BenQ Beefs Up Its Push On Digital Signage Displays That Are Validated For Pantone Color

April 4, 2025 by Dave Haynes

Taiwanese display manufacturer BenQ took the interesting step all the way back to 2019 of starting to market a display that was Pantone Validated – meaning it met a standard familiar to the creative and brand communities for color accuracy across print and digital.

More than five years on, the company is continuing to make the case and has now launched what it calls the world’s first signage display to be Pantone Validated, Pantone SkinTone Validated, and Google EDLA-certified. It was a first back in 2019 for Pantone Validated, so that must mean the new wrinkles are the skin tone and Google bits.

“When BenQ launched the first Pantone Validated SL Series five years ago, it set a new standard for color accuracy in signage displays,” says Carly Burton-Sallay, senior marketing manager at BenQ, in PR. “The SL04 offers unmatched color accuracy with Pantone and Pantone SkinTone validation, along with smooth integration with Google services and BenQ X-Sign for efficient communication across schools and organizations. It empowers users to foster collaboration, improve teaching, and simplify communication, all while making IT management easier.”

BenQ’s pitch is all about color accuracy …

With sRGB 99% color gamut and innovative color modes for various scenarios, the SL04 series offers outstanding color accuracy. In addition, the SL04 offers Pantone mode, which delivers the vibrant hues of the Pantone palette and the nuanced tones of the Pantone SkinTone Guide to enhance color-focused needs. MacBook users will appreciate the M-book mode, ensuring that the colors that are shown on their MacBook are accurately displayed on the SL04. Finally, the SL04 offers Coding and ePaper modes. Coding mode makes displaying code crystal-clear thanks to enhanced contrast and color temperature for better programming and coding lessons. ePaper mode simulates reading on traditional paper by reducing contrast and color temperature and converting images to grayscale, reducing eye strain and conserving energy.

The BenQ SL04 was built to meet the non-negotiable need for digital signage in both corporate and educational settings. With 500 nits of brightness, the SL04 can easily display content in reception areas, hallways, libraries, and conference rooms, and is easy on the eyes with its antiglare screen and low-blue light technology. Managers can maximize the Google ecosystem on the SL04 by connecting USB devices such as a keyboard and mouse for truly seamless interaction. It also offers portrait and landscape modes, two built-in 12W speakers to support audio messages and video, an IR sensor block for unauthorized control from universal remotes, as well as Wi-Fi and USB covers.

In addition, users can take advantage of BenQ’s X-Sign software, allowing users to remotely create, manage, and display signage content on every BenQ display. The advanced features in X-Sign allow users to push real-time and scheduled announcements and content to every connected BenQ display on the premises. In addition to creation and management tools, X-Sign also blocks unwanted pop-up messages or alerts.

There may well be others, but the only other display company I have seen making marketing noise is the US LED firm Neoti.

Color accuracy is a good thing, of course, and matters to the biggest brands who want to see their very precise shade of blue or red or whatever.

But there’s not a lot to indicate this is a big persistent ask, particularly for scaled opportunities. If it was, you’d very likely see the big guys like Samsung and LG announcing their own versions. Samsung did announce Pantone Validation for its quantum dots-driven QLED LCDs three years ago, but so far another Taiwan company, Viewsonic, appears to be the only one offering Pantone displays. There are some laptop screens that have it as well.