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Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
The Omen 27qs is bright in SDR mode with nearly 490 nits of peak output. Few users would crank the backlight this high, but the overhead is useful when turning on the backlight strobe for the MPRT feature. In HDR mode, this number rises to just over 500 nits.
The black level is about average for IPS monitors, which puts contrast just under 1,100:1. That’s decent performance, but you can increase it to 5,000:1 by turning on dynamic contrast. In SDR mode, it uses field dimming to do its thing, while in HDR mode, it has eight dimming zones emanating from the edge backlight array.
After Calibration to 200 nits
Calibration raised the contrast result slightly, but this difference is invisible to the naked eye. Note that all I did here was change the brightness setting to 200 nits. No other adjustments were made to the Standard picture mode because it is already spot-on. If you calibrate the Native mode as I did, the contrast ratio is the same 1,100:1.
ANSI contrast remains consistent at 1,063.4:1. This indicates good quality control and a premium grid polarizer in the TFT layer. This is about as good as it gets for IPS panels as a category.
Test Takeaway: The Omen 27qs has more than enough brightness to take advantage of its dynamic contrast features and deliver impactful SDR and HDR content. Black levels are IPS-average, as is overall contrast, which is consistently around 1,100:1 with no dynamic features turned on. The picture has solid depth and dimension with clear and saturated color.
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