The first monitor was a "gaming" monitor that is quite popular, the BenQ XL2411Z.
The XL2411Z has surprisingly good color gamut for a TN panel. It in fact passed black level calibration tests and color banding tests meant for IPS panels just a few years ago.
The XL2411Z also has some features like Blur Reduction technologies that are supposed to help gamers.
For a TN panel it's really a pretty decent monitor, although I kept getting eye strain in large doses with it.
The XL2411Z also needed major color calibration out of the box.
This eye strain problem resulted in my getting the challenger, an Asus PB238Q IPS panel.
The PB238Q unlike the XL2411Z didn't need any color calibration out of the box, it just needed to have the brightness level taken down about 10%.
While the XL2411Z has excellent blacks, the PB238Q showed some interesting things not visible at all on the BenQ, on a THX screen test image. (I never knew until now, that the THX test image actually had a very faint black "THX" in the middle of an apparently black center.)
Both monitors have adjustable stands in three axis, plus height adjustment, but the execution on the Asus is leaps ahead of BenQ's clunky stand.
Motion blur.
Hmmmmm... In theory, the TN panel in the XL2411Z, along with various motion blur reducing techniques, should have provided a clearer picture when moving things around on the screen and when watching fast moving game or video objects.
This was proven to be false. The XL2411Z's technologies did in fact reduce some blur on the TN screen when enabled, but at the expense of reverse ghosting and other strangeness.
The Asus PB238Q in theory should have more motion blur, being a 6ms response time IPS panel not meant for "gaming".
I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that, in the real world, the Asus PB238Q had equivalent or less ghosting and no reverse ghosting at all, without any gimmicky features.
This particular Asus monitor is much easier on the eyes as well.
The visible details in shadow areas is another category that the PB238Q excels in. It doesn't need anything like "Black Equalizer" on the BenQ in the first place.
I can say without a shadow of doubt that, the PB238Q spanked the "Gaming" BenQ's XL2411Z butt without even trying, and for $60 U.S. less.
Verdict in the the $200 - $300 23 - 24" monitor category goes to Asus PB238Q professional series monitor.
