NEC EA294WMi Review
by Chris Heinonen on February 10, 2014 6:00 AM ESTAs mentioned before, NEC consumer displays use a regular percentage for brightness instead of the more precise cd/m^2 numbers in their professional displays. Despite this change, one thing that NEC does offer for both is a wide range of brightness settings.
The EA294WMi only produces 6 cd/m^2 with the brightness control at the minimum setting while still putting out 326 cd/m^2 at the maximum level. I would suggest that 6 is too low and that you could make the minimum 40 cd/m^2 while still allowing more granular control and a better minimum and maximum. That’s being picky and seeing a level that is low enough for anyone is much better than seeing a minimum value of 100 cd/m^2 that would make the ES294WMi too bright for many users.
Black levels are also good on the NEC. At maximum brightness we see a black level of 0.330 cd/m^2. With the brightness at minimum it produces 0.0076 cd/m^2 with a pure black screen. Both are good numbers for an IPS panel.
The contrast ratio at the maximum light output level is 989:1 but that falls down to 838:1 at minimum brightness. Since the minimum brightness extends so low, that probably influences the contrast ratio at that level. Small errors in reading the black level, or any stray light that might be picked up, can cause a larger shift. Kept at a more commonly used level, like 120 cd/m^2, the contrast ratios will be closer to the 989:1 of the maximum backlight level.
The NEC does quite well on these initial measurements. The 21:9 IPS panel continues to produce some of the best measurements of any IPS panel out there right now.
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DanNeely - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
I seem to've missed the 21:9 1440p CES reports; and the only thing I'm finding Googling now is some pre-CES rumors about a 34" Dell monitor. Who else is playing in the 1440p crazy wide segment?REALfreaky - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
http://www.anandtech.com/tag/219DanNeely - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
There's no CES 2014 coverage in that link at all and all the reviews are for the existing 2560x1080 panel.marcosears - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
NEC sure is trying, but just can't meet the standards of some of the great monitors that have come out. /Marco from http://www.consumertop.com/best-monitor-guide/Olaf van der Spek - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
> DVI SLWhat's the use of DVI SL on this display? It can't drive 2560 x 1080 can it?
> CES this year saw the introduction of 21:9 displays with 1440 lines of vertical resolution as opposed to 1080, making it a more direct replacement for 27” displays.
3360 x 1440? That's nice!
JarredWalton - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
You can use single-link to drive standard 1080p resolutions (1920x1080), so it's just another input. VGA and HDMI can't handle 2560x1080 either AFAIK (unless it's HDMI 1.4 maybe?) but people still have old devices around that use those.DanNeely - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
HDMI 1.4 offers it; but AFAIK monitor support has been a problem because only offering 1.3 on the monitor allows them to use same hardware as DVI instead of having to use a decoder that's clocked 2x as fast.nathanddrews - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
VGA delivers 2560x1600@75Hz on my FW900.Death666Angel - Monday, February 10, 2014 - link
And unless you have something like a Matrox, I bet the picture looks awful. No recent AMD/nVidia card I know of has decent VGA output. And 75Hz is really on the low side for a CRT for me. Below 80 gave me headaches and eye strain in some situations.nathanddrews - Thursday, February 13, 2014 - link
The PQ is excellent for gaming, however that resolution is slightly less crisp for text near the edges of the screen. I usually just run 1920x1200 since it is uniformly crisp and offers a 96Hz refresh rate, which is great for twitch games and perfect for viewing film content.