See? The black hardly shifts from this angle...
(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)You gotta love a good Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (S-PVA)-based display, don't you? Well, you're obviously not required to love them, but with their deep blacks, good viewing angles, and, for the most part, accurate colors, they certainly make it difficult to dislike them.
Case in point: the NEC MultiSync P221W is a 22-inch, $390 S-PVA display that includes the aforementioned perks of most S-PVAs.
A monitor needs to have more than just great performance, however, to justify its price. Extra features and connection options can work wonders toward a monitor's overall worth. With Dell recently lowering the price of its feature-rich, 24-inch UltraSharp 2408WFP to $450, can the 22-inch NEC be expected to compete?
Check out the review to find out. Also, be sure to take a look at more monitor reviews with new ones added every week.
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Today we're taking a look at two very different monitors. The first is the Dell ST2310, a very bare-bones and low-priced ($179 right now) monitor with purportedly, low power consumption. Look for a full review of the ST2310 later this week. For now, check out the shots.
Second up is the NEC P221w. Kind of the antithesis of the ST2310. Where the ST2310 sacrifices features for price, the $490 NEC throws in tons of features like pivot, rotation, and screen height adjustment. Not to mention a S-PVA panel that delivers much wider viewing angles than the Dell is capable of. Don't look for a full review of this guy before next week at the earliest, though.
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:
NEC)
All of the monitors I've reviewed at CNET are consumer-level designs. One of the reasons for this is that professional-level monitors have a limited audience because of their expense.
NEC is seeking to change that, somewhat. On Friday, NEC announced the 22-inch P221W LCD monitor. This is being targeted at professionals who need to work in color-critical environments, but don't want to break the bank. You'll have to be the judge--for now--on whether $637 is "breaking the bank".
NEC's supplied features for the display include:
- 1,680x1,050-pixel native resolution
- Wide color gamut that achieves 96 percent coverage of AdobeRGB
- Internal 10-bit programmable lookup tables (LUTs)
- S-PVA LCD technology that provides for the widest viewing angles available with minimal off-angle color shift
- AmbiBright automatic brightness adjustment
- 1,000:1 typical contrast ratio
- 16ms response time
- 300 cd/m2 typical brightness
- XtraView+ 178 degree (88 degree/88 degree/88 degree/88 degree) viewing angle
- ECO Mode and carbon footprint reduction
- Analog and digital input signal
- Four-way ergonomic stand (tilt/swivel/pivot/height-adjust)
- Optional soundbar
The monitor includes a three-year limited warranty and will be available in December.
You'll also have the option in December to purchase the NEC Spectraview kit which purportedly includes an optimized calibration sensor based on X-Rite iOne Display v2 for a price of $374.99.
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