A Bit UnReactive
Unfortunately, neither the NEC 2180UX nor the LaCie 321 is particularly reactive.
As you can see here, the published latency specification of 20 ms is only achieved in a few cases. It can exceed 33 ms for black-to-light-gray transitions.
Once again, we're well short of the performance delivered by MVA+Overdrive panels. There's still a big gap for the professional screens to fill.
In Practice
This product is clearly aimed towards the photographic marketplace. Even though it delivers a contrast level well behind most generally-available monitors, it offers impressive dynamics, especially in the darker colors. We've said already that, in the end, contrast is determined by the screen's dynamics. For example, a black and white photo includes lots of dark gray shades that would be revealed on the LaCie 321 but would be invisible on general-purpose displays. If photography is your thing, this is the monitor for you. Add to that the extensive choice of color temperatures, and you will have the perfect monitor for your photographic projects.
CAD/CAM can be accommodated on this monitor, but the designer likely wasn't thinking about this application. The sharp contrast displays demonstrate the superior capabilities of the LaCie 321 and the NEC 2180UX to render more precisely the subtleties of the image. Still, choosing this product for 2D AutoCad displays or Cadence's Layouts, is like choosing an elephant gun to shoot a fly!
The same thing basically applies for the office; it's a bit too good, really. Still, for images such as components of a document, this screen shows itself to be really sharp. Text is rendered legibly, with no particular problems either in VGA or DVI.
Video is possible on this product, even though it's not really what it was designed for - with a latency of up to 33 ms, that's understandable. But except for a few long trails in fast panning, we can say that overall the level of video noise was low.
Still, in the end, video isn't this model's strength. The display is slow and the only option to improve it is to move down a step in resolution. In the same vein, take note if you're a gamer and you're tempted by this product; you could probably stretch to the latest Nvidia offering, or even an Alienware console, and play in native resolution mode, so why not...?
Conclusion
If it wasn't for the price, we'd love both the NEC 2180UX and the LaCie 321. They're both our recommendation for photo editing and perhaps the best proof is that we were sorry to send them back to their manufacturers. We're still tingling from the experience - the quality of the panel as much as the overall product's finish. Overall, well done!