NEC LCD20WGX2 review *** FINAL VERSION ***
OK people, this it IT. Review is now fully completed. I have to give my credit to TFTcentral & Simon aka Baddass, for the very nice cooperation and help while compiling this review live:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/nec_20wgx2.htm
It's first, exclusive review of this monitor around.
Review on TFTcentral is properly constructed, indexed and very easy to follow. Also, on TFTcentral you may find plenty of other information about the LCD monitors so I can warmly recommend this website to you.
Here, in the forums, I'm replacing the previous version of the review with my fully-blown draft. When you have a time, patience and want to have fun reading it ... please do. It would be my pleasure as this is my gift to this great forum.
Take care.
---
INTRODUCTION
You know that old one "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" ? It's the perfect description of my mental state before I decided to "let it go" and start adventure with the LCD monitors. My good 5 year old trusty "Nec-Mitsubishi DiamondPro 740SB CRT" was the most beautiful monitor on the world for me and even tiny consideration of changing it was interpreted in my mind as one big scandal. But ... tempted I was. Soon, beauty started to fade and there was a new girl in the town. I tried to resist, but force was so strong with this one. I decided to venture ahead, apart from the fact that my inner thought was whispering that this would be probably the biggest mistake in my life. How wrong I was !
Now, you, my dear audience, may start to wonder what temptation is that and what temptation can fade 5 year old beauty with just one click of the "order now" mouse button. Well, here it is:
NEC LCD20WGX2 20" widescreen LCD monitor
Widescreen gaming is really expanding these day and we may expect more and more titles with the support for the native 16:10 aspect ratios. Also, many of you out there are planning the transition from CRT technology and some of you are probably still unsure what is the next logical step. This is the reason why I think that this review is important and what I'm trying to do here is the compile the review which is done by and for, you the user. I will not try to push you so that you immediately splash your money and buy this monitor NOW. It wouldn't be fair. This review is the guideline what you may expect from this monitor. For me, the monitor is vital part of the PC and I was always picky when choosing one. I knew people who are spending huge amount of money for the new & shiny graphics cards, just in order to gain few fps ... but still they are using the same old 17" CRT monitor and they are simply unaware that picture quality is just pure shock horror. They are simply unable to come to their senses and realise that no card is good for the bad monitor. At the end of the day, it's something you constantly look at and it has to be damn beautiful.
I was bit skeptical about this monitor, as no single "confirmed" spec of this monitor was available ... but I've always been impulsive about the new technologies. If the spec are nearly as good in practice as on the paper, I would be more than happy. Personally, I think that look of the monitor is fantastic; precise, uncluttered and uncomplicated. Contrast ratios are very good along with the response times. It has specially coated, glossy screen (TFT film) which should provide the rich contrasts and particularly high quality colour presentation. With Advanced DVM you can choose between four display modes optimised for text, gaming, playing videos or photos, and at the same there is support for the whooping 1600:1 contrast ratio. At the end, there is also support for NaviSet (monitor configuration via software). As I'm currently using NaviSet with my CRT, must admit that it's handy tool - I'm not big fan of configuring monitor via OSD anyway.
It would be rather pointless that I list the full spec here, as it's just copy & paste. So, don't be lazy my dear friends and download the full spec from the following page:
http://www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk/coremedia/download/143668/20WGX2-Datasheet-english.pdf
It seems that US version of this monitor is HDCP enabled. However, Europe/UK version is not HDCP enabled, according to the response from Melanie (NEC UK). It seems that HDCP is not supported on their desktop range. What seems to me is that they are trying to separate then men from the boys, in other words LCD TV from the LCD desktop monitor. Obviously, sales policy between US and Europe is different. Same old story. It's just discrepancy in the market targeting. In US, HDTV is real and running already, HDCP is probably just around the corner ... so in some sense they wanted to include such video features as immediately available "extras". UK model is exactly the same, just without video features and much better looking (in my book). Also, Europe is preparing the new tax for the 20" LCD monitors and above. Not sure if such model diversion is related with this one or not. We just have speculations floating around. One thing that is puzzling me, and which is quite strange, is why on the earth monitor has to support this. Monitor is displaying device and not cryptic device. If we can have one simple "in-line" device, connected between the monitor and GPU card who will take care of the decoding process, it would be much more convenient Anyhow, I will not go into HDCP now. At the end of the day, real question which you have to ask yourself is: "Is HDCP important to you ?".
LG.Philips have recently introduced a new electronic control on their panel technologies which is marketed as being able to improve the contrast ratio from a typical level of 700:1 to a massive 1600:1! It is supposed to help colours look more vivid and bright, text look sharper and enhance the extremes ends of the colour scale, making blacks deeper and whites brighter. This is a great benefit to gamers who have issues seeing enemies lurking in the shadows and for photo / cinema users who want to improve colour quality. This technology is called the Digital Fine Contrast engine (DFC) and consists of 3 elements:
- Auto Contents Recognition (ACR) - detects the type of content being viewed and decides how to use the contrast adjustment engine to make the most of it. This is dependent on the mode selection in the monitor's OSD, choosing between settings like 'Movie', 'Text', 'Games' etc. For example, in 'Movie' mode, the DFC is enhanced for a maximum brightness and in 'Picture' mode colours are deepened.
- Digital Contrast Enhancer (DCE) - which reduces black luminance.
- Digital Contrast Mapper (DCM) - Displays the image while ensuring that the enhanced contrast is optimised.
This monitor is also using the new AS-IPS panel from LG.Philips which should provide the excellent response times and at the same time bring us the "historic" values of the IPS technology: colour balance, colour reproduction and viewing angles. Is this the perfect technology marriage ? Well, let's find out right now.
DAY 1 - INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
*** Is this thing pretty or what ? ***
Initial response, but so simple and effective question - addressed from my dear wife
Let's see.
As I already mentioned, visual appearance of the monitor is just stunning and build quality is really good (it's rather heavy). I personally liked the silver frame and black casing combination. Design is so simple and effective. I don't like the monitors which are "cluttered" with the things you would probably never use (like speakers). It's simple and effective design, just as I like:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0001.JPG
It has more "depth" then other LCD monitors around, but it's not alarming:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0004.JPG
It's even less pronounced live (than in the picture). Not sure why additional depth, but maybe it's because of the new AS-ISP panel or simply because of the panel improvements, done by NEC. Unfortunately, I don't have a hart to open it and investigate. You also have the monitor look "above":
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0002.JPG
Here you will see that actual depth increase is really not drastic. Also, in this picture you will notice slight reflection of the computer desk/keyboard on the screen (as ambient light was very intensive). This is because the TFT panel glossy coating (film). Screen has almost "monolithic" look, as it's so deep black.
Of course, we all know that it's impossible that I comment the monitor look in such way that I judge or discard your visual perceptions. Pictures are here, so you will exactly now what to expect and some pictures will show you how monitor will look when it's actually placed on computer desk.
Many people were concerned (and with every right) about the screen size, especially when they switch from the 17" or 19" CRT monitors versions. I think that 20" widescreen LCD will be roughly the same height as a 19" CRT vertically. Horizontally you will notice a big difference. I came from the 17" CRT ground and I'm very, very pleased with the screen size improvement. It's simply not comparable (in good sense). One user on the forums even measured the transition from 19" CRT to 20" LCD. Conclusion was that there is approx 16 % more viewing area, it's 18 % wider, and the only thing is that it's about 2 % shorter, which is nothing special. But maybe something which is more important to you is that "widescreen" appearance of the monitor is more appealing to the eye as the field of view is much more preferable with this monitor format. It's somehow more natural to the eye then 4:3 box. I was always fan of the widescreen format. It's more "movie like" and you are somewhat more involved in the scene and I don't mind the wide screen desktop also (it's should be cool hopefully).
Monitor doesn't have the height adjustment. Is this really necessary, what do you think ? Hey, at the end of the day adjustable height chair will do Seriously, I can't comment on this one as it's the generally matter of personal taste. As soon as I placed the monitor on the desk, it was just in-line with my eyes and on the appropriate height. No complains. However, screen tilt & swivel is supported. The base may seems solid. but it's actually standing on the "swiveling" platform. And ... oh yes, control buttons on the bottom and blue illuminated "power on" light are so damn pretty. Very nice outfit Take a look:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0018.JPG
Desktop Appearance & Clarity
Black Levels
Font Clarity & Sharpness
Advanced DVM
Panel Backlight & Uniformity
NEC Expansion Modes
*** First encounter with the third kind ***
Monitor was connected to the my 7800GTX via DVI port. Powering on ... and tension is rising. WOW, have widescreen bios post screen. Amazing Hmmmm. Wonder what will happen next.
When windows desktop appeared and I opened the web browser with the blank white page, shear brightness of this monitor literally hurt my CRT eyes (in positive way). Anyhow, I tuned down the brightness to 60% and start investigation.
Stock monitor configuration settings are:
- brightness 100%
- contrast 50%
- Advanced DVM: off
- Profile: normal (others are: text,photo,video,gaming)
I like the feature that I can switch quickly between the profiles by pushing the button "DV MODE" on the monitor (on the bottom).
- Sharpness: 16.6%
- Colour profile: native (sRGB/custom is supported also)
- Expansion: not used
What is Expansion ? Is this monitor alive and will it start to chase us in the house ? No, my dear friends.
Expansion is the NEC term for the resolution scaling (or pan & scan or however you would like to call it) so that picture can cover the whole screen when you are working in lower resolutions. Excellent for the people who have to run the games in lower resolutions. It's working for all resolutions of "1280x1024" and under, automatically. Of course, you may disabled it if you like. It's controllable via OSD. There are 3 expansion selection modes available via OSD:
- Full is stretching the image completely, so that whole screen is covered.
- Aspect is trying to simulate the monitor wide-screen aspect rate 16:10 on the selected resolution. It's stretched little bit, but there are still black bars left/right but not at the top (as far as I can see).
- Off is disabling any picture scaling processing. Resolution is natural as it should be. It's sharp and unaltered in any way. And, yes, there are tiny black bars on top/bottom and larger ones on left/right. Monitor is able to scale the picture for the resolutions of 1280x1024 and under.
Have to say that navigation and OSD are excellent. That small rounded button is actually "little joystick", used as the navigation tool. Options are logical and not complex, so the complete set-up and configuration is a breeze. I also installed the monitor driver and "NaviSet" software from the supplied CD. NaviSet is the tool which is integrating in the display properties and allows you to modify the monitor settings from the desktop in same fashion like using OSD:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0015.JPG
For the beginning absolutely no dead pixels, backlight or colour bleeding problems ... perfect panel appearance. Even and uniform:
Lights on:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0011.JPG
Lights off:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0056.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0057.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0058.JPG
Firstly, have to stress that colours are so vivid and picture so properly contrasted and balanced. This was way above my expectations. Not sure if glossy TFT film, new AS-IPS panel or combination of both are responsible, but results are really surprising. Also, have to say that because of the glossy (mirror) finish of the panel you will see the ambient reflections on the screen, but honestly it's not so noticeable nor drastic or annoying. Anyhow, I really think that this type of TFT film is improving the colours and display contrast drastically and it's so damn good looking.
I'm using the black background on my desktop (always like it that way). When comparing the black levels against the CRT one NEC is leading by huge margin. Even on my old CRT black was not so "black" and there was always slight brightness involved when black background was in place. Quite impressed. It looks so good that it's comparable and even better than what you can have with the best CRT screens around.
Now ... Advanced DVM (1600:1) is intriguing. You can simply turn off/on this feature from the monitor options and combine it with any profile available (text/photo/video/gaming). When it's on you will immediately notice nice improvement in the contrast levels and colour fidelity. It looks almost 3D however brightness is slightly lost (but you can always increase it manually). After further testing it seems that Advanced DVM is mostly suitable (and noticeable) during the dark or very rich and colourful scenes. When I opened the F.E.A.R web site:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0017.JPG
it really looked almost 3D-ish, because of the improved contrast level, black "darkness" and colour depth. Still have to test the Advanced DVM properly. Remember that "black" I described before. Well, it's even more "black" now ... unbelievable. Also, I noticed that in Advanced DVM mode monitor is somewhat automatically adjusting the contrast levels according to the screen content, especially when you have huge area on the screen in black<->white or other major colours intensive transitions. Sounds bit strange, but from my initial experience it's always there when it's needed and it's not distracting.
Working in desktop was real pleasure. I really liked the widescreen desktop "expansion" from the old 4:3 format. Text was clear and crisp (even without the cleartype) and colour reproduction was really fantastic. Also, when you place bright white objects against the black background no visible shadowing or colour bleeding are visible and contrast was just great:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0012.JPG
Colour intensive screens, with loads of details, are rendered perfectly:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0049.JPG
I really wanted to visit all my favourite web sites again and enjoy them in full glory on this monitor, as colours are so vivid and real that it's simply amazing.Screen is really pleasant to the eye when working in desktop. Colours are vibrant and deep, contrast is exceptional, brightness is just crazy (but controllable) and glossy screen is giving additional "smoothness" to the eye. Don't know if I mentioned, but my office LCD screen 17" BenQ is very harsh to the eye, comparing to this one.
I have only one picture to show for the desktop font clarity:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_02/IMG_XT01.JPG
You will notice the blue luminance around the fonts. It's just the camera glow, nothing to worry about. But notice the contrast, black levels and fonts "smoothness". It's almost CRT-ish like. Interestingly enough, when I decrease the monitor sharpness to 6.2% or 8.3% ... I'm telling you (and this is no joke) it looks just like CRT This may work in a way to reduce the "texture sharpness" especially in the games, so it may be useful for the people who are not the fans of the "LCD" army knife sharpness (especially in games).
DAY 2 - GAMING
*** Let the games begin ***
Do you like to play games ? Can this monitor improve the gaming immersion ? What you, my dear gamers, can expect from this monitor ? Loads of questions, indeed. As I'm also the gamer in the heart, maybe I could help you here. Let's see.
Now, you may probably heard the terms "ghosting", "blurring", "tearing" and who-knows-what when owners of the LCD monitors describes the gaming performance. That sounds just ugly and scary isn't it ? I was very nervous that such terms will spoil my previous CRT-ish gaming immersion with the old monitor, that I even hesitated to start the gaming review at all. Nuts. However, my dear audience, I never looked back after my decision to try. This panel is so damn fast people, and I'm serious.
Tonight I played the games with the Advanced DVM + GAME/VIDEO profile settings. One thing is for sure my friends. Advanced DVM is doing wonders for the games and movies. Yes, you will loose the slight level of brightness, but as for the compensation monitor will smash you with excellent contrast levels during the "dark" scenes. Some users may prefer to disable it when playing "bright" games or movies in order to increase the brightness, but from my point of view it's not essential as it's looking good anyway.
I decided to take different approach tonight for capturing screen pictures with my digital camera. We all know that ambient light is "noisy" and it can easily distort the native screen output especially when using cameras. Also, it can easily add it's own "special effects". So ... I decided that ambient "darkness" or "lights off" is maybe preferable solution.
I used improvised tripod (pile of books and chair) in order to stabilise the camera as much as possible while obtaining the good camera distance and angle. Think it was worth the effort. All the pictures are in 1600x1200. Also, I may suggest that you also (after the inspection) "zoom out" them so that they can fit your screens and that you have full picture aspect. Not sure what average resolutions you are using out there, but if pictures are to big, please complain and I will rescale them.
Time is passing so quickly with the games. Let's see what I found out after 2 hours of gaming sessions:
We all know that F.E.A.R and QUAKE4 are very "dark" games and environment is focused mostly on dark and creepy tunnels, buildings and who knows what. This is the perfect candidate for the Advanced DVM + GAMES profile. Take a look:
F.E.A.R
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_FE01.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_FE02.JPG
QUAKE4
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_Q401.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_Q402.JPG
Now, let's focus on the "bright" side of life
AOE3
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_AE01.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_AE02.JPG
... and some tropical hedonism:
FAR CRY
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_HL01.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_HL02.JPG
OK people, this it IT. Review is now fully completed. I have to give my credit to TFTcentral & Simon aka Baddass, for the very nice cooperation and help while compiling this review live:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/nec_20wgx2.htm
It's first, exclusive review of this monitor around.
Review on TFTcentral is properly constructed, indexed and very easy to follow. Also, on TFTcentral you may find plenty of other information about the LCD monitors so I can warmly recommend this website to you.
Here, in the forums, I'm replacing the previous version of the review with my fully-blown draft. When you have a time, patience and want to have fun reading it ... please do. It would be my pleasure as this is my gift to this great forum.
Take care.
---
INTRODUCTION
You know that old one "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" ? It's the perfect description of my mental state before I decided to "let it go" and start adventure with the LCD monitors. My good 5 year old trusty "Nec-Mitsubishi DiamondPro 740SB CRT" was the most beautiful monitor on the world for me and even tiny consideration of changing it was interpreted in my mind as one big scandal. But ... tempted I was. Soon, beauty started to fade and there was a new girl in the town. I tried to resist, but force was so strong with this one. I decided to venture ahead, apart from the fact that my inner thought was whispering that this would be probably the biggest mistake in my life. How wrong I was !
Now, you, my dear audience, may start to wonder what temptation is that and what temptation can fade 5 year old beauty with just one click of the "order now" mouse button. Well, here it is:
NEC LCD20WGX2 20" widescreen LCD monitor
Widescreen gaming is really expanding these day and we may expect more and more titles with the support for the native 16:10 aspect ratios. Also, many of you out there are planning the transition from CRT technology and some of you are probably still unsure what is the next logical step. This is the reason why I think that this review is important and what I'm trying to do here is the compile the review which is done by and for, you the user. I will not try to push you so that you immediately splash your money and buy this monitor NOW. It wouldn't be fair. This review is the guideline what you may expect from this monitor. For me, the monitor is vital part of the PC and I was always picky when choosing one. I knew people who are spending huge amount of money for the new & shiny graphics cards, just in order to gain few fps ... but still they are using the same old 17" CRT monitor and they are simply unaware that picture quality is just pure shock horror. They are simply unable to come to their senses and realise that no card is good for the bad monitor. At the end of the day, it's something you constantly look at and it has to be damn beautiful.
I was bit skeptical about this monitor, as no single "confirmed" spec of this monitor was available ... but I've always been impulsive about the new technologies. If the spec are nearly as good in practice as on the paper, I would be more than happy. Personally, I think that look of the monitor is fantastic; precise, uncluttered and uncomplicated. Contrast ratios are very good along with the response times. It has specially coated, glossy screen (TFT film) which should provide the rich contrasts and particularly high quality colour presentation. With Advanced DVM you can choose between four display modes optimised for text, gaming, playing videos or photos, and at the same there is support for the whooping 1600:1 contrast ratio. At the end, there is also support for NaviSet (monitor configuration via software). As I'm currently using NaviSet with my CRT, must admit that it's handy tool - I'm not big fan of configuring monitor via OSD anyway.
It would be rather pointless that I list the full spec here, as it's just copy & paste. So, don't be lazy my dear friends and download the full spec from the following page:
http://www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk/coremedia/download/143668/20WGX2-Datasheet-english.pdf
It seems that US version of this monitor is HDCP enabled. However, Europe/UK version is not HDCP enabled, according to the response from Melanie (NEC UK). It seems that HDCP is not supported on their desktop range. What seems to me is that they are trying to separate then men from the boys, in other words LCD TV from the LCD desktop monitor. Obviously, sales policy between US and Europe is different. Same old story. It's just discrepancy in the market targeting. In US, HDTV is real and running already, HDCP is probably just around the corner ... so in some sense they wanted to include such video features as immediately available "extras". UK model is exactly the same, just without video features and much better looking (in my book). Also, Europe is preparing the new tax for the 20" LCD monitors and above. Not sure if such model diversion is related with this one or not. We just have speculations floating around. One thing that is puzzling me, and which is quite strange, is why on the earth monitor has to support this. Monitor is displaying device and not cryptic device. If we can have one simple "in-line" device, connected between the monitor and GPU card who will take care of the decoding process, it would be much more convenient Anyhow, I will not go into HDCP now. At the end of the day, real question which you have to ask yourself is: "Is HDCP important to you ?".
LG.Philips have recently introduced a new electronic control on their panel technologies which is marketed as being able to improve the contrast ratio from a typical level of 700:1 to a massive 1600:1! It is supposed to help colours look more vivid and bright, text look sharper and enhance the extremes ends of the colour scale, making blacks deeper and whites brighter. This is a great benefit to gamers who have issues seeing enemies lurking in the shadows and for photo / cinema users who want to improve colour quality. This technology is called the Digital Fine Contrast engine (DFC) and consists of 3 elements:
- Auto Contents Recognition (ACR) - detects the type of content being viewed and decides how to use the contrast adjustment engine to make the most of it. This is dependent on the mode selection in the monitor's OSD, choosing between settings like 'Movie', 'Text', 'Games' etc. For example, in 'Movie' mode, the DFC is enhanced for a maximum brightness and in 'Picture' mode colours are deepened.
- Digital Contrast Enhancer (DCE) - which reduces black luminance.
- Digital Contrast Mapper (DCM) - Displays the image while ensuring that the enhanced contrast is optimised.
This monitor is also using the new AS-IPS panel from LG.Philips which should provide the excellent response times and at the same time bring us the "historic" values of the IPS technology: colour balance, colour reproduction and viewing angles. Is this the perfect technology marriage ? Well, let's find out right now.
DAY 1 - INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
*** Is this thing pretty or what ? ***
Initial response, but so simple and effective question - addressed from my dear wife
Let's see.As I already mentioned, visual appearance of the monitor is just stunning and build quality is really good (it's rather heavy). I personally liked the silver frame and black casing combination. Design is so simple and effective. I don't like the monitors which are "cluttered" with the things you would probably never use (like speakers). It's simple and effective design, just as I like:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0001.JPG
It has more "depth" then other LCD monitors around, but it's not alarming:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0004.JPG
It's even less pronounced live (than in the picture). Not sure why additional depth, but maybe it's because of the new AS-ISP panel or simply because of the panel improvements, done by NEC. Unfortunately, I don't have a hart to open it and investigate. You also have the monitor look "above":
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0002.JPG
Here you will see that actual depth increase is really not drastic. Also, in this picture you will notice slight reflection of the computer desk/keyboard on the screen (as ambient light was very intensive). This is because the TFT panel glossy coating (film). Screen has almost "monolithic" look, as it's so deep black.
Of course, we all know that it's impossible that I comment the monitor look in such way that I judge or discard your visual perceptions. Pictures are here, so you will exactly now what to expect and some pictures will show you how monitor will look when it's actually placed on computer desk.
Many people were concerned (and with every right) about the screen size, especially when they switch from the 17" or 19" CRT monitors versions. I think that 20" widescreen LCD will be roughly the same height as a 19" CRT vertically. Horizontally you will notice a big difference. I came from the 17" CRT ground and I'm very, very pleased with the screen size improvement. It's simply not comparable (in good sense). One user on the forums even measured the transition from 19" CRT to 20" LCD. Conclusion was that there is approx 16 % more viewing area, it's 18 % wider, and the only thing is that it's about 2 % shorter, which is nothing special. But maybe something which is more important to you is that "widescreen" appearance of the monitor is more appealing to the eye as the field of view is much more preferable with this monitor format. It's somehow more natural to the eye then 4:3 box. I was always fan of the widescreen format. It's more "movie like" and you are somewhat more involved in the scene and I don't mind the wide screen desktop also (it's should be cool hopefully).
Monitor doesn't have the height adjustment. Is this really necessary, what do you think ? Hey, at the end of the day adjustable height chair will do
Seriously, I can't comment on this one as it's the generally matter of personal taste. As soon as I placed the monitor on the desk, it was just in-line with my eyes and on the appropriate height. No complains. However, screen tilt & swivel is supported. The base may seems solid. but it's actually standing on the "swiveling" platform. And ... oh yes, control buttons on the bottom and blue illuminated "power on" light are so damn pretty. Very nice outfit Take a look:http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0018.JPG
Desktop Appearance & Clarity
Black Levels
Font Clarity & Sharpness
Advanced DVM
Panel Backlight & Uniformity
NEC Expansion Modes
*** First encounter with the third kind ***
Monitor was connected to the my 7800GTX via DVI port. Powering on ... and tension is rising. WOW, have widescreen bios post screen. Amazing
Hmmmm. Wonder what will happen next.When windows desktop appeared and I opened the web browser with the blank white page, shear brightness of this monitor literally hurt my CRT eyes (in positive way). Anyhow, I tuned down the brightness to 60% and start investigation.
Stock monitor configuration settings are:
- brightness 100%
- contrast 50%
- Advanced DVM: off
- Profile: normal (others are: text,photo,video,gaming)
I like the feature that I can switch quickly between the profiles by pushing the button "DV MODE" on the monitor (on the bottom).
- Sharpness: 16.6%
- Colour profile: native (sRGB/custom is supported also)
- Expansion: not used
What is Expansion ? Is this monitor alive and will it start to chase us in the house ? No, my dear friends.
Expansion is the NEC term for the resolution scaling (or pan & scan or however you would like to call it) so that picture can cover the whole screen when you are working in lower resolutions. Excellent for the people who have to run the games in lower resolutions. It's working for all resolutions of "1280x1024" and under, automatically. Of course, you may disabled it if you like. It's controllable via OSD. There are 3 expansion selection modes available via OSD:
- Full is stretching the image completely, so that whole screen is covered.
- Aspect is trying to simulate the monitor wide-screen aspect rate 16:10 on the selected resolution. It's stretched little bit, but there are still black bars left/right but not at the top (as far as I can see).
- Off is disabling any picture scaling processing. Resolution is natural as it should be. It's sharp and unaltered in any way. And, yes, there are tiny black bars on top/bottom and larger ones on left/right. Monitor is able to scale the picture for the resolutions of 1280x1024 and under.
Have to say that navigation and OSD are excellent. That small rounded button is actually "little joystick", used as the navigation tool. Options are logical and not complex, so the complete set-up and configuration is a breeze. I also installed the monitor driver and "NaviSet" software from the supplied CD. NaviSet is the tool which is integrating in the display properties and allows you to modify the monitor settings from the desktop in same fashion like using OSD:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0015.JPG
For the beginning absolutely no dead pixels, backlight or colour bleeding problems ... perfect panel appearance. Even and uniform:
Lights on:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0011.JPG
Lights off:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0056.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0057.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0058.JPG
Firstly, have to stress that colours are so vivid and picture so properly contrasted and balanced. This was way above my expectations. Not sure if glossy TFT film, new AS-IPS panel or combination of both are responsible, but results are really surprising. Also, have to say that because of the glossy (mirror) finish of the panel you will see the ambient reflections on the screen, but honestly it's not so noticeable nor drastic or annoying. Anyhow, I really think that this type of TFT film is improving the colours and display contrast drastically and it's so damn good looking.
I'm using the black background on my desktop (always like it that way). When comparing the black levels against the CRT one NEC is leading by huge margin. Even on my old CRT black was not so "black" and there was always slight brightness involved when black background was in place. Quite impressed. It looks so good that it's comparable and even better than what you can have with the best CRT screens around.
Now ... Advanced DVM (1600:1) is intriguing. You can simply turn off/on this feature from the monitor options and combine it with any profile available (text/photo/video/gaming). When it's on you will immediately notice nice improvement in the contrast levels and colour fidelity. It looks almost 3D however brightness is slightly lost (but you can always increase it manually). After further testing it seems that Advanced DVM is mostly suitable (and noticeable) during the dark or very rich and colourful scenes. When I opened the F.E.A.R web site:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0017.JPG
it really looked almost 3D-ish, because of the improved contrast level, black "darkness" and colour depth. Still have to test the Advanced DVM properly. Remember that "black" I described before. Well, it's even more "black" now ... unbelievable. Also, I noticed that in Advanced DVM mode monitor is somewhat automatically adjusting the contrast levels according to the screen content, especially when you have huge area on the screen in black<->white or other major colours intensive transitions. Sounds bit strange, but from my initial experience it's always there when it's needed and it's not distracting.
Working in desktop was real pleasure. I really liked the widescreen desktop "expansion" from the old 4:3 format. Text was clear and crisp (even without the cleartype) and colour reproduction was really fantastic. Also, when you place bright white objects against the black background no visible shadowing or colour bleeding are visible and contrast was just great:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0012.JPG
Colour intensive screens, with loads of details, are rendered perfectly:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/IMG_0049.JPG
I really wanted to visit all my favourite web sites again and enjoy them in full glory on this monitor, as colours are so vivid and real that it's simply amazing.Screen is really pleasant to the eye when working in desktop. Colours are vibrant and deep, contrast is exceptional, brightness is just crazy (but controllable) and glossy screen is giving additional "smoothness" to the eye. Don't know if I mentioned, but my office LCD screen 17" BenQ is very harsh to the eye, comparing to this one.
I have only one picture to show for the desktop font clarity:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_02/IMG_XT01.JPG
You will notice the blue luminance around the fonts. It's just the camera glow, nothing to worry about. But notice the contrast, black levels and fonts "smoothness". It's almost CRT-ish like. Interestingly enough, when I decrease the monitor sharpness to 6.2% or 8.3% ... I'm telling you (and this is no joke) it looks just like CRT This may work in a way to reduce the "texture sharpness" especially in the games, so it may be useful for the people who are not the fans of the "LCD" army knife sharpness (especially in games).
DAY 2 - GAMING
*** Let the games begin ***
Do you like to play games ? Can this monitor improve the gaming immersion ? What you, my dear gamers, can expect from this monitor ? Loads of questions, indeed. As I'm also the gamer in the heart, maybe I could help you here. Let's see.
Now, you may probably heard the terms "ghosting", "blurring", "tearing" and who-knows-what when owners of the LCD monitors describes the gaming performance. That sounds just ugly and scary isn't it ? I was very nervous that such terms will spoil my previous CRT-ish gaming immersion with the old monitor, that I even hesitated to start the gaming review at all. Nuts. However, my dear audience, I never looked back after my decision to try. This panel is so damn fast people, and I'm serious.
Tonight I played the games with the Advanced DVM + GAME/VIDEO profile settings. One thing is for sure my friends. Advanced DVM is doing wonders for the games and movies. Yes, you will loose the slight level of brightness, but as for the compensation monitor will smash you with excellent contrast levels during the "dark" scenes. Some users may prefer to disable it when playing "bright" games or movies in order to increase the brightness, but from my point of view it's not essential as it's looking good anyway.
I decided to take different approach tonight for capturing screen pictures with my digital camera. We all know that ambient light is "noisy" and it can easily distort the native screen output especially when using cameras. Also, it can easily add it's own "special effects". So ... I decided that ambient "darkness" or "lights off" is maybe preferable solution.
I used improvised tripod (pile of books and chair) in order to stabilise the camera as much as possible while obtaining the good camera distance and angle. Think it was worth the effort. All the pictures are in 1600x1200. Also, I may suggest that you also (after the inspection) "zoom out" them so that they can fit your screens and that you have full picture aspect. Not sure what average resolutions you are using out there, but if pictures are to big, please complain and I will rescale them.
Time is passing so quickly with the games. Let's see what I found out after 2 hours of gaming sessions:
We all know that F.E.A.R and QUAKE4 are very "dark" games and environment is focused mostly on dark and creepy tunnels, buildings and who knows what. This is the perfect candidate for the Advanced DVM + GAMES profile. Take a look:
F.E.A.R
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_FE01.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_FE02.JPG
QUAKE4
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_Q401.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_Q402.JPG
Now, let's focus on the "bright" side of life
AOE3
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_AE01.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_AE02.JPG
... and some tropical hedonism:
FAR CRY
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_HL01.JPG
http://62.204.32.7:10973/NEWPIC_01/IMG_HL02.JPG
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thatnNo tearing, ghosting, latency or blurring is present. It's probably directly influenced by panel fast response times. I tried FEAR, HL2, Far Cry ... everything was smooth and pleasure to play. Have to admit that widescreen field of view is amazing. Again, colour reproduction was perfect. When I opened the AOE3 menu screen, level of details, contrast and colour richness were simply astonishing. Half Life 2 in 1680x1050 with HDR and 16:10 aspect ratio was real joy to play. Also, Call Of Duty 2 experience was superb. It's almost impossible to give you the real "look" of those games with all brightness and contrast goodness, thanks to this monitor. I was so impressed, that I tried several times to record the screen pictures via my digital camera by using different ambient light, different technique and angles ... but no luck. Camera simply can't record such experience. Seeing is believing ...
