Monoprice Zero-G Slim 27" IPS Monitor Review
by Chris Heinonen on August 26, 2013 12:00 AM ESTDisplay Uniformity is measured using CalMAN 5.1.2 at 25 locations on screen. Every measurement is compared to the center reading, which is the reference point. Here the Zero-G does very well. I expected a far less uniform display than I got.
White level is very even, staying in the 90%-100% range over most of the monitor. Even viewing gradients and full-white test patterns on the screen I don’t notice issues with the uniformity here.
Black level has a larger uniformity issue. The upper-left corner suffers from a fair amount of light bleed. It is more bleed than I have seen from other displays, and is easily noticeable. The other corners are better, though the upper right is also a bit light. The upper-left is easy to notice in daily use.
Because of that bright corner, the contrast uniformity drops in that area. The right side of the display has better contrast than the center due to a lower black level on that half.
On our color uniformity test, the Monoprice is nearly perfect. The highest dE2000 error compared to center is 2.13, and even that is virtually invisible. Despite its low cost and some backlight issues, color uniformity is nearly perfect on the Zero-G.
I expected to see results that were more similar to the Black Uniformity on the Monoprice Zero-G, but the results on White Uniformity and dE2000 Uniformity are very impressive. I’m really surprised in a good way by these results.
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QuantumPion - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
I was considering getting this monitor over one of the ebay panels due to it being a legit vendor. I'm sure glad I didn't. I ended up getting an X-Star/Qnix for under $300, shipped to my door in 3 days. It has perfect image quality and colors out of the box and overclocks to 120 hz. These panels are extremely highly regarded, I'd very much reccomend biting the bullet and just going with the ebay vendors. Worse case scenario, you get a bad panel and have to return it/sell it and buy another one. But it's worth it, IMO.geok1ng - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
The most important metric ofr this kind of monitor is not in the review:how far can you overclock the monitor in DL-DVI?
Does the monitor really OCs or just skips frames while reporting fake refresh rates?
Shadowmaster625 - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
The question is: how well can this thing be calibrated without the use of special equipment? And how well does it perform once calibrated using the various free and simple calibration resources?cheinonen - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
The pre-calibration numbers are as good as you can do without special equipment. There are no more user controls available to do better beyond that.mikato - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
The question is, why don't libraries have monitor calibration stuff? :) It makes no sense for everybody to buy that crap just to use it once or twice. My library actually has a Kill-a-Watt.tackle70 - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Great review! I've loved my Auria EQ276W, which is similar to this. These screens always look bad in reviews because they get compared to high end displays that are 50-100% more expensive, but compared to the typical TN junk that most people are used to, these screens are a HUGE upgrade. Wish more conclusions mentioned that.cheinonen - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
We all know that IPS is going to be a big gain over TN when it comes to image quality. The question for the Monoprice is how it does relative to other 2560x1440 IPS displays. When you can find the Nixeus on sale for $400 and the Dell U2713HM refurbished for $450, the value issue comes into play. If you need any connection other than DVI, the Monoprice is just priced too high.tackle70 - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Well, there's a reason I have my Auria and not this Monoprice ;)ymrtech - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Does it overclock to 120hz?The reason I got the Korean 27" 2560x1440p monitors is because they overclock pretty easily.
120hz @ 2560x1440 for like 300$ on ebay?
Hell yeah!
bji - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Back in the day it was pretty well understood that you didn't go cheap on the monitor or power supply, the first because it's the single most important user interface element of the computer, and the second because failures are most frequent with cheap power supplies. What ever happened to these ideas? I'd rather save for a few months and get a good quality $600 monitor than an extremely suspicious $350 one. How long is this Monoprice monitor likely to last? If the company can't even be bothered to put any effort into the calibration or proper brightness implementation, how much effort do you think went into ensuring that the hardware was well constructed and well assembled? And how much money do you think they've set aside for support? I think you'd be fooling yourself if you believed that they haven't done the minimal they can just to get the things out the door. Not exactly confidence inspiring.Maybe just move down in size and get a much better monitor for the same price that isn't quite as OMFG huge as this one?