Monoprice MP27 Zero-G Monitor Review

OSD Setup & Calibration

The OSD keys are clearly indicated by silk-screened labels on the bezel. The icons you see on-screen in the photos below are less helpful. The control system is a little clunky but we managed to figure it out quickly. The MP27 doesn’t require a lot of tweaking to achieve a good picture.

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The Picture menu has luminance controls plus a sharpness slider, aspect options, and dynamic contrast. We suggest leaving both it and the Ultra Vivid option off. Contrast doesn’t clip at its default setting, but it makes peak white a little too red. We had to reduce it, but sequential contrast was not affected, which is unusual in a good way.

The Color menu features five picture modes that manipulate color in different ways. Standard is the default and best preset. From there, you can adjust gamma and color temperature, although we suggest leaving the latter in its off position. We’ll explain further on page four. There are four color temp presets plus a user mode. The RGB sliders start at center-range and are very precise. We dialed in excellent tracking and color accuracy with just a grayscale calibration.

The MP27 offers PIP and PBP for two or four video sources. You can move the PIP window around the screen and size it, or you can view four images arranged in a square.

The Advanced menu has a volume slider that works on the speakers and headphone output. You can also select the audio source from analog, HDMI, or DisplayPort inputs. For older video cards, there is a DisplayPort 1.1 option. FreeSync can be toggled, and it’s off by default so be sure to take care of that when setting up your MP27. Last, there is an overdrive, but in our tests, it seemed to have no effect. Motion blur is minimal at any rate, and as the FPS count increases, it becomes an even smaller factor.

The OSD is available in six languages and can be positioned anywhere on the screen. Timeout can be set up to 60 seconds, and you can make it more or less transparent. If you mount the MP27 vertically, the OSD can be rotated as well. The final option is a factory reset.

Signal info contains only the basics. There’s no indication of FreeSync operation, so you’ll have to rely on AMD Catalyst for that.

Calibration

The MP27 needs some adjustment to its image controls as its out-of-box accuracy is a bit wanting in the grayscale department. We found success with a few tweaks of the RGB sliders. A word of warning though: do not engage the gamma control. We tried to correct a tracking issue using the various presets, but all it did was destabilize our grayscale changes. It’s impossible to get a proper white point at all brightness levels unless you leave gamma off. Once we realized that, calibration gave us an excellent picture. Here are our recommended settings.

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