Acer T232HL - Touch Comes to the Desktop
by Chris Heinonen on February 6, 2013 9:00 AM ESTColor Quality and Gamut
Straight out of the box, the best numbers that the Acer can produce on our Gretag Macbeth test are pretty poor. The average dE is over 8, and the grayscale numbers are the worst that I’ve measured. The only shade even close to being an ideal number is yellow, with everything else having an error of 5 or above.
For our calibration tests we use ColorEyes Display Pro, an i1Pro meter, and we target 200 nits of light output, a gamma of 2.2, a white point of D65, and the minimum black level we can hit. Any adjustments that we can make in the monitor to correct white balance or colors are done before the calibration, and the best starting mode is used. I always try calibrations with and without DDC enabled in ColorEyes Display Pro, but haven’t run into a result in a long time where hand tuning it was better than using DDC; they are usually identical.
After calibration, the Acer is really improved. The grayscale has gone from abysmal to very accurate, and the remaining flaws are in shades of blue that almost always cause monitors trouble. If you care about color quality, you really do need to calibrate the Acer as without a calibration, the colors are just far from ideal.
After that calibration we target 100 nits, which is more likely to be used with print or paper work than with on screen design work. We don’t get quite as good of results here, and the grayscale error is a good bit higher than before as well. It isn’t poor, but it’s not as good as other monitors can do, but this display also isn’t targeted towards print professionals.
So we have really poor initial color, very nice post-calibration color, and so-so calibration color for print work. If you really care about color quality then you’re going to want to calibrate it, and even if you don’t the level of error is high enough that it might be a bit distracting, especially since the grayscale is so bad.
The gamut is supposed to be sRGB and here it comes up just a little bit short. We look for 71% of AdobeRGB to be equal to sRGB, but we only get 68% of the AdobeRGB gamut here. This also comes in near the bottom of the monitors recently reviewed, and isn’t too unexpected due to the LED lighting which often falls short.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
When you grow up and have kids, you'll realize that ANY and ALL touchscreens will get filthy if you let your kids use them. Matte screens will be just as bad -- says the guy with three kids (10, 3, 1) who have already left more than their fair share of fingerprints on my matte displays.zero2dash - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
It's a lot less noticeable on matte displays though, which is why I'm surprised anyone would release a touchscreen with a glossy coating.It's bad enough that every smartphone and tablet is inherently glossy, but a monitor is even worse.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
Lenovo had a matte finish on a touchscreen at CES that I liked, but I'm still curious how such a finish will hold up over the long term. I look at my keyboards and the smooth, glossy appearance on the well-used keys, or the glossed out spots on laptop palm rests that have been around the block for a year or two, and I can't help but think the same thing will happen to an LCD with a matte finish -- and it won't wear evenly, so you'll get glossy sections where people have used the screen more. Ever notice that no one does matte smartphones or tablets?Sabresiberian - Thursday, February 7, 2013 - link
I disagree entirely with this.I have 2 27" monitors, a Dell U2711 and a Overlord X270OC. The first comes with a fairly heavy anti-reflective screen, the second is glossy. While the Dell is better in every other way (and cost a lot more money) except the fact I can't overclock it to 120Hz, the anti-glare is awful.
The least amount of dirt on it makes the screen look, well, dirty. And, it's a pain in the butt to clean becasue it takes getting every little bit of dirt and grease off it to make it look clean again. The Overlord though is super easy to clean; a little spot doesn't turn into a smear of yuck, it just comes off.
Now, the industry seems to have gotten the message here, and even Dell's replacement of the U2711 has a much lighter anti-glare. I really think this is the right way to go. (I don't understand why they had to figure it out again when people got the idea back in the days of the CRT. My Sony GDM FW900 has a coating which in my opinion is perfect, easy to clean and cuts down on the worst of the reflections without being too heavy.)
Now, I don't use my monitors as touch screens, obviously, and what looks worse to one person will be different than another, but the decision between the 2 for me (a really anti-glare screen or a glossy one) would be hands down glossy for touch use. They are both going to get dirty, but the glossy will be far easier to clean - and, in my opinion the anti-glare looks worse when clean, and looks much worse when dirty.
As far as kids - well, most of them don't care one way or the other, and they will NOT be using my screens, they will be using their own, so it's not an issue in my house.
theduckofdeath - Saturday, April 13, 2013 - link
If you touch anything with greasy fingers, it will get dirty. Doesn't matter whether it's a matte or glossy display. Monitor or smartphone.designerfx - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
maybe you don't understand what happens to a glossy finish. the fact that he had to clean it at all simply tells you that it is an actual problem.lexluthermiester - Friday, February 8, 2013 - link
I'm with you on that one. I can't stand it when people touch my screen. where it comes to my PC, NOTHING annoys me more than fingerprints on my screen! And while I acknowledge that I may be an extreme, I'm far from alone. And some people really think touch screens will become? Good grief I hope not!lexluthermiester - Friday, February 8, 2013 - link
will become the norm?*SNORK - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
I have never been able to tolerate it when my wife, my kids or now my grandkids have to touch the monitor to point at something. Let's now view everything with 4k monitors through finger prints and jelly smudges."The radar's jammed sir".
DanNeely - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
I've occasionally wondered if it would be possible to charge up the front of a monitor with a Tesla coil without interfering with its use as a display.