NEC PA302W 30-inch 16:10 Professional Monitor Review

Viewing Angles, Uniformity, Response And Lag

To learn how we measure screen uniformity, please click here.

Most of our IPS monitors look like the above. While their off-axis performance easily bests TN and AMVA screens, they are still LCD panels and are therefore displaying polarized light. To the sides we can plainly see a green shift and around 50 percent light reduction with no loss of detail. From above, there is less change in color, but detail will be harder to distinguish due to an altered gamma. Make no mistake though, this monitor looks great from any reasonable angle, and users will have no trouble positioning it for optimal performance.

Screen Uniformity: Luminance

We ran these tests with uniformity compensation off and set to the third of five positions. Even though it raises the black level slightly there is almost no change in black field uniformity.

Here’s the white field measurement.

White field uniformity goes from excellent to record-breaking when compensation is active. But the real reason to consider using the feature is yet to come.

Screen Uniformity: Color

That .05 range of values is not a typo. We ran the test five times to be sure of the result. It’s not just a little better than every monitor we’ve ever tested; it’s the winner by a huge margin. We can’t imagine this record ever being broken. Still, a 2.14dE result is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s still invisible to the eye. But if you want the most perfectly uniform screen on the planet, the NEC PA302W is it.

Remember that these results are sample specific. Other PA302Ws may measure differently in screen uniformity tests.

Pixel Response And Input Lag

Please click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.

Gamers with $2000 to spend on a monitor are unlikely to consider the PA302W. But it’s nice to know that if you want to engage in a little fragging during work breaks, you won’t be plagued by excessive motion blur or overdrive ghosting. Motion processing is perfectly competent here, and only a refresh rate above 60Hz could improve upon any of the above results.

Here is the lag test.

Gamers with quick reflexes will likely be hampered by 79ms of input lag, but my less-nimble fingers had no problems playing titles like Battlefield 4 and Crysis 3. Of course, all of these games look better on a high-Hz screen with adaptive refresh, but I still had fun blowing away a few computer-generated enemies.