My first experience with a BenQ programming monitor was a hectic few hours filming the Web Dev Challenge. The main things I noticed during that time were the rare 3:2 aspect ratio, lack of glare, and the convenient option to power my laptop with the monitor. I typically use my terminal in VS Code, so the aspect ratio allowed me to see more of my code while my terminal was open. The lack of glare was super important for filming.

It's been about 8 weeks since I received my RD280UA monitor for my home office. Its adjustable arm mount was easy to attach to my desk. I like the fact that the Allen wrench has its own place in the mount, so you can't lose it. Immediately after setting it up, I noticed how bad the glare from the morning sun on my existing monitor had gotten.

The next thing I noticed was the plethora of settings. There are several color modes and more color settings within them. You can even adjust the amount of red and green for red/green color blindness. If you can't choose a color mode, you can use two with DualView Plus.

And then I got to the Eye Care menu. I've got special eyes.

Many developers love dark mode because it helps with their eye strain. Thanks to an astigmatism, I see halation and get headaches when I use a lot of dark modes. That's where this monitor shines - I have every tool I could possibly need to combat eye strain, not just a dark color with light text.

It starts with the MoonHalo - it's a much better backlight than the one I've been using. The Brightness Intelligence will auto adjust and turn on Night Hours Protection based on ambient light. Low Blue Light Plus allows you to adjust the blue light to your preference. The Eye Reminder sends regular "take a break" notifications, something I have an app downloaded for. When I first set it up, I could feel my eyes relaxing as I adjusted everything. After a few days, I noticed my eyes were less tired at the end of the day.

Right now, I've got three profiles setup - dev dark mode, dev light mode, and mbook (presumably MacBook). Using the Coding HotKey on the function bar, I can quickly switch between them. The main differences are brightness and temperature - mbook has none of the eye care settings turned on in case I need to evaluate colors.

The main reason I chose the RD280UA over the RD280U was its adjustable arm. In addition to the special eyes, I've got special joints - ergonomics are a big deal for me. The adjustable arm is so easy to move and rotate. I can easily push it around, flip it, and tilt it to find the right position whether I'm sitting, standing, having to use my chair neck support a lot that day, or whatever.

My setup requires flexibility beyond ergonomics too. My other monitor is a 34" ultrawide monitor. I use the same desk for my work MacBook Pro, my personal MacBook Pro, and my custom gaming PC. Luckily, this monitor is very flexible. You can daisy-chain multiple monitors with Multi-Stream Transport, multiple computers with the KVM switch, and multiple peripherals with the dedicated USB ports. I have a hub that I connect to several peripherals including a mouse, keyboard, external speakers, headphones, and more. Even though the monitor works with my hub, it has so many options that I'm still playing around with optimizing my setup, 8 weeks later.

The only feature on the monitor itself that doesn't work as expected is the EcoPrivacy setting. It's supposed to turn the monitor off when you step away. It doesn't seem to sense me and immediately turns the monitor off.

While double-checking some things for this review, I discovered Display Pilot 2. It adds an on screen display with various shortcuts. It also allows you to set up things like Display Partition and keyboard shortcuts. I like the idea of the flow feature. It's supposed to open up applications and perform various other actions on a schedule. I haven't tested it out yet. Display Partition only works on my M4 Pro MacBook and not my M2 Pro MacBook. The software crashed twice when I was initially setting it up on the M2 Pro MacBook. I haven't seen what will happen when settings are backed up from two different computers. Focus jumps randomly around a lot when using the software with a mouse, and it's unusable with just a keyboard or screen reader. Clearly, it's not integral to the monitor as I just discovered it.

Conclusion

If you want an incredibly configurable monitor with a rare aspect ratio, anti-reflection nano matte coating, and lots of anti-eye strain features, this is the monitor for you. The auto power off setting works fine in lieu of EcoPrivacy and I happily used it for 8 weeks without realizing there was companion software.