Brightness & Contrast
To read about our monitor tests in depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test Monitors and TVs. Brightness and Contrast testing is covered on page two.
Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
Today’s group includes only 27" monitors, but to keep things current we threw in a couple of gaming screens. The PRO Vue 27P’s closest matches are NEC’s EA275WMi and BenQ’s PD2700Q. Gamers will remember Dell’s SE2717H and AOC’s AG271QG from recent reviews. And we’ve thrown a curved VA display into the mix with AOC’s C2783FQ.
Nixeus claims 400cd/m2 max output for the PRO Vue 27P, but we could only coax 298.0267cd/m2 from our sample. This is a departure from the default settings, which topped out at 185cd/m2 in the 6500K color temp mode. We switched to User Define without making further adjustments to record our test result. There’s plenty of light available here, but brighter monitors are out there if you need more power.
Despite a mid-pack white level result, the black threshold is fairly high at .3835cd/m2. That results in a disappointing 777.1:1 contrast ratio. Accurate gamma and good color saturation make up for this shortfall somewhat, but we’d prefer to see a level closer to 1000:1.
Uncalibrated – Minimum Backlight Level
Dropping brightness to zero results in an ideal 58.4222cd/m2; great for working or playing in a dark room. Contrast stays consistent at 775:1, which is good but still too low. Another thing we noticed is that the change in brightness with each click of the slider isn't linear. Brighter output levels have finer control resolution than dimmer ones. When you get below 100cd/m2 or so, each click can be as much as 5cd/m2. Not a big deal but it’s less precise than a more consistent control.
After Calibration to 200cd/m2
After calibration, contrast is pretty much unchanged, which is a relief. You’ll see later that gamma and color saturation is pretty good, which helps image quality somewhat. The picture looks better than our contrast numbers suggest. You won’t mistake the PRO Vue 27P for a VA panel, but next to other IPS screens it doesn’t look too bad.
ANSI Contrast Ratio
ANSI contrast is lower than the sequential value mainly due to hotspots in the upper-left and lower-right corners. These areas show some visible light bleed which hurts the result. The rest of the screen looks fine and shows good delineation between dark and light objects. As this test is sample-specific, you may see better results from other examples.