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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Gunbuster - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Why would anyone buy an off brand monitor with a meager 1 year warranty for $950?When are they going to figure out there is a group of people that want once step above the catleap. US warranty and a 50% less fugly bezel and stand. for around $450
p05esto - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
How come no large, IPS monitors use LED backlighting? I've been waiting and waiting for this feature. My office gets HOT and I'm trying to convert all lighting to LED and things that don't get so hot. My monitor is the last hot-box that needs to be replaced. For my work I require a large and high quality display, IPS.cheinonen - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
The HP ZR2740w uses LED backlighting and is a 27", 2560x1440 monitor. Lots of the 27" and 30", higher resolution monitors are aimed towards graphics designers and other that are after the AdobeRGB color gamut, and I believe that in the configurations that LG offers the panels in you have your choice of LEDs with sRGB coverage or CCFLs with AdobeRGB coverage. Since people needing AdobeRGB are their target, that is much of the reason for using CCFL over LED I imagine.There might be other 27" or 30" models that use LEDs (Apple Cinema Display is one as well I believe), but I don't know them off hand.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, June 14, 2012 - link
That HP also has a constant control backlight instead of a PWM backlight so there is no flicker.I've been waiting for Anandtech to mention this in reviews. Some monitors have especially bad flicker, especially at lower brightness levels, because of the way they implement PWM.
vol7ron - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
"there was nowhere to put an internal power supply"Do you really do that?
It seems to me that these nice SmartTVs have all the hookups that computers need and the resolution is *starting* to match. With how thin they've gotten, it's questionable how monitor companies are going to continue their lines.
Origin64 - Thursday, June 14, 2012 - link
Why do we need Displayat all? There's nothing it can do that Dual-link DVI can't, as far as I know. It can steer my 1920*1080 120Hz monitor just fine.I don't get why everyone needs a new connector every five years. I know why VGA isn't up to todays standards, and I can see why one could want Thunderbolt (daisychaining isn't possible with DVI) even though I prefer to hook everything up directly. But DP is just another useless standard I don't want or need, just like HDMI. Don't want it, don't need it.
cheinonen - Thursday, June 14, 2012 - link
DisplayPort can drive multiple displays using a hub/repeater (if these are even available yet), use a much smaller cable over longer distances than DVI, carry audio as well as USB signals, has no royalty for VESA members (unlike HDMI which has a royalty still I believe), and is better suited for notebooks.DVI still works fine for most people, but as fewer people need analog support (one main advantage of DVI over DP) I'd expect to see DVI be replaced by DP for the reasons mentioned above. It's pretty hard to stick a DVI adapter onto a laptop at this point compared to MiniDP.
Zoomer - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
It gets rid of the TMDS, which is getting problematic in silicon. Further, DL-DVI pretty much maxes out at 25601600 @ 60 Hz. There needs to be something that supports a higher res and/or higher refresh.AdamK47 - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
The conclusion states: "there was no way to adjust the backlight that I could find"Did you go into the MISC menu and set ECO to 100? That gives full backlight brightness.
jigglywiggly - Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - link
review that catleap monitor ;x