NEC E232WMT 23-Inch Touchscreen Monitor Review

Reviews
By Christian Eberle
published

When Windows 8 added 10-point multi-touch support, we expected a flood of desktop touchscreen monitors to hit the market. That hasn’t happened yet but NEC is making maximum effort with the E232WMT. Today we check it out in our lab.

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Results: Color Gamut Accuracy

For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, please click here.

We’re showing you the same three configurations as on the previous page: Native, sRGB, and calibrated modes.

The factory default Native mode isn’t too bad, but there are hue errors in magenta and yellow. The 20-, 40-, and 60-percent saturation levels are also below their targets. As the measurements move towards the edge of the gamut, accuracy improves. This means the brightest images are more color-accurate than darker ones.

In sRGB mode, things are much better. There is a little over-saturation in blue and hue errors in cyan, but red is much-improved, while magenta is closer as well. Luminance levels are also near-perfect except for 100-percent blue, which is 19 percent too high.

Calibrating User mode produces the best gamut result by far. There is still a hue issue with magenta, but all other colors are close to their targets. Luminance levels are land in a tight pattern with the exception of red and 100-percent blue. These are minor errors, however. Overall, color performance is excellent.

Now we return to the comparison group:

We expect a professional-grade display to break the one Delta E barrier. But a business or gaming monitor should have a maximum average color error between one and two. The E232WMT is well within that range, and it’s right in the middle of the group.

Gamut Volume: Adobe RGB 1998 And sRGB

The E232WMT comes pretty close to full coverage of the sRGB gamut with 97.69 percent. The gap comes from a slight hue error in the green primary and a little under-saturation of cyan.

Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

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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7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • joravecz
    Christian, you apparently didn't do your homework. There are multiple touchscreen models available from Viewsonic, Acer and others. To say the NEC is the second touchscreen after Dell looks incorrect to me. I've been waiting for reviews of those other models, but if you don't know they're out there I guess I'll be waiting for a while.
    Reply
  • blackmagnum
    I have never thought that business-consumer minded NEC would sell touchscreen models. The FAR reaching effects of Windows 8!
    Reply
  • therogerwilco
    LOL
    since the two major operating systems, OS X and Windows
    So that means the two major phone OS's are Android and Windows phone!
    OSX isn't a major OS. It's at 6.74% right now.
    Reply
  • xenol
    The expensive con sort of irks me. Not that it's a con, but it just feels generically placed. Expensive compared to what? Someone may find all monitors over $200 too expensive, regardless.

    I dunno, just nitpicking.
    Reply
  • qlum
    LOL
    since the two major operating systems, OS X and Windows
    So that means the two major phone OS's are Android and Windows phone!
    OSX isn't a major OS. It's at 6.74% right now.
    It would probably be a lot lower if you disregard laptops. Maybe the Linux distros even surpass is then.
    Reply
  • Karsten75
    Can anyone say "gorilla arm?" LOL
    Reply
  • gc9
    "OSX isn't a major OS. It's at 6.74% right now."

    So by that reasoning, what do you think about the USA, which holds less than 4.5% of the world population? Higher spending customers are more important for some.
    Reply