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 - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
The last time I find the U2711 (non-refurbished) for sale was early December, and that was for $849 without a coupon. It used to be on sale more often, but not much recently, and so most people are going to be paying $1,000 or so for it. Comparing an occasional sale price to a list price of $729 is apples to oranges.Lemure - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Those claims are wrong, any LCD with input lag of around 10 and under are all extremely quick. The HP zr series ips panels along with the dell 23" e-ips and NEC e-ips all have low input lag and are great for gaming. And if input lag was such a huge issue you would not bother to buy an LCD in the first place, you would be buying the Sony fw900. So unless you are competing at the highest levels of CS or Quake, such a difference is unnoticeable.IlllI - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
"If you can provide links to any other 2560x1440 27" displays with IPS panels that cost less than $700, let's see them."i kindly direct you to this topic http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-25...
supposedly have same ips panel that apple display has.
maybe you guys can do a professional review of one, since the other reviews are in a different language.
Roland00Address - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
I am waiting eagerly with gleeseanleeforever - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
i was actually going to make a reference to the catleap.the sales price (at korea) is 250 dollars for 27 inch and i think all catleap monitor *could* be set to 90+ Hz which is actually bounded by the graphic card.
i cancelled my U2711 shipment few days ago decide to give this monitor a try. with Dell i am paying about 900 dollars (tax + env fee) which would bought me 2 of those 27 inch monitor.
and yes, i fully agree with Snowshredder102. we are not talking about black friday price. and paying MSRT is probably not a smart thing to do to purchase anything. ESPECIALLY with DELL. their stuff goes on sale every other week. the U2711 has been around 700 since last year, if not the year before.
seanleeforever - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
for some reason, i highly doubt anandtech site will review a non-US market display. actually this webiste once made a statement that they only review what vender provides to them (with VERY few exceptions, the thinkpad review was one of them, and PSU comparison was another)anandtech is great source to learn new technology and hardware performance. However, i wouldn't use it for any serious system comparison due to conflict of interest (or i think). i doubt they will put any unfavorable words for vender provided machines and i am pretty positive there is some financial reasons.
with that said, i will do my own review on OC once i receive the monitor.
Crazyeyeskillah - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
Jared is right on all accounts. I bought the zr30w because there is absolutely no noticeable input lag. It performs about on par with my sony fw-900 crt. The lack of included scaler makes this possible.As for pricing, the only monitors in this price range come from korea named shimian and catleap. You have to buy them from one of two ebay sellers and there are no returns or warrantees. you have about a 1/4 chance of getting a defective product for about 4-500$ so it's a crapshoot.
I'd really like to see how this compares with my zr30w with the addition of the LED lighting. I think the zr30w is the best gaming monitor on the market with nothing even remotely close. The lack of lag, an ips panel, size, gamut, resolution and brightness are astounding even when compared to the 2200$ paw.
seanleeforever - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
those monitor technically can be exchanged for free except shipping back to korea will set you 100 dollar easy.i am scheduled to go to Korea for a month long business trip, so i am actually thinking about checking it out there and ship it to U.S. the price as far as i know is 250~550 depend on the version you get (8 bit vs 10 bit).
apparently all catleap panel can handle up to 100 Hz
the 250 dollar version doesn't have any OSD, but a bit more expensive versions do.
Roland00Address - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
Key word some.The catleap panels are not designed to do any refresh rate besides 60 hertz. Some catleap panels can be overclocked and a good amount of people were getting 85 to 97 hertz.
That said it appears the day of overclocking catleap panels are over since they newer manufactured ones (but still same model number) is using a new revision for a part and this part can only do about 60 to 67 hertz.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1225919/yamakasi-catlea...
Click on "OC vs. Non-OC Monitor Internals (Click to hide)"
Roland00Address - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
While I agree it is a crapshoot and there is a chance you may get a product that breaks soon after the first few weeks you are vastly overrating the chance of a dead of arrival.http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-25...
This thread had 2 out of 96 people have a DOA or item was not shipped. Of those 2 they actually did not post in the thread detailing their experience, instead just answering the poll. (It is completely possible these items took forever to ship and thus they answered the poll the item did not shipped.)
Furthermore if the item is DOA you can use Ebays or Paypal buyer protection program to get a refund.
Now if the item has 5 or less dead pixels you are out of luck them unless you pay return shipping, since all the vendors advertise the 5 dead pixel policy and they advertise the item is new in a box. Furthermore if the item dies in 3 months you are out of luck, you may be able to get the original manufacture to cover it but you would be responsible to ship it back to South Korea. If the item breaks in 18 months you will be out of luck...etc
So in sum a crapshoot, but a crapshoot with good odds. I would not recommend this deal to everyone, but if you know what it is going in then it is a good deal.