NEC PA271W - When Accuracy and Consistency Matter
by Chris Heinonen on May 1, 2012 1:55 PM ESTConclusion: Targeting Professionals
Sometimes it is very easy to write a conclusion on a product that is at a premium price point. If Intel or AMD come out with a CPU that’s faster than anything else out there, you can easily say “If you need the performance, or can afford it without an issue, just buy it.” With the NEC PA271W, despite the premium price it carries, the answer really isn’t quite as straight forward.
The easiest answer is for those who are gamers. The only 27” monitor with 2560x1440 resolution I can recommend is the HP ZR2740w. Every other 27" QHD monitor tested has had far worse lag, well more than a frame, and you just aren’t going to be happy with it. Perhaps if we see a move towards 120Hz panels at this resolution this will start to improve, but the target still seems to be graphics professionals at this point, not gamers.
If you are a design professional who needs accurate color more than anything else, and things like display uniformity and a wider gamut are of high importance, then you are the target for the NEC. You already know you might need this, which features you can’t live without, and are willing to pay the extra price. Of course you might have already bought one, or you got to a point in the article that you realized you needed one.
So what’s left is the power user that wants premium performance but doesn’t require it for their job, who wants to know if it’s worth it. Many of the features, like the KVM ability and the multiple presets, I found myself using a good deal at the desk. If it was bright I can easily switch to a higher output mode, and if it’s dark I can switch back to the lower setting. Switching between sRGB and AdobeRGB is nice for editing images as well, since I use my SLR in AdobeRGB mode. However, when you can buy two of the HP 27” displays for around the same price as a single NEC, are those features worth it?
Personally, I’m not certain I can justify the extra cost. I like having a highly accurate display, but the HP performed well after calibration, even though it wasn’t nearly as uniform. The extra features like a color-blindness mode might be essential for a designer, but for even a power user they likely will never get used at all. In the end I find myself saying that I really loved working on the NEC, and would love to own one, but for my use I can’t see spending the extra hundreds of dollars over the HP to get features that aren’t essential to me or my work. For some people they will be, but for most people there are monitors that might lack that last bit of performance but will get the job done just as well.
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JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link
Brian Klug is working on a review I believe. Stay tuned....B3an - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
Next time can you or Brian in his future review mention the fact that these are 16:10 junk, instead of 16:9, and point out why this is so stupid for the area these monitors are aimed at (they should be 2560x1600 res!). Many of which will be people that work in some area of design and would benefit from extra pixels.These things are not for watching movies. For almost anything else including basic things like viewing this very web page, the extra vertical pixels are better.
ectoplasmosis - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
If you're going to go on a bizarre rant, at least make sure you've got your aspect ratios the right way round.theoryzero - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link
NEC's page mentions "Rapid Response" or "Response Improve" feature that can be enabled using the MultiProfiler software. Does that feature help with the processing lag?Senti - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link
It doesn't. It enables panel overdrive. With it it becomes one of the fastest IPS panels I've seen, but you also get quite bad overdrive artifacts.weiln12 - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link
You mention for gaming the HP is the best bet, yet it's worse in lag than the Apple 27". From my quick perusal of the charts appeared to be worse in most categories for color reproduction and everything else.The prices don't seem that far off either based on a cursory Google search of the HP ZR2740w and Apple's given prices.
Could you mind clarifying why the HP is the best bet for gaming, is there something I'm missing?
cheinonen - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - link
The Apple only works with Thunderbolt, so that's not going to be an option for most gamers, who still use a PC and not a Mac. The HP is incredibly close to the Apple in most numbers, and the lag measurement used for the HP is far more accurate than the one used for the Apple, so they could be closer than the charts indicate.ectoplasmosis - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
The Thunderbolt version isn't the only one available.I'm using a displayport 27" Cinema Display connected to both a PC (DVI) and Mac Pro (mDP) via an mDP KVM switch. By far the best screen I've ever laid eyes on, and crystal-clear with no horrible murky anti-glare coating like almost every other 2560x1440 27" screen.
AeroWB - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
The high gloss display of Apple screen may look fancy and give more punch to the colors, but it can be extremely annoying depending on the room lighting and even in a medium lit room high gloss displays are extremely bad when displaying dark content, as you will see your own reflexion more clearly then the content being displayed.Glossy displays do work well in very dark rooms, but I doubt it is good to work in a dark room and stare into a big light. I do not think it is a coincidence that all professional displays and laptops are non-gloss and in general getting a non-gloss display is the safer option. If color is important glossy screens are a very bad option even if you're careful with the room lighting. it seems to me gloss is so prevalent in the consumer space as it is cheaper to built and looks fancier when displaying bright content. Though it must be said those non-glare coatings do have some influence on the brightness and sharpness of the display though after using my PA241W for about a year I am very happy I did not get the glossy Apple display (which a friend of mine has)
ectoplasmosis - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
The room my ACD's in is far from dark, but is arranged so that screen reflections are a complete non-issue, even with darker content.If you've got control over your environment and lighting then a glossy screen, like you say, gives better contrast, saturation and colour accuracy than an equivalent panel with fuzzy anti-glare coating.
I know which one I prefer, and it's not about looking "fancy" in the least.