Taiwanese hardware manufacturer BenQ is rolling out a new Zowie-branded gaming monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate, which the company touts as a definitive display solution for esports fanatics.
Boasting advanced features like personalized viewing angles, adjustable color vibrance, and focus-boosting blinders, the Zowie XL2540 is available for pre-order ahead of a worldwide release later this month.
BenQ has released a lineup of professional gaming monitors in the months following its purchase of the Zowie esports brand. The XL2540 is one of the few monitors on the market today with support for a 240Hz refresh rate, and BenQ leverages its feature set in a pitch aimed squarely at esports competitors and professional gamers.
“From its inception, Zowie has been dedicated to the development of esports equipment to enable competitive gamers to play to the best of their abilities,” BenQ stated. “As the latest addition to the XL series for PC esports, XL2540 introduces increased smoothness in-game and its native 240Hz refresh rate can be fully activated to deliver different levels of gameplay experience when the computer generates over 240 frames per second (fps). And as such, people looking for the monitor should make sure their PC performance is up to par.”
Along with offering a superior refresh rate, the XL2540’s physical build is designed to be quickly reconfigured on the fly to achieve optimal viewing angles. The monitor features an attached S Switch that allows players to quickly swap between multiple display presets, while a height-adjustable stand can be tweaked during gameplay using a one-touch switch.
The XL2540 also brings a series of unconventional features to the table, including a set of optional blinders that are attached to the sides of the monitor, eliminating nearby distractions. Distraction-free gaming is a particular focus for the display, as BenQ notes that the LCD frame surrounding the monitor itself is equipped with a nonreflective surface, reducing the amount of visual noise players frequently see around the edges and corners of most displays.
BenQ notes that players can get a hands-on experience with the XL2540 at the upcoming DreamHack Winter festival and showcase, which will kick off on November 24 in Sweden. The XL2540 is available for pre-order at a suggested retail price of $500.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
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