenQ EX3210U absolutely hits it out of the park. If you don’t want fancy graphics then the 120Hz is jitter-free and without screen tearing. However, Ray Traced games like Ghostwire: Tokyo can sometimes have a ghosting effect while playing on 4K@30 with HDR enabled.

HDR implementation is a bit lacking for the price. It’s not as punchy as we expected from a ₹87,500 monitor. For the same price, you can get a TV with better HDR implementation with 4K and 60Hz. It supports HDR10 and Vesa display HDR 600 but the colours feel a bit muted. Yes, this is still better than most gaming monitors when it comes to handling blacks and saturation but it also costs a whopping ₹87,500. And for that price, the HDR and brightness need to be better too. 

On PC however, the Windows HDR implementation is worse so it’s better to play without HDR. Although, once the HDR is off the colour looks much nicer on the monitor. Having a 98% P3 colour gamut works wonders for us during magazine work, and with a MacBook attached you can even move over to the M-Book colour profile to match your MacBook’s colours.

However, BenQ’s profile colour options are slightly restrictive. They’re fully centred around gaming, and ironically there’s no option to toggle FreeSync. Presets like Cinema HDRi, DisplayHDR and HDRi don’t let you adjust the colour settings either. Heck, you cannot adjust any colour settings with HDR enabled.

Audio profiles are also very restrictive. These audio profiles are divided through game genres and have been on all BenQ Mobuiz monitors for a long time. The racing game audio profile focuses on bass and top-end frequencies meanwhile the FPS audio mode is tailored to feel spacious and bassy too. There are also Cinema, Pop/Live and Sports game audio profiles. All are vastly different from each other and BenQ doesn’t give you the option to customise your own EQ or tweak the existing ones. 

We kept the audio profile to cinema mode because that’s where the monitor handles all frequencies properly. We’re pretty sure that the 2W dual speakers with a 5W woofer can deliver better audio if the EQ was accessible. However, in Cinema mode the speakers sound fun and are good for casual gaming. It’s not special but it’s better than any other built-in monitor speakers we’ve come across. It also helps that the speakers are facing directly at you so games like Ghostwire: Tokyo sound spacious and clean. It’s a bit bassy for our taste but it makes action games sound more impactful. It’s heavy but a bit muddy which is still fine when you’re taking down Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring.

Strangely enough, the BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U also has a built-in microphone. A respectable microphone is built into the monitor and it is surprisingly very good. BenQ says the mic uses AI mumbo jumbo to cancel out any sound from the monitor’s speakers and also to cut out the sound from around your room. It sort of works. Allow us to explain.

So if you’re playing something on YouTube which has constant loud audio, the microphone will use AI to hush the audio from the speaker and your voice will sound like something similar to when you put your hand on your mouth and talk. If you’re playing a co-op game that has no constant background audio (Stealth games or even Valorant and CS:GO during the buy phase) then it’s easier to get your voice across without lowering the volume much. That said the microphone is almost as good as our gaming headphones for Discord conversations and Zoom meetings. There’s a quick mute button under the monitor as well and you can change the polar pattern of the sound to omnidirectional or Private mode (marketing term for Cardioid pattern). 

The Private mode uses AI and works surprisingly well for a microphone plonked inside a monitor. It focuses on speech and cuts out claps, keyboard clatter and even the monitor’s speaker audio. It’s not flawless but it gets the job done when you don’t want to wear headphones to talk to friends or office folks.

The monitor is also built like a tank and the white back panel matches the PS5’s dress code. Even though we think it’s one of the most beautiful looking monitors, you will never see the back of it while gaming. Maybe put a mirror behind it to admire its white hues and also adjust your hair? Or just enjoy the quality of your character’s hair in Elden Ring rendered in crispy 4K quality.

The BenQ Mobiuz EX3210U is a great monitor but it’s also priced to dig a hole in your wallet so it better be good, right? The display colours are accurate and crispy, but there are very few options to tweak the thing from the settings. Same story for the audio quality as well. It could’ve been better with a few adjustments which BenQ doesn’t give the user the liberty to do. The HDR quality is not on par to justify a ₹87,500 price tag and it could’ve been handled better. 

That said, if a monitor is the source of your income and entertainment, the Mobiuz EX3210U brings all of the flavours together. The massive 32in display is great for content consumption, racing and adventure games on the PC and the PS5/Xbox Series X. If you’re solely buying this for one over the other then there’s very little to justify the BenQ’s enormous asking price.