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Gamma Response
The PG258Q’s default gamma tracking caused us some initial concerns. The small spike at 10% isn’t a big deal but the huge dive from 70-90% is. This will cause major detail loss through much of the brightness range, and it has a major impact on quality. Color will look bright and saturated, but many fine textures will simply look monochromatic. This is an area that needs to be right, especially when you’re talking about an FHD monitor.
The fix lies in the Contrast control. Our patterns showed us it was set too high by default. Dropping the value to 41 brings color detail back and smooths out the gamma trace. It still runs slightly above the line for the most part, but that’s a tiny issue. Gamma presets are spaced too far apart to achieve an ideal 2.2 average, but we’re satisfied with our result. You’ll see the impact on color in the next set of charts.
Comparisons
With calibration, the PG258Q posts a solid mid-pack result in our gamma tests. As we’ve stated in previous reviews, gamma is the key to everything important when judging image quality. Getting it right means maximizing perceived contrast and color detail no matter what the content. When it’s wrong, those crucial elements suffer.
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