NEC EA275UHD 27-inch UHD Monitor Review

OSD Setup & Calibration

All the EA-series displays we’ve reviewed have the same OSD so we didn’t find any surprises here. There are many options available but they’re all neatly organized into just seven sub-menus.

OSD Tour

The first menu contains all the picture controls except the white balance which is in menu three. NEC turns on some of the power-saving features like Eco Mode by default so if you want complete control over your settings, switch them off before calibrating.

The EA275UHD has proximity and light sensors installed in the bezel. They can be used to automatically control brightness and/or turn the monitor off when you move away from it. All the parameters controlling the sensor’s actions can be set here.

There are six picture modes which represent different color and brightness presets. There are no controls for gamma or color gamut. We did all our testing in the Standard mode.

The first four options allow one to size and position the image in windowed mode. That occurs when you turn off UHD upscaling and map the picture in a 1:1 pixel ratio. The Video Level option sets the clipping threshold. Use Normal for computer signals and Expand for AV equipment.

Like most of NEC’s monitors, the EA275UHD offers uniformity compensation. We’ve tested it several times on other displays and found that while it does improve uniformity, it also reduces peak brightness and contrast. You’ll see how it affects the test results on pages four and seven.

There are four adjustable white balance presets plus fixed sRGB, Native and DICOM modes. DICOM is a standard used by medical imaging equipment. The numbered slots each start at a different color temp ranging from 5000 to 9200 Kelvins and are all adjustable. The P mode (programmable) can only be accessed with SpectraView software. It allows for software calibration using either a Spyder ($199) or an i1DisplayPro ($299) available from NEC.

The fourth menu contains many convenience options including volume and audio input, overdrive, off timer, power save timer, power LED brightness and others. You can also return all settings to their factory defaults by selecting Factory Preset.

Multi Picture is a split screen configuration that shows you two sources at once. Sizing is determined by input resolution.

USB power lets you leave the ports active when the display is turned off to facilitate charging of attached devices like phones or tablets.

The OSD is available in nine languages. You can change its timeout in 5-second increments all the way up to two minutes. It can also be locked out from the user. When this happens, brightness, contrast and volume can still be adjusted.

Data Copy is used to propagate settings to other NEC displays connected through ControlSync.

Customize Setting provides a single memory slot for all options. This way you can recall your configuration if the monitor is reset by holding the Menu button for three seconds.

NEC likes to inform users of its products’ energy usage. You can even enter your own values into the currency fields to see the actual dollar costs in real time.

Finally we have the signal information with resolution and both horizontal and vertical refresh rates. The serial number display saves you the trouble of looking around back in the extremely unlikely event of a warranty claim.

Calibration

The EA275UHD ships in its Standard DV mode using the Native white balance preset. You can’t calibrate this mode and its grayscale tracking runs visibly red/green. Color gamut accuracy is pretty good in all modes though there are some saturation issues that we’ll talk about on page six. If you don’t calibrate, sRGB mode offers excellent grayscale accuracy. The only parameter we found fault with was gamma and that can’t be addressed in the OSD; only by using SpectraView.

For our tests, we chose the number three preset and adjusted the RGB sliders achieving excellent grayscale tracking and good color gamut accuracy. Please try our settings to optimize your EA275UHD.