Dear Eve Family,

The next step in Eve’s monitor project is here! Based on your votes, from now on we will refer to this as Project: Spectrum!

from Wikipedia: from Wikipedia: A spectrum (plural spectra or spectrums) is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without steps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light after passing through a prism.

Before jumping into the discussion I would like to tell more about the results we have seen so far and give you an overall project update.

The story so far

Based on the results from the previous rounds we can see that what makes a great monitor is partially down to preference, and partially down to bang for the buck. Some people prefer higher refresh rates, others want higher resolution. Neither specification is ultimately king when determining whether someone will enjoy using the monitor or not.

A new approach

This week we’re changing up our approach: instead of collecting opinions and trying to match a panel to them, we’re sharing a whole bunch of panels available on the market and ask your opinions of them!

We also think that though specs go a long way toward determining which screens are fit or unfit for our purpose, they don’t help much when the remaining panels have the same or similar specs. One key to success is to get our hands on samples so that we can find out which panel looks best in real life. That should help us get the complete picture. We will be receiving our first samples this Friday already, and will of course let you guys know about our findings.

So what will Eve Spectrum be?

Our vision

Our vision is to make the best monitor of 2019 that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. We want to make sure that the monitor we make can be used for high-speed gaming as well as graphics work, with great colors for everyone. It should give you a “Wow!”-feeling the first time you look at it, and using it daily should be a pleasant experience.

That sounds about right

That sounds about right That doesn’t sound right 0 voters

Our users

The users we’re targeting, use their computer for a variety of purposes. They browse the web, watch movies, play games, and get serious with photo or video editing. They’ve seen amazing screens on their smartphones or their Eve V, and wonder why their desktop computer still has a mediocre, basic monitor. It’s hard to go back after being spoiled! Our users also want to have a monitor that offers all the useful technology the market has to offer today, and want it to stay relevant for the next few years. They are looking for great value, and want to get the best monitor they can get without breaking the bank.

That sounds about right

That sounds about right That doesn’t sound right 0 voters

Our limitations

What we’re not making, is a pure professional display. Graphics professionals that require every drop of color accuracy for their work, and require regular re-calibration fall outside the scope of what we want to offer in our monitor. Our competitors in that market are also better equipped to support the rigorous after-sales service model such pros require for their mission-critical gear.

That sounds about right

That sounds about right That doesn’t sound right 0 voters

What the market has to offer

With the V we learned that when it comes to the display it is mission critical to work with a supplier that is willing to work with us and support our crowd development model. The supplier also has to be big enough to ensure a steady supply of screens.

While you have been supplying us with valuable information on your preferences regarding the perfect monitor, we have been sourcing displays from panel vendors and looking for the right manufacturer for the project.

Finding a perfect panel is not an easy task. Sometimes you find a panel that has an amazing spec sheet but in reality the colors look dull or light leakage is way out of hand. On the other hand you might find a panel with what looks like an average spec, that turns out to be a winner once testing it side by side with others!

We have gone through a lot of panel spec sheets in the past few weeks and while we are waiting to receive actual samples to see which panels look best in person, we have a few panel specs we’d like to hear your thoughts on.

Introducing our contestants!

All of the panels on this list are based on IPS technology and offer a 178° viewing angle. Many of the available panels are not included because they did not match community specs, such as being too small or too large, or lacking in resolution or color gamut. The panels are grouped by size and resolution, and we’ve numbered them for easy reference.

The beast

Let’s start with a beast of a panel that we found … Panel #11 comes from a top-tier vendor, offers very high resolution as well as high refresh rates and an amazing color gamut. HDR1000, 500 segments of local dimming, actual 10-bit color: this panel’s got it all! The use cases for this beast? Anything you throw at it, really. Maybe gaming is a bit of a GPU killer at 8K, but you can always scale it back to Ultra- or Full-HD

So why are we looking any further? We could just make a monitor using that best-of-all-worlds panel, right? Well, there’s the price… The display panels alone costs $ 3 000 US each, so the end user price for the complete monitor will be as much as beast as its specs. That lead me to ask the manufacturer who this panel is actually for. The reality is that they don’t even have a customer for it yet, and the price won’t go down until they can produce it in higher volumes. And even then it would still be super expensive.

In our opinion, despite this panel’s specs being mind blowing, it doesn’t provide good value for money as the price is greatly inflated from lack of demand in the market.

The beauty?

Panel #3 looks very interesting to us as. It comes from a top tier vendor, offers 27 inches of splendor with HDR, a wide color gamut, but also high refresh rates and support for adaptive sync. It’s not quite the beast that #11 is, but is available at a fraction of the price. We think it should offer an amazing experience at an amazing value. Of course we need to see it in real life when the samples arrive before we can make any real decisions.

Also noteworthy

Panel #5 is a UHD (~4K) variant of #3, from the same vendor but with a 60Hz refresh rate and slower response time. In return, it boasts a higher contrast and 100% Adobe RGB coverage. The price is higher but not much so, so we’re looking forward to test these two samples in real life and see the difference ourselves.

You may also have noticed panel #1 with a 240Hz refresh rate. While being by far the fastest panel on the list, it is only Full HD. Its high speed and top-tier heritage make it similarly priced to #3, even though that panel outperforms it on every other metric. As the benefit of 240Hz over 165Hz is significantly less noticeable than the jump from, say, 60Hz to 165Hz, we don’t really think it’s worth pursuing. But feel free to try and change our mind if you feel otherwise!

Then we have a few 32" panels they primary from vendors and while specs look good (offering features like HDR600 at a much lower price point) we need to see those samples ourselves to make sure the panels live up to their promise!

Discussion time

What are your thoughts on the panels above? Which one of them do you think looks most exciting?

How do you like this post? What would you improve?