The Eizo CG222W in all it's bulk splendor.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)Late last week I reviewed two very different monitors.
One, the 22-inch Eizo ColorEdge CG222w was the first professional grade monitor I've reviewed. And by professional, I mean, at $1,300, it easily prices itself out of most people's pocketbooks and should only be bought by pro artists that know exactly what they want.
The second was the 24-inch ViewSonic vg2427wm.
The Eizo uses an S-PVA panel that gives it wide viewing angles. It's also one heavy and bulky son of a gun at 24 pounds and definitely feels like $1,300 worth of hardware is encased in it. The ViewSonic, conversely, feels hallow, brittle, and frightens me a bit, actually.
I have this completely irrational fear of the unit falling near me. Forcing me to dive for my life to stay ahead of the million bits of shrapnel the monitor would surely become.
Anyway, check out the reviews of each and always keep an eye here for new monitor reviews.
This monitor has no soul...that we know of.
(Credit: CNET)I'll be completely honest: LCD computer monitors intended for graphics professionals are not my area of expertise. Most of the monitors I've reviewed have been consumer-focused.
Monitors like the Dell SP2309W and Samsung P2370, while great for gaming or just looking nice in your apartment (respectively), would not be caught dead on the desk of a graphics professional. (Of course, if I'd found a monitor could actually die at all, well, I probably would not be writing this, as the prospects of an inanimate object possessing a soul would be far too exciting to continue sitting at my workstation, working.)
Silliness aside, I'll be soon be diving headfirst into a small, shallow pool of Pro Graphics monitors, starting with the Eizo ColorEdge CG222W. The CG222W is intended for graphic pros and can be found from around $1,200 to $1,500. The monitor includes either an S-IPS panel or a Samsung S-PVA panel (the LTM220M3), depending on whether you believe FlatpanelsHD or TFT Central. According to TFT Central, the panel used in the NEC Multisync p221w-bk is the same as the one housed in the Eizo.
If that's true, it's strange that the NEC monitor costs only a third of the Eizo's price. And for this reason, you won't see a review of the Eizo CG222W for a couple of weeks. I'm waiting for NEC to send me the P221W-BK so I can compare them directly and figure out just what makes the Eizo so much more expensive.
Also, I'll also likely be using some new tests that are better-suited for professional monitors, like photo viewing and a black level test.
NEC says it can get me the monitor in a couple weeks, so look for reviews of both a short while after that. In the meantime, check out a few pics I took of the Eizo. Commence stalling.
(Credit:
Eizo)
Eizo Nanao has announced the inclusion of an "EcoView Sense" feature into its just announced FlexScan monitors, the 20-inch EV2023W and the 23-inch EV2303W.
The EcoView feature allows the monitors--using motion detectors--to detect if a person is sitting in front of it.
If it senses for 40 seconds that no one is there, it puts the monitor into sleep mode. It then resumes normal operation when the user returns. For example, it won't be fooled by such shenanigans as leaving a cardboard cutout of yourself in front of it. It will only resume if there is movement up to 120 centimeters in front of it.
And that brings us to ninja training. If I'm ever lucky enough to get one of these in, the first two tests I'm running are the "Can I be still enough that it thinks I'm not here?" test and the "Can I return to my chair slowly and smoothly enough, that it doesn't know I ever came back?" Yes, I have the mind of a 10-year-old. So what of it?
Angering your new Eizo monitor is never a good idea. One minute you're at work, updating your Facebook status. The next, disintegrated. Without even a speck of dust left. Co workers, coming to snatch you for foosball will never suspect that your monitor just ended your existence. Meanwhile, the Eizo waits, unsuspected, for its next victim. We advice disabling this feature after unboxing the display.
Its benefits to would-be ninjas aside, these are two of the world's first monitors to receive the recently announced TCO Displays 5.0 Certification. Why should you care? Well, according to TCO, the tests used in the 5.0 spec are just plain tougher. Also, According to Eizo these are the first Eizo products to achieve EPEAT Gold status.
The FlexScan EV2023W is equipped with a VA panel with a 1600×900 native resolution, 178-degree viewing angles, and 3000:1 contrast ratio. The EV2303W comes with a TN panel with a 1920×1080 native resolution, 160° viewing angles, and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Both monitors claim a 250 cd/m2 brightness and come with one VGA and one DVI-D input. HDMI was not mentioned as these are more business-centric displays.
According to Eizo, beginning with these models, it is introducing a more compact design for its EcoView line by reducing the number of components inside the main body. This not only makes the body thinner and lighter than the previous design, but allows both monitors to ship in smaller containers with significantly less packaging. Whether the company actually does ship the monitors with less packaging remains to be seen.
Other energy-saving features include an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display's brightness according to the amount of light in the room. And each monitor includes a power switch that allows them to turn off completely and not draw any power whatsoever.
Check out CNET's new Monitor Green Guide for more information on all things green...and monitors.
(Credit:
Eizo)
This is one of those random facts that, if true, makes one wonder why technology hasn't caught up with reality: More than 200 million people worldwide are thought to be colorblind, according to some estimates, with more than 10 million of them in the United States. If even part of those statistics are accurate, it makes sense that companies would step up efforts to market products for that population.
Although technologies for the colorblind have been developed in the past, Japan's Eizo believes it has come up with a unique system that will allow colorblind individuals to "see" the graphic displays on its new 24-inch LCD, according to Akihabara News. Through Color Universal Design principles, it uses such techniques as lighting, shapes, positions, patterns, and labeling to help those who can't discern differences in color.
Eizo's FlexScan system is on the Japanese market at present, but it's not hard to imagine something like this taking off worldwide if it proves effective. After all, if anything transcends language and cultural barriers, it would seem to be something like this.
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