NEC PA242W Monitor Review
by Chris Heinonen on September 27, 2013 9:00 AM ESTWhen I revamped the monitor testing system, displays like the NEC PA242W were the reason why. The fact is that almost any monitor that is reasonably well designed can perform well after a calibration the way most people review. If you really want to know what separates a display like the NEC PA242W from standard consumer displays you need to push it harder. That means testing things like 25-point uniformity, multiple colorspaces, and as many data points as possible.
Thankfully NEC has delivered a monitor that shows off what can be done and has amazing performance on our test bench. Straight out of the box the performance is practically perfect. Even the pickiest user is going to find the NEC image to be as good as it can get without any tinkering. Using the SpectraView software you can take this down even more and make it easy to switch between as many calibrated presets as you would like. The only area that could use some improvement is the absolute black level. Otherwise the NEC PA242W leaves me with nothing to complain about when it comes to image performance. It really is the closest thing to perfect that I have seen.
This performance comes at quite a cost. $1,000+ for a 24”, 1920x1200 monitor is a lot of money to spend today. Of course factor in that you are saving the money from not needing calibration hardware or software and that price becomes more reasonable. So the real question is: do you need this? If you’re asking that question then you probably don’t. If you saw perfect color, perfect uniformity, and knew that you needed it, then you’re probably more willing to pay the price as it is essential to your work. No monitor that I have seen can be pulled out of the box and, provided you check the options more carefully than I initially did, provide a better image with no extra work.
Displays like the NEC PA242W are expensive, but they also push the boundaries for what a display can do. Technologies like 3D LUTs and more uniform lighting will likely trickle down to more affordable hardware, but it will take time. For now if you want the most accurate, most uniform display that you can buy, you want the NEC PA242W. It’s designed with image/video professionals in mind, and it performs admirably.
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AssBall - Sunday, September 29, 2013 - link
Wrong. It is perfectly acceptable.foxalopex - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Input lag? The monitor is rated for 27 ms which works out to 37 fps. Video is typically only shot at 25 or 29.97 fps. While a gamer might need more than this, video certainly isn't this fast.marqs - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Input lag consists of signal processing latency and pixel response time, of which only the latter limits the practical fps. By enabling overdrive the response time should improve by a couple of ms. Btw, I think the latency charts wrongly claim to be against an CRT, if the results are taken from averaging the results from Leo Bodnar lag tester (which results to ~7.5ms for a lagless CRT). The real input lag for PA242W should be around 20ms with default settings.cbelle - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
720/60 is a standard used by many including ABC, ESPN and FOX in the US. So this is still could be an issue to video and music editors (video sync playback).Not horrendous but not great either. But if it can be lowered to 20ms that would be nice.
For video editing I think it still lacks 10 bit, SDI and video production specific needs. It is nice alternative for home editing but not sure in a suite or in the field.
Bitmambo - Saturday, September 28, 2013 - link
When will Anandtech test Eizo displays and see whether the significant price gap is justified ? One area that is hardly if ever addressed in display reviews is the bit depth of the DAC circuits, and the resultant impact on signal aliasing (Mach banding) and the quality of gradients, the signal-to-noise ratio. Uniformity, linearity, brightness, contrast ratio, response time and gamut are not all there is to display technology. Speaking of contrast ratio, we need numbers, that are not biased by the absolute blackness of the display, since anything below 1% brightness will multiply the factor enormously for not huge perceptual gain. A linearity plot showing the length of the straight portion of the gamma-corrected display should help compare display performance. Look at what the folks at Digital Photography Review do to compare cameras.TheRealAnalogkid - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
...and people look at me weird because I have a second Sony GDM-FW900 Monitor in the closet for after the one I'm using dies. I'll miss them when they're gone; maybe tech will make something comparable by then.Kathrine647 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
like Gregory said I am alarmed that a stay at home mom able to earn $5886 in 1 month on the internet. visit their website............B u z z 5 5 . com open the link without spacesCSMR - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
1920x1200 on a 24" is low resolution. 24" tend to be this resolution and you can see all the very large pixels. I would not recommend 24" screens for profesisonal use until manufacturers start increasing the resolution. 1440p would be perfect on this screen size.mrstonecold - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
Does anybody now if this screen uses an active cooling element (fan) like the new eizo screens cx240 and the cg246. I'm in the market to replace my primary screen (dell u2410) and I prefer a quiet work environment. Thx.foxalopex - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
The NEC-PA242W is absolutely silent, there is no fan. It doesn't even have a high pitched whine which is nice. The monitor is pretty thick partially for passive cooling I suspect as looking into the cooling vents at the top, you can see a massive airspace behind the actual panel hardware itself.