You should look at BenQ VA monitors. If you additionally lower the contrast, which on a modern VA doesn't look bad at all, you can reach iPad and iPhone minimum brightness levels (5 cd/m2). It's not gaming though.
I was told the BenQ GC2870H has 20 cd/m2 and so it probably can be lowered to such a level, too. Its casing looks similar to my BenQ EW2440L. Probably all those similar looking BenQ VA monitors have a similar low minimum brightness.
Yesterday I've received Benq GW2270HM it's also PWM free and VA panel, contrast and brightness at minimum. After few hours of testing with connected MacBook Pro Retina thru HDMI my eyes get strong strain, head pain and almost threw up had to go to sleep for few hours. I'll try to use it tomorrow because today I still feel pain. Got 14 days to return we will see.
degen I might wait for OLED displays. My OnePlus 3 smartphone which has a pentile AMOLED is much better for my eyes. As opposed to "minimum brightness, reduced contrast, dark room", I can use it at a reasonable brightness level in daylight. And I have almost no red or burning eyes when waking up anymore.
Some time ago I wanted to try the 28" BenQ GC2870H because it has a blue-green LED backlight (EW2440L has just "White LED" = blue), supposedly 8 bit panel without FRC, and is bigger. I thought if they also use a green LED they might have made the blue one less bright which might end up in me being able to use a higher brightness. I don't know the LEDs ratio though. In the OnePlus 3 it's 1:2:1 RGB, although the blue LEDs might be equally larger and then I'd have no good explanation for why the display is usable for me at high brightness.
I've been using the GW2760HS for an hour now. My first impression is that my the muscles around my eyes are not as relaxed as when using the EW2440L. Also the minimum brightness is not as low.
I've been using it since I wrote that and my eyes are dry and tired, which is expected after so long. I don't thing its quite as comfortable as the EW2440L but it's very close. Definitely not a migraine monitor, I'm going to keep it. Love the extra screen size for gaming.
KM I agree. To make the GW2760HS as dark as the EW2440L I have to lower the contrast in the OSD more and use a program to change the colours (SunsetScreen allows you to "dim" the screen in a colour temperature neutral way and is much better than f.lux). The result is that the screen becomes washed out and the lack of contrast makes reading some text difficult, whereas the screen would be very readable at very low brightness on the EW2440L
degen The bigger brother, EW2740L, might have a similar minimum brightness: https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/benq-ew2740l/
11 cd/m2. I remember some other site testing it for 19 cd/m2.
i'm waiting for a benq vz2470 that has an AMVA panel, and is pwm-free, true 8-bit, with semi-glare coating (very light anti-glare with low grain and probably with lower haze compared to other displays). i hope that it will help eliminate my eye-strain because this solution will address 3 big eye strain triggers; pwm, anti-glare coating and dithering.
anyone that suffer from eye strain that is related to the anti-glare coating should try VA panels because they are more likely to have semi-glare (i couldn't find any IPS). note that not all variations of VA panels will have a semi-glare with low grain and lower haze. there's a lot of discussion on the link to hardforum. you can also use the "search" option and look for key words in the "display" forum [such as grain, haze, semi] .
i read a lot of discussions regarding VA panels, and it's definitely not an easy to find a good VA panel if you're a gamer because of the known VA weaknesses, but there are also some factors that should be considered for general use such as movies and web browsing. VA panels doesn't suffer from IPS glow (there is VA glow which is usually less of a problem). they also have some typical cons, such as color shift when viewing from an off angle, or slower response times and slow pixel responsiveness, which might result in a blurred image and something called "black crush" (loss of dark details in the image, although and ironically VA panels have the best contrast).
benq AMVA monitor thread:
https://hardforum.com/threads/best-reviewed-a-mva-monitor-thread-read-the-1st-post.1803228/
wled and rgb led emits the approximate same amount of blue light:
https://forum.pcmonitors.info/topic/wled-and-rgb-led-does-emits-the-same-amount-of-blue-light/
I returned the GW2760HS. Too bright. Posted a wanted ad for the EW2740L instead.
degen Probably a good decision. The same site tested the GW2760HS, too: minimum brightness 101 cd/m2. That' s a lot. If only we knew why we have such a brightness problem.
https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/benq-gw2760hs/
vinkenvvt ThackeryBinks Did you buy a GW2760HS yet?
Sure did. A no go for me. Gave it to my friends. No clue why it wasn't Ok however. It really was free of PWM, blue light mode, etc.
I'm also learning I'm not just reacting visually to things, but I react to off-gassing of certain
electronic devices... usually desktops though, haven't pinned that to monitors yet.
The visual reaction thing is certain, however. The cause is not.
Oddly enough I'm not horribly reacting to my wife's editing monitor, the Asus Pro-Art "PA248Q". I've purchased 2 of these now. It's 6 bit +FRC (or whatever that is haha), no pwm... but it bothers me less than any IPS screen out. Even when hooked up to Intel Graphics & a VGA connector.
ThackeryBinks I also haven't found any LED-backlit IPS screens to be comfortable. I have an old CCFL-backlit Dell IPS screen which is OK. I've seen a few TN panels in store and a few actually looked more comfortable than their counterparts. In particular the BenQ GL2760H (looks like the TN counterpart to the GW2760HS) looked very still, despite being native 6-bit. Of course, I've learned that viewing a screen for a short time in the store isn't at all indicative of what you'll experience over the course of a few days, where minor strain adds up.
That's why I'm focused on VA panels right now (and plasma, I like my deep black levels). I would take another look at TN before I went looking for IPS, after my horrible and expensive experience with the HP ZR2740w PWM-free monitor.
KM I can view my plasma Panasonic ST60 at normal people brightness. When I bring my family down to the home theater where it is set up, I don't have problems unless it is a very bright scene with lots of white, and then I just slip my FL-41 tinted sunglasses on until the scene is over. I think it would be totally fine even brighter if it weren't for my huge sub-reactive pupils (doctors still have no explanation) and mild autism.
KM I can't find the EW2740L (measured at 11 cd/m² at 0% brightness) , even second hand. I'm looking now for the EW2750ZL, which is supposed to be it's successor, is more widely available (but looks to be out of production and is already becoming rare), and was also measured at 19 cd/m² at pcmonitors.info (thanks for the link to this great site). Even though it's not as dim as the EW2740L, it's still 5 times dimmer than the GW2760HS at 0% brightness. For reference I run the EW2440L at 0-3% brightness.
I found a local source and will pick it up tomorrow.
I like it. Much more akin to the EW2440L in minimum brightness than the GW2760HS. It still is brighter than the EW2440L, and if 0 brightness was all one could tolerate on the EW2440L I would not recommend it, but I don't have to use any program to mess with the colours, and I kept the OSD contrast at 10. The first monitor I got had a dead HDMI port, so I exchanged it and now this one has bad panel uniformity, especially in 2 horizontal bands, one running through the middle of the screen and the other through the bottom. It seems BenQ does not have good QC.
