NEC PA302W 30-inch 16:10 Professional Monitor Review
For users lamenting the scarcity of 16:10 screens, NEC is supporting the format with its excellent new 30-inch PA302W. This premium display has a gorgeous wide-gamut IPS panel and a factory-certified calibration for both Adobe RGB and sRGB gamuts.
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Color Gamut And Performance
For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, please click here.
The gamut tests showed us the most significant effect of the metamerism setting. You can see that the blue primary is undersaturated, and the issue gets worse as you get closer to the outside of the triangle. Blue luminance is raised to compensate, but the resulting error is still quite visible. When viewing content, the perception is that there is a little more red than there should be, and brighter shades of blue look a bit pale.
Here’s the Adobe RGB mode, and, as expected, turning metamerism off fixes our previous issues. There is absolutely nothing to see here other than perfectly accurate color. It truly doesn’t get better than this.
The sRGB mode is equally exceptional in its accuracy. Are these the best results we’ve recorded? Let’s see below as we return to the comparison group.
The BenQ SW2700PT just noses out the PA302W’s Adobe RGB mode in the color error contest. Can anyone see a difference of .02dE? Certainly not. In fact, that figure isn’t too far from the tolerance level of our i1Pro meter. Notice that the other PA-series screen here also boasts an average color error under 1dE. Making this result more impressive is that it’s the average of 36 measurements.
Gamut Volume: Adobe RGB 1998 And sRGB
Despite the exceptional numbers we recorded in the error tests, the PA302W comes up a tad short in total gamut volume. That’s due to the blue and green primaries, which are the tiniest bit undersaturated. This is not a visible error, but users desiring maximum precision will want to use a custom ICC profile to ensure optimal color matching throughout the entire signal chain.
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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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Nuckles_56 That is a very impressive monitor, especially with the colour uniformity numbers, they are crazyReply -
beetlejuicegr 30 inch and 2560x1600, couldn't it be 2160p? The resolution seems low for 30 inch monitor.Reply -
fordry06 I think to do what this monitor does, making it a 4k monitor would be incredibly expensive.Reply -
Tom Griffin I wish my 27" 16:10 ASUS monitor was still alive. This monitor not only being cost prohibitive along with the previous NEC monitor review for consumers. But TBH, once you have used a NEC monitor for awhile you never EVER want to go back.Reply -
beshonk Where are all the 1440p 144hz IPS gaming monitors? there's only two on the market with horrible quality issues >.<Reply -
kittle
Actually you can probably game on this monitor just fine.18154240 said:Where are all the 1440p 144hz IPS gaming monitors? there's only two on the market with horrible quality issues >.<
I have the 27" version of this one (PA270W). I play a lot of games and watch quite a bit of netflix with no issues. The color accuracy makes the games and movies look great -- exactly the way the designers and filmmakers intended them to look.
The only issue is it puts out a LOT of heat. Im guessing the 30" one will produce a bit more. -
bit_user
60 Hz != 144 Hz.18170301 said:
Actually you can probably game on this monitor just fine.18154240 said:Where are all the 1440p 144hz IPS gaming monitors? -
kittle
True there. my NEC only runs at 60hz. but gaming and movies work just fine18171250 said:
60 Hz != 144 Hz.18170301 said:
Actually you can probably game on this monitor just fine.18154240 said:Where are all the 1440p 144hz IPS gaming monitors?