LG 29EA93 Monitor Review - Rev. 1.25
by Chris Heinonen on February 12, 2013 8:49 PM ESTThe initial revision of the LG 29EA93 was very uniform overall, where I remarked, “For white uniformity, the 29EA93 is truly a cut above.” Despite this, LG was unhappy about the performance of the corners and went back and tightened the tolerances of assembling the screen to get better performance out of it. Unlike before, no areas drop below 180 cd/m² of light output, keeping the whole screen uniform within 10% when using the same 5x5 ANSI test pattern as before.
Light Output in cd/m2
Output Deviation Relative to Center
There are two points on the side that are slightly darker, in the same location as before, but the light loss in those areas is less than before. Overall the white uniformity manages to maintain its reputation of being great.
Black Uniformity is what had the issue before, with the corners having a lot more light creeping into the corners. This time that condition no longer exists. The only actual error that you can see is that one of the dimmer areas from the white uniformity is very dim in the black uniformity screen as well, but something being darker rather than lighter is a good thing.
Light Output in cd/m2
Output Deviation Relative to Center
Now looking at contrast uniformity, we see the most impressive result for the 29EA93 yet. The average contrast value here is 1267:1, and the corners maintain a contrast level of 1252:1. This is now the best display I’ve seen in terms of contrast uniformity, with no areas of the screen that are a cause of concern to me at all. I really hope other manufacturers see what LG was able to do here with better quality control and bring that to their displays to provide similar results.
Contrast Ratio
Contrast Ratio Deviation Relative to Center
For dE uniformity, I used the Uniformity tool available in CalMAN that can measure up to 45 points on the screen. For this display I used 21 points, in a 7x3 grid, which was a perfect match to the 21:9 ratio of the screen. The Uniformity tool isn’t completely finished yet, which is why I didn’t use it for brightness yet, but the dE uniformity is close to what we used to do, only with more data. Once the Uniformity tool is finished it’ll provide even better data, and I can go back to this review and update the graphs to match.
As you can see the center of the screen has very good color quality that we saw earlier. The extreme corners exhibit a bit of color drift with dE values that are a little worse, but only the upper-right corner moves past the 3.0 value that would indicate a color change that we can see. In comparison to the contrast numbers the color quality is only very good, but as this is the first display to be tested this way, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is the best display we see for a while and this method only accentuates the errors.
Colorchecker dE Uniformity
The LG 29EA93 was already a very good performer when it came to uniformity, and the improvements that LG made only increase that performance. The extra attention paid to make sure that the assembly of the extra-wide panel is done right has served to produce the most uniform consumer display that I’ve seen so far.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
108 Comments
View All Comments
SpartanGR - Friday, April 5, 2013 - link
No there is no way of knowing. i'll buy this monitor 6 months from now just to be sure.sant2468 - Friday, April 12, 2013 - link
To get the service menu up, first switch off the monitor, then while holding down the menu key simultaneously press and hold the power button, keep holding both buttons until the monitor powers up then release them. Press the menu button once and up pops the menu. To revert back to the OSD menu, turn the monitor off then back on again.Ubercake - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
If they can get this to operate at 120Hz, I'd buy it tomorrow.sant2468 - Friday, April 19, 2013 - link
i have to say. i went for the dell version and it clocks to 75 hz. haven't tried to overclock this any further and it runs so sweat.All games run very nice at 75 fps.
zewolf5 - Monday, April 22, 2013 - link
I asked dustinhome if they knew what revision they had for sale. Got this answer: " ...there is new firmwares released now and then. And there shouldn’t be any other difference than the firmware between these revisions, if there is something wrong with the firmware in a product then the customer can contact LG and they will decide if a firmware upgrade can solve the problem. For this product it isn’t possible to upgrade the firmware as a user, it needs to be done by LG Service. And we don’t get any information about which revision we get delivered, since it is delivered on the same part number."Big_Lund! - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
Just bought a LG 29EA93-P from Fry's this week (San Jose CA). Mgr date is Feb 13 2013 Rev-01 which is version 1.25. The way to verify is to Hold the power & Menu button's together and you will see the version number on the top left corner! Once calibrated the best monitor to date! Great for games, movies & editing photos.noknowsu - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
I bought this led monitor because of this new update on the monitor . im am so happy you did this review because it made my decision to buy!! i also got the new revision model 1.25 and bought it off newegg at $540 total they had a special . Thanks anandtech!!MacDavePro - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link
Why does the review author continue to be evasive regarding identification of units shipping with the tested firmware revision? Just review a damned retail unit and restore the reputation of AnandTech as a legitimate reviewer. Otherwise this whole review is just a joke. Chris has basically reviewed a mythical, maybe never to be released, one-off that may or may not bear any resemblance to a display of the same name which is available for sale. If I reviewed a Chevrolet stock car as representative of a showroom model you'd laugh me off the web. Joke.retlaps - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
i just got mine today, the setting show this:http://i39.tinypic.com/1ij43l.jpgDoes this mean there is now a Rev 1.31??
VooDooAddict - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
Any idea if the LG 29EB93-P has these updates as well? I'm trying to decide between the LG 29EA93 and the 29EB93-P I would much prefer the nice stand and more professional look of the 29EB93-P but not at the loss of these nessesary updates.