Results: Color Gamut And Performance
Color gamut is measured using a saturation sweep that samples the six main colors (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow) at five saturation levels (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%), yielding a more realistic view of color accuracy.
We’re showing you the Game and Standard modes here as well.
Not only are there significant gamma issues in Game mode, but the color gamut results are impacted as well. The biggest issue is the pumped-up luminance levels. At 100-percent saturation, all of the colors are between 34- and 112-percent too bright. In actual content, colors take on a somewhat unnatural glow. There is also a loss of fine detail, since some of the brightest signal information is clipped.
If all you do is switch to Standard, the result improves greatly.
The only issues worth mentioning are the under-saturation of red and over-saturation of blue. The errors are linear as you move from white at the center to the 100-percent level at the edges of the CIE triangle.
Luminance levels are very tight, which gives an excellent overall balance to the image. The PB287Q isn’t quite on the level of a professional display, but its color performance in Standard mode is still excellent.
The effects of grayscale calibration are interesting to observe. The only real improvements are in the hues of magenta and yellow. Note how those colors are now much closer to their targets. But overall luminance seems to take a downturn.
Then again, to a naked eye, these differences are extremely subtle and probably invisible to everyone but the most seasoned pros. As we’ve already said, calibration doesn’t yield significant gains in performance, but rather becomes a six of one, half-dozen of the other proposition.
An average error of 1.99 Delta E is quite low, comparing favorably to most of the higher-end monitors we review. If you need greater accuracy than this, there are only a few screens able to provide it (and they most definitely cost more).
Gamut Volume: Adobe RGB 1998 And sRGB
There are basically two categories of displays in use today: those that conform to the sRGB/Rec. 709 standard like HDTVs, and wide-gamut panels that show as much as 100 percent of the Adobe RGB 1998 spec. We use Gamutvision to calculate the gamut volume, based on an ICC profile created from our actual measurements.
At 3840x2160, Dell’s two displays render the full Adobe RGB 1998 color gamut. The TN panel used in Asus' PB287Q, along with Dell's upcoming P2815Q and Samsung's UD590, is backlit with white LEDs, limiting it to the sRGB gamut. The missing 4.25-percent gamut volume is due to an under-saturated red primary.
