[Azreil24]

Hello PCM2,

Thank you for the quick answer. I have read another review for the AOC and that stated that the black level was at 0.58. Don’t know what was up with that, as from what I knownat that level it is not black, but rather grey. The measured level of 0.15 seems more realistic.

Another problem I have with the IPS panels is that there is a greater chance of getting one with light bleed. When i bought the MX279, I had it swapped 5 times untill I got one with minimal bleed, and that monitor was not a cheap one.

Hard to pick when I can’t test it first 🙁

[PCM2]

Undoubtedly a reading taken using a Spyder colorimeter of some description? There is a reason we avoid using that for luminance readings – it’s massively inaccurate at lower luminances.

I know it’s easy for me to suggest users can try a certain monitor for themselves, see if they like it and return to Amazon if not. But given that you live in Romania this isn’t really an option, so I understand that you want to get this right first time. Given what you’ve said and the balance of probability when it comes to getting a unit without problematic backlight bleed, it really seems the EW2750ZL would be a safer choice for you.

[Azreil24]

Exactly, a Spyder 4 Elite they say.

We have the option to return the products, 30 days, the same as for Amazon, but, don’t know, I don’t feel right returning products just for the sake of me testing them 🙂

Thank you for the tip and the reviews 🙂

[PCM2]

Well that’s understandable, of course you want to get it right first time. 🙂

[Azreil24]

One more question please. Put side by side, is there a big difference between a 0.05 and 0.15 black point?

[PCM2]

Of course there is – the black is three times as deep on one vs. the other.

[Azreil24]

Yes, in numbers, but what about real life, visually? 🙂

[PCM2]

The two go hand in hand. And the impact of this is explored in detail in the respective reviews.

[Azreil24]

Thank you very much for your support 🙂

Happy Holidays!

[sLim2311]

Hello, what a great thread, i learned a lot here, so after all reading i ended up in dillema with these two monitors: Samsung S24E390HL and BenQ GW2470H.
I need monitor for a lot of surfing, movies and a little bit for AutoCAD and games (but only Football manager or Fifa so gaming specs are not important to me).
I learned here that pros for BenQ are good contrast and black colour but pros is pixel respones and worse colour accuracy, on the other side pros for Samsung are richer colours, faster responsivness but cons is pls glow.
I have never experience any of these cons on monitors like ghosting, pls glow, blacklight bleeding etc.. So what is less “harmful” for casual monitor user like me and better option for my requirements?
Thanks.

[PCM2]

It isn’t really the case that one monitor or the other would have problems which are easier to digest than the other. Or put more optimistically, that one would offer a better experience than the other. It really depends on personal preferences and sensitivities. For your AutoCAD work the superior colour consistency and accuracy of the S24E390HL could be an advantage. But then again, you might find the GW2470H perfectly acceptable in that regard. And depending on the CAD work being done, the contrast could even be advantageous (i.e. if you work a lot with wireframes or dark shades, perhaps).

For your remaining uses it would be down to preference. And although you see FIFA and those sorts of games as ‘not demanding’ or not requiring a fast monitor, that is actually one title in particular that can be problematic for VA models. The brightly coloured ball with the rich green ball in the background presents high contrast pixel transitions that VA models can struggle with. It could certainly be perfectly tolerable, but then again so might ‘PLS glow’. It’s not really a straightforward choice that I can give you the answer to, only guidance.

[tig555]

I’m working on building a pretty simple rig for browsing purposes with some light to medium multimedia (movies/streaming/photos) and little to no gaming at all. What I’m most interested is color quality and video quality. I was reading about the different panels and I’m a little confused as far as what I should go for. IPS seems to have good quality with colors but, TN seems to be good for videos with fast response times. VA seems to be better than IPS in terms of contrast.

It looks like all three of these panels combined offer what I need. Unfortunately, I have to choose one. What do you all recommend?

[PCM2]

Hi tig555 and welcome,

I’ve merged your thread with this one as there is fairly extensive discussion on this topic already. Ultimately it is not a straightforward choice and is one you will have to make yourself, based on preferences. You’re absolutely right that there is no ‘one size fits all’, no perfect monitor and no clear winner for uses such as your own.

It certainly isn’t the case that TN is better for videos due to responsiveness, though. If you read our observations in reviews on any recent VA or IPS-type models you’ll see that the pixel responsiveness is more than adequate for that sort of pace of action. Most movie content is limited to ~24fps (possibly 30fps). And content which runs at higher frame rates (50fps or 60fps) will appear just as fluid on a good ‘IPS’ model – as there is a lot more to responsiveness than those misleading figures on paper.

So I wouldn’t worry too much about TN and responsiveness, for your uses. I would be more concerned with the choice between high contrast and the liklihood of low backlight bleed vs. consistently rich colours and better responsiveness (which may not really be an issue for your uses, anyway). The nice thing about the IPS options, though, is that they open up a world of higher pixel density displays. As you were considering ~25″ displays, this might include 2560 x 1440 models such as the Dell U2515H or P2416D which would make browsing and viewing photos more pleasurable and efficient. Full HD movie content does appear marginally softer than on an otherwise similar 1920 x 1080 display, but I find this to be insignificant compared to the benefits that the higher resolution brings elsewhere.

[PCM2]

Just to provide an update on this very useful thread. The video below, which I’ve also added to my first post on this thread, provides a good comparison between the two technologies:

[katzolik]

I have made a little album comparing the LG 27UD68-W and the BenQ BL2700HT.
The LG 27UD68-W is a bad model so there is some back light bleed.
But the overall picture and viewing angles should be Representative.

https://imgur.com/a/jBVzz

I don’t know why VA is so unpopular and IPS rules the monitor market when viewing angles are just better on VA panels. Yes the colors shift a little and so does the gamma but you cam see a clear picture. also, the added contrast makes gaming so much better.

Is there a reason why there are no 27″ 4k VA panels? Is the technology just not small enough?

[PCM2]

No, it isn’t correct to say “The LG 27UD68-W is a bad model so there is some back light bleed.”. As per my previous reply, you got a bad unit. And you don’t even see 27″ WQHD models with VA panels currently, let alone UHD. I’m sure they will come as I don’t believe there are any technical limitations. There will be 30″ 21:9 models worth 3440×1440 VA panels in the not too distant future, so they can definitely push pixel densities further than they have.

[katzolik]

Sorry i meant “bad unit” ! Shame on me and my bad english.
In german we use “modell” like you use unit. ^^

So do you think it all comes down to the slower pixel response of VA?
Seems besides from curved models the technology is pretty much abandomed in the monitor sector!

[PCM2]

Understood, no worries. 🙂

In do think the relatively poor pixel responsiveness is a big barrier to VA being more widely adopted by manufacturers, yes. Although it’s interesting to see they are still keen to try to push up refresh rates, with a range of 100Hz+ VA panels being manufactured later this year. At this stage 3440 x 1440 is the highest resolution for those, but with the capabilities of DP 1.3+ I can see them perhaps pushing that up for UHD.

I’ve certainly expressed my opinion to the likes of Samsung and AOC about wanting VA technology to feature more broadly in future models. And they’re certainly aware of user preferences in this respect (with some much preferring VA). So hopefully we’ll see some nice movement in that respect.

[broth]

Not sure where to post this, but I am in search for a replacement monitor and I have come here and begun to learn a bunch that I was not aware of about monitors today. I have a few specific requirements and needs as I ponder a new monitor. I am using an currently using external monitor, a Samsung 226BW, 22 inch older monitor. My current one gives me the impression that it is “fading”. Could be that my eyes are getting worse though.

I have some vision issues as I have poor vision and at the present time with my monitor I find that if I reverse the video that for text it makes it a more pleasant reading experience for me using the PC and monitor.

I used to set the display setting to a lower resolution, but the past few weeks I changed it to the native 1680×1050 from the Toshiba laptop with onboard video. I like the sharper images but I have to enlarge the text setting in Windows to 150% to make it useful to me.

My other need is to get a color accurate monitor as I am spending more time and effort working on image processing of photos.

It appears that an IPS monitor is the best for color accuracy and has a more vivid screen. But I also see that VA monitors fall into a consideration as well.

My needs would be:

1. Not much larger than 25 in (I don’t have a huge desk space)
2. Need VESA mount as I have a desire to mount the monitor and have an Ergotron monitor arm setup that I use
3. Desire something that will enhance the display of text as I do some editing and reading. I like what I can see on my Ipad with the retina display.
4. Color accuracy
5. Not into gaming or videos
6. Assume that a higher res monitor doesn’t benefit with the current laptop video?
7. Not much over $300

I see the Dell U2415 as one possibility or
the BenQ GW2470H

Probably others. Thanks for the great collection of information.

[PCM2]

Hi broth,

I do feel that this is an appropriate place for this discussion, as you’re weighing up an IPS and VA model. I would firstly say that I don’t think the issue will just be that your vision is deteriorating. Particularly with CCFL-backlight models like the 226BW, there is a fairly significant luminance degredation over their lifetime. It’s likely that the weakening brightness coupled with pretty mediocre contrast and overall image performance is not really helping the text stand out for you as you would like.

With respect to your choices, I think you have narrowed them down to exactly the two models I would focus on here if I were to pick an IPS and VA model that fits your criteria. With your vision concerns I don’t think a higher resolution (tighter pixel density) would be beneficial, either. As noted earlier in this thread, some users do find having a display with high contrast to be beneficial if they have a visual impairment. So that might make the GW2470H quite suitable.

Having said that, I also feel that people generally get along well with IPS models if they’re in a similar position. The lack of gamma and brightness shift, particularly vertically, actually makes text look rather ‘solid’. Certainly compared to TN models like the Samsung 226BW, at least. I’ve also recommended the U2415, specifically, to a number of people looking for good text-viewing comfort without straining the eyes too much. And the overwhelming response to this has been very positive indeed. With respect to your other uses it also hits the spot, with superior colour accuracy (and some extra vertical pixels) compared to the GW2470H as well.

[Author]

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