Hi John,
I would appreciate it if you were to let us know how the BenQ display is working for you once you have it up and running. Also, which app and hardware you use for calibration. My PA271 is dying after about 5 years of rather heavy usage, as did the PA2690 before that. At this point in my printing career, business is slowing down, so the idea of shelling out another $1800.00 CDN for the 271Q doesn't really make much sense. I have seen some rather positive reviews about the Ben-Q series, but your experience would be very useful in my opinion.
I have 4 displays in total (counting my MBP laptop) as I need 3 screens for motion picture color correction (2 GUI + calibrated image viewing display). My "hero" display is an Eizo (CX271), and one of my GUI displays is an old Dell IPS/wide gamut display that I bought used for $200.
While the Eizo is clearly the best display here for photo editing, I could get by with the Dell if I needed to. Uniformity is not quite as good, and the blacks are ever so slightly brighter, but I can edit with it if necessary. And I suspect a BenQ would be usable as well.
I can even edit photos on my MBP screen (after profiling with an iOne Display) and get by with that if I needed to. And it's not even wide gamut.
So, yes, you don't absolutely need the most expensive displays as long as you can profile/calibrate them.
That said, for me, I have seen the newer Eizo displays that can reach 1500:1 contrast, and I would much prefer those with their deeper blacks. I assume the new NEC displays use a similar panel. While a printed photograph can not come close to 1500:1 contrast, psychologically, the deeper blacks do "suggest" what a print on glossy paper might look like, so it's still useful. And softproofing will raise the black level a bit to match the print contrast.
For me 4k at 27inches might leave all text too small, so I would also need a 2nd display for the Photoshop GUI, just to read the type
But a $100 cheapo display could work for the GUI...
Lastly, I do find the 27inch size just about right for my needs.