HP Z27q 27-inch 5K Professional Monitor Review
Just as we're getting acquainted with Ultra HD, HP has upped the ante with a 5K monitor. At 5120x2880 the Z27q puts a whole lotta pixels on the screen, 14,745,600 in fact. Today we check it out in our lab.
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Color Gamut And Performance
For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, please click here.
The Z27q has a native gamut conforming to the Adobe RGB standard, therefore, the Custom RGB mode is based on that colorspace. You can see that the outer points are on-target with the exception of red, which is over-saturated, and magenta, which has a hue error. We can't explain the odd tracking of the green saturation however, and that behavior persists in the Adobe RGB mode shown in the next chart. Even with its excellent grayscale tracking, we would not use this mode for color-critical work.
The Adobe RGB mode shows some of the same problems, but now the red primary has been improved; the problems in green and magenta remain. Furthermore, the luminance levels for red and magenta are quite high resulting in visible errors.
sRGB is by far the most accurate of the Z27q's picture modes. You're looking at near-perfection here. Every saturation measurement is spot-on and no luminance measurement is off by more than three percent. This is the kind of performance we expect from a professional monitor.
Now we return to the comparison group.
Despite the Z27q's billing as an Adobe RGB monitor, its color errors in that mode make it hard to recommend for color-critical work. If you only need the sRGB or Rec.709 gamut, this display is among the best. If the wide-gamut option is a requirement, there are better solutions out there.
Gamut Volume: Adobe RGB 1998 And sRGB
The Z27q comes closest to 100 percent volume for both the Adobe RGB and sRGB color gamuts. We still maintain that it's best-suited for applications in the sRGB/Rec.709 colorspaces, but if you need Adobe RGB, it will render all the colors in that standard.
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Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.
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Xajel So, how long till we will see a 21:9 version of these... the 21:9 version will be good, as it will you give you the 21:9 ratio and still be able to view a full 4K resolution in the same time, as 21:9 version will have 2160 vertical resolution with 5K width... final res is 5120x2160Reply -
Tanquen Rent is too damn high!Reply
27" is too damn small! (So is anything under 34" for 4 and 5k screens.) -
thor220 No measurement of power consumption? Did you lose your Kill-A-Watt?
This is a professional monitor and one of the few 5k screens on the market. Power consumption does not matter. -
10tacle Ping me when this resolution is available in 32"...and there are GPUs powerful enough to run games at that resolution since even SLI 980Tis get taken to their knees in 4K in games like Witcher 3.Reply -
Bghead8che Too bad regarding the Adobe RGB test. Otherwise a pretty decent monitor, especially for the price. You wonder if the Adobe RGB issue is specific to the exact monitor they tested or it affects all HP Z27q models?Reply -
Larry Litmanen Ping me when this resolution is available in 32"...and there are GPUs powerful enough to run games at that resolution since even SLI 980Tis get taken to their knees in 4K in games like Witcher 3.
I have a 34 inch Dell Monitor, 21:9,, rather than wait until the GPUs will become powerful enough i simply temporarily switched to playing AAA games on the XBox One. So i have the monitor for general PC activity and play Xbox on it as well.
Realistically it is simply too much to drop all that money on the monitor and a GPU, of the two i think GPU can wait.
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Karsten75 You say "... it will send a true 10-bit signal to the display."Reply
That is one of my perennial questions. How to verify that when looking at a monitor's specifications. Can you provide any guidance in that area? I lnow that 10-bit (or 8-bit) is important for the entire path of image production, but I do not always know how to ensure that. -
none12345 The more 200ppi screens the merrier. As far as processing power for games...ya we arent there yet, but we should have gpus later this year that will be fine on that res. I wouldnt touch this screen tho because its only 60hz. Not touching 4k till there are a bunch of 120hz monitors out. All thought id really like an OLED screen next, id really like to see 10bit per channel 120hz OLED become average for monitors.Reply