GB2470HSU Review
Introduction
With so many monitors being available today finding one that suits your needs can be a real chore and a minefield so it’s no surprise that many people consider finding a new monitor that suits them can feel like an impossible task. As part of my recent series of reviews to bring some clarity to what does and does not constitute a good monitor regardless of if the budget is big or small today we will be looking at the £160 Iiyama G2470HSU, one of four monitors in this review series along with the Iyama 2466HSU I recently reviewed. Introductions aside it’s time to start taking a look at the GB2470HSU and see how it performs.
Gallery
First impressions are good, the design of the monitor overall is quite pleasing and feels of good build quality and Iiyama packaged the monitor exceptionally well, I’d even go as far as to say it’s a little over packed which certainly isn’t a bad thing but it makes you wonder if the over excessive packaging for protection cuts into component costs, and hence quality. I’ll find that out for you all over the time period I will use this monitor for. Of primary note is that this monitor is not curved but that is to be expected from all but absurdly priced IPS displays at this time.
A look at the rear of the Iiyama shows it is a little more of a classic design using a more squared back compared to the 2466HSU, uses buttons for the OSD rather than a nice joystick which is a rather odd move, has 2x 2,0 USB ports which for the price is nice to see but again I don’t see why these ports can’t be USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports at least. Just like the 2466HSU the 2470HSU has the power supply built in which really is the only way to do it all the monitor designs that give you a separate AC adapter power brick is just bad, lazy, cheap, or a combination of the three, design.
Lastly you’ll note the 2470HSU has a nice adjustable stand and it has some heft about it too, do note though that there are two models of the 2470HSU, this one, which is the “GB” model which comes with the adjustable stand, and a “G” model that comes with a basic stand. The latter can be found for as much as £30 less which as I’ve pointed out before when you can get good desk mounted monitor arms for less than £10 on ebay makes the former model rather, well, redundant.
Specification
IPS Panel Size: 24” (23.8” viewable)
Resolution: 1920*1080
Brightness: 250 nits
sRGB Coverage: 95%
Static Contrast: 1100:1
Response Time: 1ms GtG, 0.8ms MPRT
HDR Capable: NO
G-Sync & FreeSync Compatible: Yes
Refresh Rate: 165Hz
Connectivity: 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DP 1.2, Headphone socket, 2x USB
Speakers: Yes, 2x 2w
I’ve said before at this price point if a monitor says that it is HDR capable it is going to be a very low standard such as HDR10 and at a point like that you might as well not bother with HDR at all because it is going to look awful so the lack of it here is not a loss. In terms of specification overall though the Iiyama monitor looks exceptional aside from a rather low 250 nits brightness, making it easy to see why this monitor has no HDR support, as we know from the Iiyama 2466HSU I reviewed though looks can be deceiving, let’s hope that isn’t the case again.
Usage & Functionality
Before getting to the usage and Functionality observations I’ll mention now that for each monitor review I use it for a period of at least one month (in this case 3 months) to get a feel for it and give some opportunity for any failings to arise and if so what went wrong. It’s a reliability test essentially because nobody wants to be having to constantly send a component back for replacement or repair.
Now, it’s time to outline a few important factors and what they are by which all monitors should be judged by.
Overdrive
”OD”, TraceFree” (Asus monitors) or “Overdrive” etc. as it may also be called is a pixels ability to respond to changing from one colour to another, the faster the transition response, the less ghosting or pixel overshoot a monitor will be susceptible to with fast moving objects on screen. Depending on the monitor and refresh rate an overdrive setting that is too weak or too strong might result in ghosting or overshoot, not all monitors have a good Overdrive implementation though causing severe ghosting and blurring, so be mindful of that.
Response Time
Related to Overdrive is Response Time, this is how fast the monitor can change from one shade of gray to another, referred to as GtG, the lower this value is the better but monitors with a 1-3ms response time as a general rule is what you want to be looking at in this day and age for 1080p and 1440p displays, even larger 4K monitors tend to have a response time of 4-5ms GtG. Some manufacturers and monitor models don’t give you a GtG rating but an MPRT (Motion Picture Response Time) rating, this is NOT the same as a GtG rating and indicates only that the monitor has motion blur reduction technology which is implemented via backlight strobing to create the illusion of less ghosting, you are better off avoiding monitors that don’t give you a GtG rating as typically such monitors are of a slower response time and hide behind the less stringent MPRT requirements to get their “1ms” rating. Don’t fall for it.
TN, VA or IPS?
There are currently three types of commonly available panels in the PC monitor market, TN (Twisted Nematic) which is the fastest type of panel but with the worst colour accuracy and poor viewing angles, VA (Vertical Alignment) which is meant to be a middle ground between TN and IPS displays however the reality is that while VA panels have the best static contrast and improved viewing angles and better colour accuracy compared to TN panels they typically suffer from poor GtG response time which often leads to noticeable ghosting even in movies with faster scenes, the very thing VA panels are meant to excel at due to their strong static contrast, let alone fast paced gaming. Finally there is IPS (In Plane Switching) these types of panels have the best colour accuracy and viewing angles while more modern IPS displays also have a fast response time closely rivalling TN and static contrast ratios that while not as good as VA panels still offer good results which tend to be in the realm of 1200:1 – 1800:1 even on budget IPS displays, the only down side is that some cheaper IPS displays can have poor backlight uniformity and this does vary from one panel to the next even within the same batch. Going forward the likely inevitable outcome is that IPS displays will totally replace TN and VA panels as IPS displays are not usually terribly more expensive and backlight uniformity is becoming less and less of a problem with natural maturity of the technology and most people on a correctly calibrated IPS display would not be able to tell the difference between static contrast ratios above 1100 or so the only thing IPS displays are missing at this time is that you cannot buy a curved IPS display at a reasonable price like you can a curved VA panel.
With those important factors covered it’s time to get into the usage tests, the 2470HSU performed superbly in the Blurbusters UFO ghosting test but I’d expect no less from an IPS display. Although I will note that for an IPS display the default settings are a bit washed out, I’ve never experienced this before from an IPS display and is undoubtedly down to sRGB coverage not being quite as high as it should be. You can alleviate the issue thanks to the advanced OSD settings that let you individually increase colour saturation of the RGB channels but still it is none the less an indicator of the IPS panel not quite being up to snuff which is disappointing.
Backlight uniformity is very good on this particular monitor but do consider that uniformity will vary from one monitor to the next however based on this sample I have no backlight uniformity concerns. Overdrive settings are a bit touchy on the 2470HSU there is not one setting that is well optimised for most refresh rates at least so you’ll have to manually use Blurbusters UFO test and change the OD setting if you use different refresh rates on a regular basis. At 165Hz I found the -1 setting to be best, even the default setting was a bit strong. The speakers as you would expect because they always are on monitors are total garbage, the odd thing here though is that if Iiyama did something to prevent vibration of the speakers on plastic surfaces inside the monitor, such as using a bit of foam around the plastic casing of the speaker, they might not sound completely terrible at least, an unfortunate oversight that could potentially make all the difference.
Despite all the positives there is, somewhat annoyingly as Iiyama monitors look so promising on paper, another kick in the teeth. After 3 months of use just like the 2466HSU this 2470HSU began to develop dead pixel syndrome. For it to happen once you can call unlucky, an anomaly, but for it to happen twice you can legitimately start to have serious questions over Iiyama quality control and the quality of the components being used in the monitor, exceptionally disappointing.
Conclusion
Fortunately monitors are pretty straightforward to write a conclusion for and I don’t think that’s ever going to change but unlike the 2466HSU there is a bit more to say here. It’s not much, but I’m sure most people are thinking it at this stage so I’m going to say it; what is so hard for monitor manufacturers to produce a 25”-27” IPS 1440p display for £200 or less? It wouldn’t need to have a lot of bells and whistles, 75Hz – 120Hz refresh rate with a low GtG response time would be fine, throw in some FreeSync Premium and we’d all be set, USB ports wouldn’t even be needed here just a good, reliable, solid performing budget 1440p IPS display.
Down to scoring.
Build Quality & Aesthetics 12 / 25
In terms of looks the Iiyama 2470HSU looks good for the most part, it’s probably going to make most people’s top 5 in this regard, it’s definitely one of the better looking monitors available that doesn’t have RGB all over it and this monitor did not exhibit any buzzing at any refresh rate from the tested 60Hz up to 165Hz. The built-in power supply is also very welcome but I shouldn’t have to praise a manufacturer for sticking to something that has been done for decades already it is only through cheap, lazy, poor, or a combination of all three, you see monitors with external AC adapters for a power supply now. The speakers however are your usual tinny, terrible affair though and Iiyama would have been better off not including them at all and passing that saving to the customer or adding some foam to the plastic shell of the speaker to prevent vibrations against other surfaces inside the monitor which to a degree at least would artificially improve Bass which would have helped with the terrible tinny sound a bit. Due to this being the second Iiyama monitor, in a row no less, to suffer from dead pixel syndrome after a very short time period that does have a dramatic influence on this part of the scoring you have to sort this nonsense out Iiyama.
Functionality 20 / 25
The 2470HSU offers just about every option you will ever need via the OSD and is a proper monitor in this regard offering features such as Black Tuner and Contrast, Gamma, Overdrive, FreeSync Premium and while not officially supported and hence why there is no mention of it nvidia G-Sync, etc and the advanced controls for colour do help for getting a natural looking image rather than a washed out one but those button controls have to go a joystick is the only thing I want to see for OSD navigation from now on.
Connectivity & Features 18 / 25
There isn’t anything to pick out as a standout example positively or negatively here, it gets the job done, but just barely by modern standards those USB 2.0 ports really need upgrading to 3.1 Gen 1 and function like a powered hub, only one HDMI and DP port, not even the latest standard at that, is also just barely enough. The Iiyama scores a few bonus points simply for trying to include a bit of everything however at a budget price.
Image Quality & Performance 20/ 25
Image quality is where the 2470HSU puts in a good word for itself, or rather did until the dead pixels issue begun to arise, with an overall nice image aside from it looking a bit washed out in colour due to a lower than ideal sRGB coverage of about 95%, manually increasing the RGB channels by 10% each helped quite a bit though, but still, for an IPS display this really shouldn’t be necessary, at the very least calibrate the default settings better Iiyama.
Final Score: 70%
In summary if you are looking for a new monitor that does a bit of everything you can do far worse than by taking a look at the Iiyama GB2470HSU it is a nicely rounded out monitor with the exception of no joystick for OSD navigation, brightness that is a bit lacklustre, and colours that are a bit under saturated out of the box. The real nagging concern is with the component quality itself two Iiyama monitors in a row to develop the same fault in a short time period goes a bit beyond simply being unlucky and Iiyama should take a serious look at the quality of the panels they are purchasing to use in their monitors. Despite this, I am willing to give Iiyama the benefit of the doubt and give the 2470HSU a Bronze award, it’s earned it the hard way but remember Iiyama with a few simple changes the monitor could have got silver, or possibly even gold if it wasn’t for the dead pixels issue arising yet again.