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Grayscale, Gamma & Color
Grayscale Tracking
Our grayscale and gamma tests are described in detail here.
The PRO Vue 27P ships in its 6500K color temp preset. That is clearly too blue at 30% brightness and higher. Output is also limited to 185cd/m2 in that mode.
The next best choice is sRGB, which is a bit red/green but comes closer to D65. You also get more light here, at around 280cd/m2. If you want to adjust brightness and contrast, those controls remain unlocked, which is a good thing. Most displays gray them out.
Switching to the User Define mode improves things further and removes any limits on the monitor’s output. You can access the full 300cd/m2 if you wish. The white point is still deficient in blue however. That is easily fixed with a few clicks of the RGB sliders, which are very precise and start mid-range. We maintained contrast by making balanced adjustments. The end result only has a visible error at 100%. That’s still a little blue, though it’s only a tad over the 3dE threshold.
Comparisons
The PRO Vue 27P’s out-of-box performance is below average, unless you change to the sRGB or User Define mode. A 5.34deE value means you can clearly see grayscale errors in most real-world content. The blue tint tends to flatten the image and reduce perceived contrast and depth.
sRGB improves the average error to 4.24dE, and User Define takes that further, to 3.89dE, if you don’t make further changes. Our calibration takes the error to a morecompetitive 1.19dE. That number would be much lower if not for the blue error at 100%. Though the Nixeus finishes last in this group, its potential for accuracy is as good as most displays can boast.
Gamma Response
Gamma is pretty solid regardless of color temp mode. That’s a good thing because it helps this panel look better than its contrast numbers suggest. We only observed slight errors at the 80 and 90% levels. The aberrations are small, however, and not visible to the naked eye. sRGB offers the best tracking but after running the color gamut tests, we stuck with User Define as the best possible choice.
Comparisons
All the monitors here have tight gamma tracking, so the Nixeus’ .28 result is quite good when compared to a larger data set. If it tracked better at 80 and 90%, it’d be on top for sure. With an average value of 2.25, the PRO Vue 27P only misses the 2.2 standard by 2.27%. That’s enough to propel it ahead of three other screens here.
Color Gamut & Luminance
For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, please click here.
The PRO Vue 27P’s color gamut accuracy is directly affected by the chosen color temp mode. 6500K is pretty good with expected hue errors in magenta and yellow. They’re the result of the grayscale tracking, which tends towards blue and is deficient in red and green. Luminance levels aren’t too far off the mark, so we have good potential. The average error here is 3.83dE.
sRGB shifts the tracking away from blue and more to red and green. Hue errors are now much smaller and luminance is better-balanced. The average error is now 3.23dE.
User Define, even without RGB adjustments, offers an accurate color gamut. Primary colors are slightly over-saturated in the mid-tones, but hue targets are right on, and luminance levels are almost neutral across the board. The average error has dropped to 2.88dE.
Making small changes to the RGB controls brings us the best possible result. Primaries are still over-saturated but less so. Luminance levels are a little tighter, and the error has been reduced to a very-low 1.72dE. Much of this is due to the PRO Vue27P’s good gamma tracking and precise RGB sliders.
Comparisons
There’s no real fault in the color accuracy of any of the displays here today. The Nixeus holds its own very well among a fairly expensive group in the color department. While our calibration didn’t have a huge effect, it was a visible one. Since we started with good gamma, only slight changes to the RGB sliders were necessary. Contrast is set correctly, and we didn’t observe any clipping to speak of.
Thanks to some bonus blue and slightly over-saturated reds and greens, the PRO Vue 27P covers over 106% of the sRGB gamut. It provides some much needed punch to this panel, which is a bit behind its competition in contrast. We don’t expect users who require supreme color accuracy to shop for this display, but if you pair it with a custom profile, it will work fine for proofing duties.
