Conclusions

Nothing in the QNIX took me by surprise when I reviewed it. The menu system, while basic, allows for some adjustments to be made to the display. The monitor stand is like most other entry-level displays and has very little you can adjust on it aside from the tilt. The inputs are nicely side-mounted, which I wish more companies would do. It's not a particularly stylish display, but then we wouldn't expect that from a budget QHD LCD.

The two largest issues in performance are the gamma curve and the uniformity. Since I expect few people to be calibrating a $360 display, the out of the box performance is pretty important and the gamma curve is an issue. Combined with the higher black levels and poor contrast ratios, it leads to a fairly flat, washed out image in comparison to other displays. This incorrect gamma can be corrected by using calibration software, but it only goes so far and you can't completely fix the problem, and there are no user controls to do try to improve the out-of-box experience.

The display uniformity also rules out the monitor from doing serious image editing or other color critical work on it. Even those professionals that have calibration hardware and software will likely want to avoid it because different areas of the screen will display a different image. There are also some color issues but those aren’t large enough to cause me great concern.

So for general use, how is the QNIX? The image is fine, if a bit washed out. The blacks are higher than I’d like them to be as well. For some users the input lag will be a concern, but there are other 27” panels out there that offer 3-13ms lower input lag if you need it. With multiple inputs that support whatever you want to connect, it is certainly more useful than the DVI-only models that came before it.

If you just want a 27" QHD display that has all the inputs you need and lacks any dealbreaker flaws, the QNIX will fit the bill. If you want to hit a really low price point you'll have to make some sacrifices and for the most part, the QNIX made good choices. I do wish the gamma was closer to 2.2 since that would really help image quality. If you want to have higher image quality and color accuracy, spending $100 more for the Monoprice IPS-Glass Panel Pro 27", or getting it on sale, will be a better choice. However, on straight bang for the buck, the QNIX does well for general daily use.

Display Lag, Power Use and Color Gamut
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  • anandtechbug - Friday, April 18, 2014 - link

    I was willing to pay for a good monitor around $700 but I found that Qnix DVI-D is equal or better than those monitors. Was really looking forward to purchasing this model. Pls suggest a good one for photo editing.
  • cubebomb - Sunday, April 20, 2014 - link

    I have two of these i bought 6 months ago.

    They are amazing. I have them OCed at 96hz which makes everything smoother than 60hz.

    Only one of the panels can go to 120Hz without problems. The other one will just give weird red lines so the sweetspot was a 96hz for me. Games running at 96FPS or 120 FPS is hard for me to tell that much of a difference. I love these badboys.

    The resolution is amazing and i have no problems with colors. I am not doing photography or webdesign. I am playing video games and they look no different than my old 1080p panel.

    I am playing 96fps at 1440p ! amazing
  • Z15CAM - Sunday, April 27, 2014 - link

    You have reviewed the WRONG QNIX. The popular one is the over-clockable QNIX QX2710 Evolution II PLS LED Display with a single DVI-D interface that cost approx $300 from South Korea.
  • aithos - Friday, July 25, 2014 - link

    Clarification of Overclocking on QNIX:

    The reason you were unable to overclock without dropping frames is because you have the wrong version of this monitor. Only the base models (single dual-dvi input) of the QNIX QX2710 and XSTAR 2710 and Yamasaki Catleap 2B that are able to overclock. None of the multi-input models are able to overclock, the only reason the base models are able to overclock is because of the bypass board (and lack of a scaler). As a side effect, you cannot hook up console gaming systems because they will not be able to output a supported resolution due to the lack of a scaler on the monitor.

    I have seen countless posts on this topic, seen countless screenshots of the proof they don't frame skip and I personally own the XSTAR version (same monitor, different reseller) and have it overclocked to 110 without any frame dropping. I was able to get to 120hz but I start getting artifacts in some games (Skyrim) at that framerate and so I chose to drop down for ease of use.
  • Phreedom1 - Wednesday, August 13, 2014 - link

    Yes..they know that now. It's been brought up many times over the last several months in this thread.

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