HP ZR2740w - High Resolution IPS that Doesn't Break the Bank
by Chris Heinonen on March 16, 2012 1:15 AM ESTBrightness and Contrast
Is your work environment bright? Are there massive spotlights behind you that shine directly onto your screen? Well, don’t worry; the ZR2740w will produce more than enough light for you. I’d expect screens to get a little dimmer as the size gets larger, since a backlight would need to be more powerful and more expensive to light it up, but apparently that is not the case. The HP managed to put out almost 450 nits of brightness when turned up all the way, which is plenty for anyone no matter what their work environment.
I can only assume that to evenly light up a 27” or larger LCD panel, vendors need to use larger, more powerful backlights and it is as easy to use one that does this much brightness as one that only does 250 nits of light, but I’m going to say this is a good thing. The downside to a larger light is that it might cause the black levels to be higher than on other displays, and that does seem to be the case here with the HP.
The black levels on the HP are higher, but they are right in line with other 27” and 30” displays, so it really is a middle of the road result for it. Given the cost difference between the displays, that the HP equals them in performance is very nice to see on here. One area that the larger panels fell behind in was contrast ratio, where they only manage around 750:1 which is a little disappointing given their cost. The HP manages to exceed this, offering over 1,000:1 at both maximum and minimum brightness levels.
The only high resolution display we have tested that can exceed this is the Apple Cinema Display, but it only does that at peak brightness as the contrast ratio falls off at lower light levels. The more consistent results from the HP gives it the best contrast of any high resolution display currently tested in my mind. Of course a larger panel also means a higher chance of uniformity issues, so hopefully the powerful backlight is able to correct for that.
There is certainly a bright spot in the center of the screen and fall-off around the edges, but the variance comes in at a very respectable 4.67%, which outperforms many smaller panels. The black uniformity also comes in very well, with just 6.6% variance. Of course I’d expect the black level to perform better since the higher black level in general will lead to a smaller variance percentage, even if the amount of variance is higher. To account for that, I’ll start to report the percentage for the white uniformity, since that target is always 200 nits, and the actual variance for the black level, in this case 0.011 nits, as we target the minimum level for black. I wish the units were the same so it was easier to compare, but to do that we would have to have a black level target, which would hurt displays that can do a lower level of black than others.
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cheinonen - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
I had three 27" displays here at the time, and the HP was in the bottom for AG coating (one specifically had more) and I never found it distracting, nor did my wife when she tried it out for a few days. I think some people are more sensitive to the AG coating than others, but I'm just not that sensitive to it. Now the coating they use for passive 3D, that is almost always a deal breaker for me, much more than AG coating.lid - Sunday, April 1, 2012 - link
I agree. I also purchased a ZR2740 and almost returned it because of the insane sparkle effect from the antiglare coating. I thought my monitor was defective until I read up about it, and the consensus seems to be that all 27" monitors, except for the Apple Cinema Display which does not have an antiglare coating, exhibit this effect. I noticed a similar effect on a Dell U2711, but not quite as bad. My ZR2740 died (assumed power supply failure) and I received a replacement with the same effect, so it's not defective. After a few months I have almost become accustomed to the ZR2740 antiglare but it still bothers me for the first few seconds when I start using it. I've been using antiglare screens on MacBook Pros for years and never noticed this effect on them. I hope manufacturers start to make 27" displays with a less aggressive antiglare coating.mschira - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
They are in a similar price range, so what is new?Also I just got a HP ZR 30w with 2560x1600 pixels for about 1000 AUD.
So where is the barging with a 27" for 700?
M.
p05esto - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
This might seem like a dumb question.... but how much heat does the fisplay give off? I work in a pretty small office (10-x10') on a second floor and it gets pretty hot in here. My current 26" monitor use CFL backlight and after a while you can really feel the heat from the front and top of the monitor (makes my face warm actually). Do the LED backlights totally eliminate the heat from the monitor?I'm on a quest to remove and upgrade all heat emiting items from my office such as moving the PC to another room and fishing wires through the wall, LCD tv, LED light bulbs, etc.... the monitor is next.
If anyone could chime in on the real world difference of heat from a CFL to LED backlit monitor that would be great. Thanks.
AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Just look at power consumption (watts). The efficient part is light output. For the same lumens, the difference in watts is the difference in heat.Oxford Guy - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
One strategy for heat reduction is to minimize ambient light, making sure there is no light falling onto the panel, so you can reduce the overall brightness level of the monitor.seapeople - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Sometimes I wonder if all the people who go on reviews of 27"+ IPS displays and moan and groan about how much it costs also go to Corvette or Porsche websites and complain about the costs there, and how they can't "justify they cost" so they're instead going to buy a Camry.Newsflash, if $300 is a huge sum of money to you, then don't bother reading top end monitor reviews and getting angry when you can't afford it...
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
I remember how much the Mac Portable cost, because it had an active matrix LCD. It was only monochrome and was tiny — but the screen was a huge advance, for huge money.Solidstate89 - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Is there any chance of an Anandtech review of that new 27" Samsung PLS monitor with the beautiful matte?I've only seen one review so far on HardwareCanucks, but they never go into as much detail as the monitor reviews here on Anandtech.
cheinonen - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Review samples seem to be hard to come by, but I'm trying to get one as soon as I can. I saw one at CES, and it looked quite nice.