Out of the box the monitor was quite bright, although not to the extent we’ve seen on some monitors recently. There was a slight cool-green tint to some grey tones, but overall white point balance was good. The image significantly lacked saturation to some shades, although was quite vibrant in some areas. This was improved a bit by changing the ‘Gamma’ setting, although not entirely alleviated. The relatively smooth, glossy screen surface helped perceived vibrancy in many lighting conditions. The images below show the gamma tracking using the ‘Optimal OSD Settings’ (top image) and our ‘Test Settings’ (bottom image). You can see a sagging of the gamma curve in the top image, which was responsible for a bit of undersaturation and lack of depth overall. The bottom image shows the gamma curve adhering far more closely to the ‘2.2’ curve, following correction with an ICC profile.



The monitor also includes some ‘Low Blue Light’ settings that are fairly easy to access in the OSD. We would prefer to be able to quickly enable and disable such settings using hotkeys, but because of how it is implemented that isn’t possible. The LBL setting is applied globally, you can’t associate a particular LBL setting with one of the ‘Gamer’ profiles without it applying universally. That means it takes a little bit more time to activate and deactivate than simply switching between profiles – a minor inconvenience, but one worth noting. We like to activate the ‘Strong’ LBL setting in the evening for our own viewing pleasure and deactivate it during the daytime or during testing. Blue light keeps the body alert and affects your ‘sleep hormones’, so it’s best to cut this out as much as possible in the hours leading up to sleep. Note that these LBL settings are applied over the top of the ‘Color Setup’ settings, so what you select in that section of the OSD influences the result as well.





Shifting from the default gamma setting of ‘Gamma1’ to ‘Gamma3’ helped achieved superior gamma tracking and shade depth. Things still weren’t quite where we would like them in either respect, but there was no way to further improve the image in the OSD alone without upsetting other aspects of image quality. Which is why we ultimately profiled the monitor for our ‘Test Settings’. We also reduced brightness significantly and made a few tweaks to the colour channels. We’ve included the ‘Overdrive’ setting and ‘Refresh rate’ used, just for reference. Although ‘75Hz’ was the default setting via DP on both our AMD and Nvidia GPUs, anyway. Assume that any setting not mentioned, including contrast, was left at default.





Brightness= 68 (according to preferences and lighting) Brightness= 68 (according to preferences and lighting) Overdrive= Weak Gamma= Gamma3 Color Temp= User R= 50 G= 49 B= 49 Refresh rate (Windows setting)= 75Hz



We created an ICC profile using our Spyder5ELITE colorimeter to improve gamma tracking and make further refinements to the image beyond what could be done with OSD tweaking alone. The ‘Optimal OSD settings’ above were used as a base, over which our ICC profile was applied on top. Note that the ICC profile is specific to our unit and, along with the OSD settings, it may not be optimal for all units. You can use the profile in combination with whatever brightness or colour channel adjustments you require. To make use of our profile do the following:



1) Download the ICC profile.



2) Set the monitor up according to the ‘Optimal ‘OSD settings’, although further adjustments can be made if desired. Using a brightness of ‘68’ provided ~180 cd/m² on our unit with the ICC profile applied.



3) This article provides instructions on activating the profile as well as some limitations to be aware of when gaming in particular. Games do generally respond to the profile or at least apply the gamma correction – even without the profile, the image appears fairly rich rather than washed out anyway.





A BasICColor SQUID 3 (X-Rite i1Display Pro) was used to measure the luminance of white and black using a range of monitor settings. From these values, static contrast ratios were calculated. Results are show in the table below, with blue highlights indicating the results for our ‘Optimal OSD settings’ and ‘Test Settings’. Black highlights indicate the highest white luminance, lowest black luminance and highest contrast ratio recorded. Assume any setting not mentioned was left at default, with the exceptions already noted in the calibration section.

The average static contrast with only brightness adjusted was 4144:1, excluding the result at ‘0% brightness’ where the colorimeter lacks appropriate precision. Considering this average is pulled down by some unfavourable rounding (down) of many of the values and that 3000:1 is specified for this model, that’s a mightily impressive performance. This provided quite an ‘inky’ look to blacks and dark colours on the desktop, complimented by the glossy screen. The peak contrast recorded, using the factory defaults no less, was just shy of 5000:1 (4880:1). Under our ‘Test Settings’, following full calibration and application of an ICC profile, contrast remained very pleasing at 4625:1. Similar contrast was maintained even using the ‘Strong’ LBL mode, which is very impressive. In fact, the monitor maintained excellent contrast across all settings tested on this table. The maximum white luminance recorded was 268 cd/m² whilst the minimum white luminance recorded was 31 cd/m², yielding a 237 cd/m² luminance adjustment range.

The monitor also features a Dynamic Contrast setting called ‘DCR’, which gives the backlight the freedom to adjust itself based on the overall level of light vs. dark in the image. This locks off control of all other settings in the ‘Luminance’ section of the menu (‘Brightness’, ‘Contrast’, ‘Eco Mode’ and ‘Gamma’). The backlight is dimmed as a single unit (BLU – Backlight Unit), so it works on the screen as a whole rather than accounting properly for intricate mixtures of shades. The mode did work in that the backlight adjusted rapidly to changes in scene brightness. It also dimmed quite effectively for very dark content, but tended towards a perhaps inappropriately bright level for mixed content. We prefer manual control over the backlight on models where it is all controlled as an individual unit, more so when the static contrast performance is as strong as it is here.





PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)

The monitor uses DC (Direct Current) to dim the backlight and does not use PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) at any brightness setting. The backlight is therefore considered ‘flicker-free’, which will come as welcome news to those who are worried about side-effects from PWM usage.





Luminance uniformity