Results: Viewing Angles And Uniformity
The more monitors we test, the more we can see that off-axis viewing performance is dependent not only on pixel structure (IPS, PLS, TN, etc.) but the backlight technology as well. And we can see that the anti-glare layer makes a difference too.
For the time being, high-refresh monitors are based on TN-film technology and therefore subject to its inherent disadvantages. At a 24-inch size, head-on viewing is essentially unaffected. But any shift to the sides creates a noticeable color shift to red. Setting the screen height is important too, as you can see. Moving vertically off-center means you’ll see a significant loss of detail in the image.
Screen Uniformity: Luminance
To measure screen uniformity, zero and 100-percent full-field patterns are used, and nine points are sampled. First, we establish a baseline measurement at the center of each screen. Then the surrounding eight points are measured, their values expressed as a percentage of the baseline (above or below). This number gets averaged. It is important to remember that we only test the review sample each vendor sends us. Other examples of the same monitor can measure differently.
First up is black field uniformity.
Our particular G2460PQU sample shows a few visible flaws in both uniformity tests. The main culprit in our black field measurement is hotspots at the center and lower-left zones. They’re hard to point out with the naked eye, but of course our C6 sees better than we can. Our standard is 10 percent or below, so an 11.15-percent measurement represents only a slight error.
Here’s the white field measurement.
The hotspot in the white field measurement is again at the screen’s center, where it’s about 20 cd/m2 brighter than the surrounding area. We had no issues viewing actual content, fortunately.
Screen Uniformity: Color
To measure color uniformity, we display an 80-percent white field and measure the Delta E error of the same nine points on the screen. Then we subtract the lowest value from the highest to arrive at the result. A smaller number means a display is more uniform. Any value below three means a variation that is invisible to the naked eye.
Color uniformity is better, with no visible tints anywhere on the screen. We like to see a result under three, and all of the displays in our group achieve that. In fact, it’s unusual for us to ever receive a monitor that exhibits anything but excellent color uniformity.
