DoubleSight DS-277W: Back to the Drawing Board
by Chris Heinonen on June 13, 2012 1:30 AM ESTI own a 26” Doublesight display that we have used for years and it has served us well. Because of that experience I came into this review with high hopes for how the DS-277W would perform. Unfortunately from the time I hooked it up to the time I boxed it up for return, it was an overall disappointment.
The heavy duty case design is nice and cool at first, but unlike the NEC display where the case is designed to allow for incredibly even backlight uniformity, the DS-277W seems to be designed to be industrial looking more than anything. More annoying was the fact that with this huge display there was nowhere to put an internal power supply, side mounted USB slots, or make the video connectors more accessible. I continue to not be a fan of touch sensitive controls on an LCD, or having arrow buttons that control both up and down, then left and right. With all the space on the DS-277W they could have easily installed a 4-way D-pad.
The 200 nits calibrated numbers were good, but moving beyond that was risky as the brightness control didn’t work properly for a computer monitor. The combination of these incorrect controls could make it easy to lose black or while levels, and there was no way to adjust the backlight that I could find aside from the brightness setting. The contrast ratios only ranged from decent to awful, and the dynamic contrast was so easy to watch in action that it would drive me crazy with its pulsing in daily work.
Finally the plethora of video inputs proved to be less useful as the HDMI crops off pixels, and the component video didn’t work for me. I’d happily remove these to instead gain a DisplayPort interface, since that is becoming more and more common and works with high resolution displays much more easily than DVI. I really don’t understand the lack of a DisplayPort connector, and the webpage at the DoubleSight website even claims the display has one!
In the end the DS-277W was the first monitor that truly disappointed me in my reviews at AnandTech so far. Most displays might not be for everyone, but there is a user category that they would work for. With the DS-277W I really don’t know who that could be. If you want a cheap 27” display, buy the HP ZR2740w or one of the Korean import brands if you are willing to gamble. If you need a lot of video inputs on your 27” display, the Dell U2711 has all of them available and actually performs well for around the same price.
Hopefully DoubleSight can go back to making monitors like the DS-263N that are high quality and high value, but at least with this display they have lost that distinction. They need to fix the OSD controls so that proper backlight intensity adjustments are available, allow better control over scaling (and over/underscan), and create a better user interface. Once that's complete, DoubleSight should ditch the current industrial design and create something more with the times. When there are so many better options for the same price or less, there's just nothing here worth buying right now.
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anishannayya - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Remember, this is 1440p we are talking about. I don't know many games that a single card card can push past 120 hz. At least games that would benefit from 120 hz (FPS).DarkUltra - Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - link
At high resolution you are limited by texture mapping and pixel shader performance. I turn off MSAA and set detail levels to high and Crysis 2 looks almost the same, but runs at 100-120 fps. Much easier to enjoy the action and everything looks more solid when I look around.http://jooh.no/index.php/2012/06/17/120hz-monitor-...
This is at 1920x1080 on a geforce gtx 580 and of course 120hz. If I manage to get a 1440p 120hz monitor I might need a gtx 680, it has twice as many texture mapping units. I wish 3D card reviews would test what gpu, cpu and settings you would need to get 120fps in games.
Every game I've tried benefits from 120hz/fps except old games that cannot render the graphics and mouse cursor faster than 30/60fps like Baldur's Gate and Diablo. Smoother, more precise mouse cursor and panning in RTS games also benefits greatly from 120hz/fps. Even games like C&C 3 that are locked at 30fps can since the cursor is rendered at its own layer updating at screen refresh.
DanNeely - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Displayport 1.2 has the bandwidth needed to do 2560x1600x120hz. I've seen reviewers report that 120hz was noticeably smoother when scrolling/moving the mouse on the windows desktop; so you should get some benefit from it even if you can't push the FPS that high while gaming.Anubis - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
anand did a quick review of the QH270 lite - which is basically the same as the catleap (same panel just cant be overclocked)http://www.anandtech.com/show/5885/the-achieva-shi...
the 120 HZ capable monitors are not really made anymore and you are taking an even bigger gamble with the ones from 120hz IMO
however even without them doing 120HZ they are one of the best deals out there, you can get 2 for what 1 HP or Dell would cost
Cattykit - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
http://brand.danawa.com/yamakasiAbove is the one that can be 'overclocked' to do 120hz.
For those who are interested in various IPS monitors, check the below Korean price search site. There, you'll see tons of IPS monitors with tons of different specs. and price point. It's quite amazing how cheap many of IPS monitors run: 27" 2560x1440 LED one being only $200.
http://www.danawa.com/product/list.html?defSite=DI...
anishannayya - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Rather useless, considering that the entire website is in Korean.alcortez - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
All of those Korean monitors can be found on Ebay with 2 day shipping for ~$300-350.Snipe3000 - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Holy Bezels Batman!DBissett - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
The title of the review suggests it's a pretty good monitor but not the best. The summary pretty much trashes the monitor and I was surprised. Just saying. The alternatives you suggested are good ones.JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
True; I probably should have thought of that before posting for Chris. I've changed it now, as while the display *tries* to do a lot of things and be a "Jack of All Trades", the reality is it fails at pretty much everything it tries. A firmware update could work wonders, but sadly that hasn't happened despite being requested.