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Brightness and Contrast
To read about our monitor tests in-depth, check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test Monitors and TVs. We cover Brightness and Contrast testing on page two.
Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
The Omen X 65 Emperium is the fifth 1,000-nit monitor we’ve reviewed to date. For comparison, we brought in the others: the Asus ROG Swift PG27U, Acer Predator X27 and Philips 436M6 Momentum. To round out the group, we included the Acer Predator XB273K, which complies with the VESA DisplayHDR 400 standard.
In SDR mode, the Omen X 65 Emperium hit an impressive 565.6 nits with zone dimming engaged. If you want to see the panel’s native dynamic range, turn that off; it will peak at 561.5 nits. That’s very bright—too much for most indoor applications. Turning down the backlight to 34 yielded a more-comfortable 200 nits.
Black levels are excellent with or without zone dimming on. The Omen X 65 Emperium is only the second high-output VA panel we’ve tested, and it doesn’t disappoint. With the Variable Backlight feature activated, the backlight turns off when a zero percent signal is input. To get a measurement, we engaged a small info bug in one corner of the screen to record an impressive 0.0122 nit result at the center.
The panel’s native contrast is 4,463.6:1 which places it near the best of all monitors we’ve reviewed. With zone dimming on, that figure skyrocketed nearly ten-fold to 46,431.9:1.
After Calibration to 200 nits
After calibrating the monitor to 200 nits brightness, we checked the black levels. The first chart above reflects native performance with no zone dimming or dynamic contrast in play. The Omen X 65 Emperium and the Philips 436M6 scored nearly identically in this test.
Resulting contrast after our RGB tweaks was 4,216.9:1—still well above nearly every other PC monitor, VA, IPS, or otherwise.
HP used an extremely high-quality panel here. Though the Philips came in a close second in the ANSI test, the Omen X 65 Emperium boasts one of the highest intra-image contrast ratios we’ve ever recorded. So, without zone dimming engaged, it beats out nearly any monitor we can think of, including the other FALD backlight-equipped screens in the group. Its edge over the other FALD screen is its VA panel (the others use IPS).
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