Acer T232HL - Touch Comes to the Desktop
by Chris Heinonen on February 6, 2013 9:00 AM ESTColor Quality and Gamut
Straight out of the box, the best numbers that the Acer can produce on our Gretag Macbeth test are pretty poor. The average dE is over 8, and the grayscale numbers are the worst that I’ve measured. The only shade even close to being an ideal number is yellow, with everything else having an error of 5 or above.
For our calibration tests we use ColorEyes Display Pro, an i1Pro meter, and we target 200 nits of light output, a gamma of 2.2, a white point of D65, and the minimum black level we can hit. Any adjustments that we can make in the monitor to correct white balance or colors are done before the calibration, and the best starting mode is used. I always try calibrations with and without DDC enabled in ColorEyes Display Pro, but haven’t run into a result in a long time where hand tuning it was better than using DDC; they are usually identical.
After calibration, the Acer is really improved. The grayscale has gone from abysmal to very accurate, and the remaining flaws are in shades of blue that almost always cause monitors trouble. If you care about color quality, you really do need to calibrate the Acer as without a calibration, the colors are just far from ideal.
After that calibration we target 100 nits, which is more likely to be used with print or paper work than with on screen design work. We don’t get quite as good of results here, and the grayscale error is a good bit higher than before as well. It isn’t poor, but it’s not as good as other monitors can do, but this display also isn’t targeted towards print professionals.
So we have really poor initial color, very nice post-calibration color, and so-so calibration color for print work. If you really care about color quality then you’re going to want to calibrate it, and even if you don’t the level of error is high enough that it might be a bit distracting, especially since the grayscale is so bad.
The gamut is supposed to be sRGB and here it comes up just a little bit short. We look for 71% of AdobeRGB to be equal to sRGB, but we only get 68% of the AdobeRGB gamut here. This also comes in near the bottom of the monitors recently reviewed, and isn’t too unexpected due to the LED lighting which often falls short.
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djshortsleeve - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
If you want to use Windows 8 with touch, get an AIO. IMO, touchscreens are pointless in a desktop where your main use is gaming or some sort of production.$500, are you kidding?
wperry - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
"The Dell U2312HM, which is also IPS and performs better on all tests, is available for $225 online. "Seems a bit disingenuous to say that it's a poor value and cite the above... while ignoring the fact that Dell also has a 23" 1920x1080 IPS touchscreen at $699 (model S2340T).
cheinonen - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
I don't have any performance data on the Dell touch-screen, but I do on the U2312HM. My concern wasn't with touch, but with the poor uniformity and light output for the price.wperry - Thursday, February 7, 2013 - link
That statement was taken from a paragraph explicitly addressing the value proposition that this product presents. The main difference between this product and most of the hundreds of monitors already on the market is touch capability. Ignoring that when addressing value is a disservice to the product and to the readers of Anandtech, all of whom, I would assume, already know that non-touch monitors can be had for far less than the price of this Acer. It would probably be more fair to do a little bit of legwork and present the prices of the direct competitors while explaining that they haven't yet been tested.Defhammer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
Reading this article reinforces a thought I had about a use case for touchscreens in a multi-monitor desktop setup.I think what would work is a small touchscreen monitor that sits right next to the keyboard.
Take for example a setup of 3 big normal monitors and a small touch screen directly to the left of the keyboard . The small touch screen has your live tiles and your desktop icons. Using a touch gesture, you can control which monitor that desktop application opens on (eg. flicking the icon to the upper left will open that application to the left monitor).
In this configuration, the live tiles allow you to check on things at a glance and the big monitors can focus on the work on hand. It also gives the ability of using modern UI apps in a non-obtrusive manor.
The setup also removes the need to dragging a window to the correct monitor after you open it.
In the end you essentially have a fancy app launcher and a notifications screen that can run modern UI apps.
How valuable the added functionality would be is questionable, but I think it works better than reaching to the main monitor and poking at it.
The0ne - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
This is how my PC set up is with two monitors. One is my main while the other is more for display. This includes movies, music and info that I really just need to glance at occasionally and have easily, simple navigation. That is where Windows 8 metro comes in. I love it on the 2nd monitor. I don't have to move my mouse away from the desktop environment on my main screen but just use my fingers to swipe, navigate, pause, play, forward, whatever. It's quick and easy and gets rarely gets me sidetracked from what I'm currently doing.I am thoroughly enjoying this setup and having 30" LCD's is a huge bonus as to what I use them for. Bing maps is a pleasure to browse through because of the fluidity for example :) And although I still think the desktop/metro integration is poor when you have to switch between the two, having them separate either as a main display or from multiple displays is a huge bonus. And if ever you need more desktop space, it's only a shortcut key press away or a tap.
QQBoss - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
I tried to patent something like this when I worked at a major computer company- a visual touch pad with programmable or user configurable icons/pictures, basically a mini-touch screen exactly like you suggest.I was told by the big bosses that touch screens would never be meaningful on the desktop and too expensive on a notebook, so they refused to file for it... about 10 years ago. Sigh.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
2nd page: "I found the experience a bit strange and even often, and I imagine many people moving onto Windows 8 may have a similar initial reaction."Seems like it's missing something after "even often"? :)
Good review though! But not my kind of product. :D
random2 - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
Hope you don't think this to anal, but if it were my name on the article I'd like to know." I found the experience a bit strange and even often, and I imagine many people moving onto Windows 8 may have a similar initial reaction."
I've also recently installed Win-8 on laptop so I can get familiarized with it. Until your article I never really thought of the issues that might occur trying to set up Win-8 on a multiple monitor set-up.
I'm still trying to rationalize the need for a touch screen PC vs the speed and efficiency of a PC or LT used in conjunction with keyboard shortcuts and a mouse. I guess at my age I really don't care if I look like I'm on the deck of a space cruiser with may arms flailing about in front of a glass panel. Like Vista it's not likely this will ever be my primary OS.
Thanks again Chris for another no nonsense review.
Beaver M. - Thursday, February 7, 2013 - link
There is no reason. I think the main reason is that MS is panicking when they look at the tablet market. Also they saw a few science fiction movies and thought it would be cool, not thinking about actual usability.