Nixeus VUE 30: 30" 2560x1600 IPS Monitor Review
by Chris Heinonen on August 20, 2013 6:00 AM EST
Over the past 18 months, we’ve all been happy to watch as the price of 27” 1440p monitors has steadily fallen. With cheaper import panels becoming available, the cost of moving up to a high resolution panel has fallen considerably. I reviewed the Nixeus VUE 27 last year as it was the cheapest way at the time to get a 1440p panel while still getting a US warranty. Now Nixeus is back with a 30” monitor, the Nixeus VUE 30. With the 16:10 aspect ratio that commenters continually ask for and an IPS panel, will this mark the shift of a downward trend for 30” monitor prices as well?
The design of the VUE 30 is similar to the VUE 27 that I previously reviewed. The controls for the display remain in the lower-right and it has the same OSD interface of its predecessor. Since the OSD was one of my faults with the VUE 27 I was hoping to see this improve but it did not. A welcome change, which I also saw on the ASUS PQ321Q, is locating the inputs on the left side of the display and not the bottom. This makes them far more accessible for quickly hooking up a device like a laptop. As the VUE 30 is so large due to the screen size, it has plenty of space to connect cables without them sticking out the sides of the display.
The connections options consist of DisplayPort, DSub, DVI, and HDMI, along with an audio output for headphones. The HDMI port is listed as 1.4a but it does not support 2560x1600 resolutions; if you want the full 2560x1600 resolution you will need to use a DVI-DL or DisplayPort connection. The back of the display is very solid and metal, but the front is a glossy plastic bezel that I would prefer be matte.
As with the VUE 27 the stand for the monitor screws together with some small screws and not with captive screws or a tool-free mechanism. Compared to the VUE 27 the packaging has greatly improved. Parts are well laid out in the package, and there are no cheap boxes or labels that look like it was transferred straight from a foreign assembly line. The initial feeling of opening the VUE 27 was one of my complaints, as it felt cheap and rushed. Nixeus has learned from that and the packing and presentation of the VUE 30 is much improved.
The stand is also improved from the VUE 27 model. It allows for an easier swivel but lacks any height adjustment and is not as solid as a Dell or ASUS stand would be. The VESA mounting holes are a less common 200mm x 100mm pattern, so aftermarket stands might require an additional adapter to be used. The external power brick and its custom connector have been replaced with a standard IEC port, reducing desk clutter.
One key difference with the VUE 30 from other affordable displays is the use of a wide gamut CCFL backlight. This allows for a gamut that goes well beyond the AdobeRGB gamut, as the testing will show later, and is not common to find except in displays aimed at graphics professionals. The displays that target graphics professionals also tend to have sRGB modes to reign in that gamut but the Nixeus does not. We will see in our testing the behavior that this causes.
| Nixeus VUE30 | |
| Video Inputs | DisplayPort 1.2, DVI-D DL, HDMI 1.4a, Dsub |
| Panel Type | IPS |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.25mm |
| Colors | 1.07 Billion |
| Brightness | 350 cd/m2 |
| Contrast Ratio | 1000:1 |
| Response Time | 7ms GTG |
| Viewable Size | 30" |
| Resolution | 2560x1600 |
| Viewing Angle (H/V) | 178/178 |
| Backlight | CCFL |
| Power Consumption (operation) | 130W minimum |
| Power Consumption (standby) | None Specified |
| Screen Treatment | Anti-Glare |
| Height-Adjustable | No |
| Tilt | No |
| Pivot | No |
| Swivel | Yes |
| VESA Wall Mounting | Yes, 100mm x 200mm |
| Dimensions w/ Base (WxHxD) | 27.5" x 22" x 3" |
| Weight | 22 lbs. |
| Additional Features | 3.5mm Output, stereo speakers |
| Limited Warranty | 1 Year |
| Accessories | DVI-DL Cable, Power Cable |
| Price | $730 |
With an IPS panel, the viewing angles on the VUE 30 are what you expect. Unless you try to sit perpendicular to the display you should be just fine. There is a bit of contrast wash-out at the extreme angles, but nothing you will see in daily use.
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Sabresiberian - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
It is great to see prices drop this much, but the standard 30" screen still has a serious problem, in my eyes. .25mm dot pitch.Okay that isn't terrible; it's something I could live with. But the fact is, I can buy a 27" with much better dot pitch (.233mm) and spend a lot less money. I hate the 16:9, but it isn't as bad as .25mm for me in that large of a display, personally, so the trade-off means I'll go with spending less money to get something a bit closer to what I want.
Give me 16:10.
Give me at least (most?) .233mm dot pitch, - better certainly isn't an unreasonable thing to ask in this day and age.
Give me an IPS panel (or comparable, or, gasp even better!), preferably with a backlight solution that doesn't feel like a heat lamp shining on my face.
Give me accurate colors, a uniform display, screen surface that isn't too reflective OR to heavily anti-reflective, a thin bezel so I can put 3 of them side-by-side without big spaces between the displays..
Give me low lag.
Sell it to me for less than $600. Really, I think $500 isn't unreasonable, but I'll buy it at $600.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
Windows still doesn't handle odd DPI all that well, though 8.1 may improve this. As someone who has used 30" LCDs for years now, I will tell you that I have no issues with the dot pitch, and in fact I often have to increase the magnification to read text comfortably. I think a dot pitch for desktop displays of around 0.28-0.30mm is actually better for most people past 30 years old. For businesses with 40+ year old employees, I have had many instances where I had to set their 1080p or 1920x1200 display to run at a lower resolution because the user complained that the text was too small.So, sorry to burst your bubble, but in the larger market of the world (e.g. people older than 25) having higher DPI is not actually all that important or even desirable. Not to mention, if you had a 4K 25" display, you need GPUs capable of driving that resolution at a reasonable level of performance. Just like the business world doesn't worry too much about high DPI displays, they're not interested in high performance GPUs for general computer use either.
josephandrews222 - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
GREAT comment about dot pitch and age. I'd like to see an anandtech article about dot pitch that addresses this very topic...in detail.Impulses - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
These displays aren't marketed at the business world either tho...stephenbrooks - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Right on with the dot pitch comment. I recently got to work on a 27" 1440p display and felt I had to set the Windows 7 UI & font scaling to 125% rather than 100% (I'm 29). The side-effect was that 125% looked kind of "Mac like" with high res fonts still the same size, whereas 100% was like trying to work at a scale designed for ultraportable laptops.seapeople - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I call BS. My eyesight is TERRIBLE. I can't see the broadside of a barn if it was flying at me and mooing. But I have these wonderful things called glasses. It's not like glasses stop working when you get older. I currently am sitting about 24 inches from my 125 ppi laptop screen and I can still tell that the text is not nearly as clear as it could be (i.e., on the retina iPad). For example, > ... that's not a smooth, clean arrow, it's a blocky/fuzzy travesty that would look so much better with more pixels in it.menting - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
Does this monitor use PWM for brightness?I wish more monitor reviews would cover this section as well, as I (and quite a few others) find PWM annoying and tiring to the eyes
mdrejhon - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - link
You can test a monitor's PWM by using http://www.testufo.com/#test=blurtrailmdrejhon - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - link
Oh, and when testing TestUFO, make sure to use the Chrome browser, and lower brightness to 0% to check for the PWM artifact.ezridah - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
You should review the 4 different Monoprice monitors. They have 2 types at each size and the low end ones are significantly cheaper than this.