Perhaps you have heard of Zowie Gear before; a gaming peripheral company that few outside of the competitive gaming scene would know of. Back in 2015, the Taiwanese company was acquired by BenQ, and collectively, the gaming brand is now known as BenQ Zowie.
At the company’s recent launch of its XL2540 and XL2735 gaming monitors in Malaysia, we sat down with BenQ’s Business Line Manager of eSports monitor, Gavin Wu, for a brief interview. In short, we learned that BenQ Zowie isn’t just “another gaming brand”: its sole focus is in eSports and consumers who are fans of the competitive gaming scene.
Looking at BenQ Zowie’s lineup of products, it’s easy to see that they’re targetted at competitive gamers. For one, both of the company’s new gaming monitors in Malaysia come equipped with TN panels. While an IPS display will give better colour reproduction, its response time and refresh rate aren’t up to par to what can be achieved with a TN panel. Basically, the company’s gaming products – not just monitors – are designed with eSports players in mind.
That is not to say BenQ Zowie’s gaming monitors suffer from common issues associated with TN panels. At the launch event, I played a few rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on the new XL2540, and I had absolutely no issue with poor viewing angles. As far as I can tell, colour reproduction is on par with conventional IPS displays too.
When asked how would BenQ Zowie differentiate itself from other gaming brands like Asus’ ROG and Acer’s Predator products, Wu said that Zowie takes a different approach. “We want to focus on eSports and eSports fans,” he said. In the grand scheme of things, it’s possible that the company wants its products to speak for themselves.
This is apparent at the XL2540 and XL2735 launch event, where BenQ Zowie showcased its range of products without any dedicated list of specifications near them. As Wu put it, Zowie wants consumers to appreciate the real-life performance of its products rather than figures told by spec sheets, which is really quite an interesting approach.
At the end of the day, if BenQ Zowie products are good enough for professional gamers, we imagine gamers who appreciate performance over looks – the no-nonsense design approach of Zowie products may not appeal to everyone – will suit them just fine. Moving forward, Wu told us that we can expect more products from BenQ Zowie to be launched right here in Malaysia.
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