Nixeus VUE27D Monitor Review
by Chris Heinonen on December 23, 2013 8:00 AM ESTWith no adjustment beyond brightness, and only a single input, it is easy to get results from the VUE27D that should be repeatable for everyone. For all of this testing I use CalMAN 5.1.2 with an i1Pro spectrometer and a C6 colorimeter that I profile from the i1Pro. Our targets are 200 cd/m^2 of light output, a gamma of 2.2, and the sRGB color gamut.
The initial grayscale is very lacking in blue out of the box. The color temperature of 6032 is well below the target of 6504, which provides the warm, reddish tint of the grayscale. The overall gamma of 2.19 is very close to 2.2 but it isn’t flat.
Colors also have a red/green push with the CIE chart showing a drift towards that side of the chart. The color errors are certainly visible especially with shades of cyan that have a greenish tint to them. The average errors for saturations and the color checker are relatively modest with skin tones and blue/cyan shades causing the largest errors. With no other controls available this is the performance most people should expect to see.
Pre-Calibration |
Post-Calibration, 200 cd/m^2 |
Post-Calibration, 80 cd/m^2 |
|
White Level (cd/m^2) | 200.5 | 203.23 | 80.06 |
Black Level (cd/m^2) | 0.1992 | 0.2274 | 0.1163 |
Contrast Ratio | 1007:1 | 894:1 | 688:1 |
Gamma (Average) | 2.1921 | 2.1958 | 2.4121 |
Color Temperature | 6032K | 6406K | 6393K |
Grayscale dE2000 | 5.9671 | 1.2165 | 0.7413 |
Color Checker dE2000 | 4.2532 | 1.2528 | 1.0417 |
Saturations dE2000 | 3.8643 | 1.2017 | 0.9421 |
Calibrating with CalMAN v5.2.0 removes these issues. We have a slight color shift in the grayscale but nothing bad at all. Our gamma becomes neutral and the contrast ratio falls a bit from 1000:1 to 900:1 but is still good for IPS. Color errors are almost completely corrected for and no samples at all pass the dE2000 level of 3.0 that people consider visible.
Calibrating for 80 cd/m2 of light and the sRGB gamma curve produces similar results. The Contrast ratio is worse as the backlight does not go low enough to hit this target easily. The grayscale and gamma are both very good and the colors are also far improved. If you have the ability to calibrate the VUE27D it has the potential to produce very accurate images.
The most recent release of CalMAN also adds the ability to test color accuracy for ICC aware applications. All the other tests involve just modifying the video card or monitor LUT, so we see how every application will work. If you are using Photoshop or other color critical work, your application is almost certainly ICC aware and can use profiles to be even more accurate.
For those applications the VUE27D can produce numbers better than anything I’ve seen to date. This is also the first monitor tested to use this ICC ability so there is nothing to compare it to. However if you are someone that can calibrate their display to get an ICC profile, and who uses ICC aware applications, the VUE27D will look virtually flawless.
If you don’t have any calibration hardware or software, the VUE27D is pretty decent out of the box. Skin tones and oceans will have a bit of a tint to them, but not a giant one. If you can calibrate it, then you’ll get fantastic results from all applications, ICC aware or not.
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SunLord - Tuesday, December 24, 2013 - link
or $459 on Amazon with prime http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M08SN6/pierrot - Tuesday, December 24, 2013 - link
I would love to see a review of those $300 ebay brands like X-Star/QnixZeDestructor - Tuesday, December 24, 2013 - link
This is such a review. The $300 monitors have all risen in price over the past year or so...blackoctagon - Tuesday, December 24, 2013 - link
The QNIX QX2710 Evolution II can still be had for USD307...pierrot - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
Theyre still $300 - some versions even less (tempered glass)geok1ng - Thursday, December 26, 2013 - link
Ther review does not have information about overclocking ability, whter this monitor can do 2560x1440p above 60hz or not. Most low cost 27" from korea can do more than 100hz @1440p and that information is relevant for the readers of this site.