[shreeux]

Hi PCM2,

My existing Monitor HP Pavilion 23CW
was flickering. Checked with local service center.They all said instead of repairs ,Go for new one.
Also non availability of spares.

Now Plan to buy future proof Monitor with good span life.

My requirements are listed below.,

1. Budget ?
15 – 20K INR

2. Display type, size, resolution?
IPS Panel
27″inch
2560 x 1440p

3.Primary usage will be…
Daily Usage 12 to 15hrs with full load
Trading in Stocks, Reading Chart,Read E-Book, Article and Browsing

Secondary usage will be…
Movies
Games
Music

Now using AMD HD6670 GPU
XFX – United States – AMD Radeon™ HD 6670

In my mind like to buy Lenovo L27Q-10
Suggest your view…

[PCM2]

I’m sorry to hear that. But I know very little about the Lenovo model, but with such a low budget I don’t really think you have many alternatives. I am not too familiar with Indian prices, but this is based on Amazon pricing and conversion to currencies I understand.

As advice to other users considering budget WQHD options and to keep things less India-centric (no offence, but very few of my users are from there), I would generally recommend models like the BenQ GW2765HT or to consider dropping to 25″ for more affordable but very solid models like the U2518D which are similar to but cheaper than their 27″ counterparts. I know for the Indian market that makes less sense, however.

[shreeux]

Ok…I checked both models you suggested….Both are expensive nearly double monitor cost.

Still 2K (mod edit: WQHD is the correct term) monitor was expensive… Even though 4K monitor running, Except Lenovo.

I was compared few models in Lenovo… Finally choose

https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/comparison/12571f076

[PCM2]

To repeat what I’ve said to some other users recently; don’t use the term ‘2K’. I know some idiotic marketers who work for some manufacturers use this term to incorrectly refer to the 2560 x 1440 resolution. But mathematically speaking, it’s wrong. The 2560 x 1440 resolution came before ‘4K’ was a thing, and it was never referred to as ‘2K’ or anything with a ‘K’ back then. Yet people use ‘4K’ to typically refer to the ‘4K UHD’ resolution of 3840 x 2160. The horizontal component (3840) is close to ‘4K’, hence the name. If you half both components of the resolution and therefore get down to ‘2K’, you’d actually have 1920 x 1080 – Full HD. So if you’re going to refer to 2560 x 1440 with a ‘K’ it is more accurate to refer to it as ‘2.5K’. But please, rise above the marketing idiots and refer to it correctly as (W)QHD, or if you really have to, 1440p. This is not a personal thing, by the way, it’s just a common mistake that really irks me as somebody who knows better.

[shreeux]

Thanks for info…!!!

One more doubt..
Some of my friends told, If I select 27″inch Monitor with 1920×1080 resolution letters will grain…Hard to read…. It’s that true?

That’s why I go for 2560 x 1440 resolution.

[PCM2]

It depends on your eyes, viewing distance and what you’re comparing it to. The ‘blocky look’ is simply down to low pixel density and not everyone cares about it. Saying it is “hard to read” on a 27″ 1920 x 1080 is counter-intuitive for most people, but feeling ‘annoyed’ by the low pixel density is another issue – refer to the ‘Pixel density’ section of this article.

[shreeux]

Ok…. Thanks for article.

[hasec]

Hi PCM2 and others

i am looking for a new monitor.
Here are the criteria:

100-450$

Not a TN-panel monitor

FullHD or 1920×1200 or maybe 1080p ultrawide

Wide Gamut (Colors are important)

23-27″ size

Refresh rate of 50-75hz at 1920×1080(or 1200) ( with or without “overclocking”) but can be more.

At least a true 8bit panel

HDR would be nice but not mandatory.

Primary purposes include mostly movies, little gaming and moderate photographic use.

i intend to skip 1440p and in the future buy an UHD monitor that supports over 60Hz.

By 50-75Hz i mean that the monitor can be set to any Hz between 50-75Hz.

Adaptive sync isn’t the most important feature imo.

BenQ EW277HDR seems interesting.
It has sRGB 100%, Adobe RGB 80% and DCI-P3 93%
https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/7844d99
It seems to be a great candidate but according to your review if it is “overclocked” HDR gets disabled.
Does that mean that even if my GPU outputs HDR then the monitor just won’t show HDR but it would still show video in wide gamut?

The another monitor i have been eyeing is Asus PA249Q.
That one has a 24″ 1920×1200 10bit (8 + FRC) IPS-panel.
It has sRGB 100%, Adobe RGB 99% and NTSC 120%.
https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/dfee80c
This one would be great for photographic use but doesn’t have HDR.

How would EW277HDR and PA249Q color gamuts compare?

Feel free to suggest, thanks.

[PCM2]

For movies primarily I’d just go for the BenQ EW277HDR and forget HDR unless you significantly increase your budget. I’m not sure why you’d want to enable the feature when, as per the review, it’s quite poor. As are all HDR implementations where no proper local dimming is supported. 16:10 makes less sense for movies and the ASUS has inferior contrast, an inapropriate wide gamut for movies and general consumption (DCI-P3 works better than Adobe RGB for that, it’s less skewed) and grainier screen surface.

But your photography use throws a spanner in the works, the ASUS would be better suited. The colour consistency issues raised in the EW277HDR review (and apply to all VA models, often to a greater extent) plus lack of Adobe RGB support need to be taken into account. You’ll have to consider how important absolute colour accuracy for your photography is vs. your enjoyment of your other uses. Or consider a multi-monitor setup with different screens for different uses. Although with your budget and wide gamut requirement (you print photos I assume?) that would be a stretch.

[hasec]

Thank you for the reply.

Wide gamut is important because i like to watch movies and photos (i like popping colors).
i have printed photos with my color laser but mostly i store them digitally.
Photography is a hobby of mine and i am learning more and more as i take and process photos.
For now i could use a monitor with 8bit or above but image quality has to be more than 6bit (with or without dithering).

Because of these reasons a TN-monitor won’t do.

Btw, how big is the difference between 8bit and 10bit panels?
What about 10bit that is 8bit + FRC?

PS: i did have a C27FG73 and it was great but it had noticeable clouding at the top right hand side corner.
That made watching movies and gaming in a dimly lit room less than ideal.
i sent the monitor back and received another one.
The another one had better color accuracy(the first one had more reddish left hand side and more greenish right hand side) and less clouding (at the same top right hand side corner) but it was still visible when my room had less light.
So that one had to go as well but the company refused to send me a third one.
On the other hand they returned my money though without asking me first (nothing about that in their terms about returns).

[PCM2]

If you’re not sure if you’re using a 10-bit workflow, you’re almost certainly not. 🙂 It is very rare to be able to take full advantage of 10-bit colour, so unless you know you specifically need it then it will make very little difference for your uses. Having colours that ‘pop’ is a fair enough reason for wanting a wide gamut, but if you want your photography to be accurate you need to be aware of which colour gamut you should be using. For storage and personal photo usage (‘hobbyist editing’) I actually think you could get away with the EW277HDR, to be honest, and it would probably be more suitable than the ASUS with all of your uses considered.

And if you’re not a fan of clouding when watching/playing dark content in a dimly lit room – avoid IPS at all costs. You’ll find the ‘glow’ unbearable if the C27FG73 was bothersome to you. And I’d suggest getting the monitor from somewhere with a clear, open and efficient returns policy next time. 🙂

[hasec]

Thanks.

It seems that EW277HDR is the one.

Anyway i just found out that there are UHD monitors below 500$ though many are 32″.
Any thoughts about setting a lower refresh rate to match video fps like setting 47.952Hz for standard movies (23.976 x 2)?
Or “overclocking” UHD monitors?
i have read many of your reviews telling that there were frame skips or out of signal but are there any success stories?
In theory Displayport 1.2 should be able to handle 3840 x 2160 at 75Hz with full chroma.

What about running UHD monitor on 1920 x 1080 resolution

AOC U3277PWQU is UHD monitor with 100% sRGB and 95% NTSC.
It also has vertical refresh rate of 23-80Hz:
https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/6ef26a6

[PCM2]

The problem is the port controllers themselves are optimised to work at 60Hz only for pretty much all UHD monitors. It isn’t a bandwidth isssue. You can’t actually run monitors at fractions of Hz, there will be rounding. I think the EW277HDR supports 24fps, but to be honest most users would find 72Hz works just fine due to even multiples of frames into refresh. I’m sorry to be blunt, but I find it funny when people try to match the frame rate and refresh rate exactly for such low frame rates. The movement always has a degree of LFRJ (‘Low Frame-Rate Judder) regardless of this, it’s never going to be wonderful at such a low frame rate. Obsessing over the minutia is a waste of effort in my experience.

Also, don’t fall into the trap of looking at v. refresh specified by the manufacturer and thinking it applies at the native resolution. For the AOC U3277PWQU it can only be set to 60Hz, it skips frames much above that. And if I recall correctly that was the case at the Full HD resolution. And don’t fall into the ‘additional trap’ of thinking you can run 1920 x 1080 on any UHD monitor with perfect 1:4 scaling – doesn’t work like that in practice as our reviews clearly point out.

Also be sure to have a careful read of that AOC review, because you’ll find that one issue I picked up on and that actually bothered me a bit was the grainy screen surface, which was only ‘light matte’ and hence higher haze than used on the likes of the EW277HDR. It was sufficiently annoying given the pixel density that I am actually trying my best to avoid reviewing models with similar panels, but it’s something I’m very sensitive to which is why I didn’t make a massive thing about it in the review. It’s quite subjective, but they just don’t sit well with me on a monitor of such pixel density. The colour consistency is also more of an issue.

[hasec]

It’s okay everyone has their own opinions.

With MadVR-renderer and MPC-HC (or any other player supporting madvr) and Custom Resolution Utility one can achieve great timings:
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=173571

Thank you for pointing out vertical refresh rate and native resolution.
i wonder how often manufacturers and retailers knowingly or unintentionally mislead customers…

Anyway thank you for your time and work 🙂

[NorthernChris]

Hi everyone,
I’m looking a “general productivity” monitor (browsing, series, single player / console gaming).
The specs I’m going for are 27″ IPS, 1080p, strictly non glare, 60hz, audio out, low blue light a plus. budget ~200 euros.

I’ve narrowed it down to these monitors. From what I have gathered most brands use LG panels (aside from Samsung). So do you think I would actually see a difference between them in terms of colour reproduction, brightness and contrast. I like the Benq one the most ( it’s the most recent model among the 3 and displayspecifications says it’s a native 8bit with no FRC if i can trust that) but I haven’t managed to find any reviews for it ! The reviews on the philips are pretty good but all report low brightness and a wobbly stand, same with the AOC which is a 2015 model.

BenQ BL2780
PHILIPS 273V7QDAB
AOC i2781Fh

[PCM2]

I’ve got no experience with those models and have no user feedback to share, so can’t compare them I’m afraid. I have reviewed the AOC i2481Fxh, though, so that review should give you some insight of what to expect. I don’t agree that the build quality is poor or that the stand is wobbly. Not perfect, but more solidly build and with a feeling of quality far beyond most ‘fixed stand’ models at least, especially in this price range.

You can’t trust displayspecifications, sorry. They frequently list models as ‘8-bit’ just because the manufacturer doesn’t specify that dithering is used (nor that it isn’t). They aren’t privy to any extra information in most cases that you can’t find online from the manufacturers themselves. Many brands, including the three you list, use IPS-type panels from various manufacturers, including; LG’s (AH)-IPS, Samsung (AD)-PLS, AUO AHVA and BOE IPS-ADS. For these Full HD models LG AH-IPS and Samsung AD-PLS are most common and used fairly interchangeably. The panel characteristics are largely similar, so it’s not really all that important in this case.

[NorthernChris]

Would you say it’s safe to look at the 24 inch version of the screen and get an idea about the 27 version ?
for instance:
BL2480
https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/735cf55
BL2780
https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/5fe2f56

Also is there a way to get a low blue light setting on the AOC you reviewed ?

[PCM2]

You can get a rough idea, which is why I suggested reading the AOC i24 variant review. Panel capabilities, image setup and pixel overdrive can differ but features and aesthetics are generally similar.

Your second question is addressed in the calibration section. It’s what the “Relaxing evening viewing” settings are.

[NorthernChris]

The only reason I’m leaning towards the Benq is that it’s a more recent model and that Benq is a more trusted monitor brand. Any ideas or even a model I have not considered ?

Thanks for the help so far by the way.

[PCM2]

BenQ is a more established brand, however AOC are an excellent and rapidly growing company. They’re part of MMD which includes Philips displays, if you weren’t aware, and are linked to TPV which is a massive corporation. They’ve got just as good reputation for customer service, in reality, so that’s not a valid reason to choose BenQ over AOC. How recent a monitor is doesn’t matter much, either, since only small stepwise changes are usually made between model years. You may notice we still currently recommend the Dell U2414H, that model is certainly not new but the newer products aren’t substantially better at all. There’s only so much progress that can be made in the Full HD 60Hz IPS space.

I haven’t really used a lot of 27″ Full HD IPS-type models recently. If I have time I intend to review the Dell P2719H(C). The Dell P series in general have been pretty solid, so consider the P2717H as well (the 19H models are very new and haven’t fully launched yet). And if aftersales support is a concern for you, Dell set the benchmark in that respect.

[Author]

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