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The PX248 Prime looks a bit lackluster out of the box. The fault lies in Pixio’s choice of default settings. The User picture mode is a good starting point for calibration, and there’s a lot of potential to unlock.
Grayscale & Gamma Tracking
We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.
The first chart shows how blue the PX248 Prime’s default image is. Errors are easily visible from 30% brightness and higher. Highlight areas look flat and tinted with poor detail. The problem is made worse by skewed gamma tracking. You can see the monitor’s factory 2.2 setting isn’t anywhere near that figure.
By turning gamma off and selecting the User color temp (second chart), things get a little better. Gamma now tracks 2.2 almost perfectly, but there is still an obvious blue tint to the picture. You’ll need to address the RGB sliders to fix it.
That effort (third chart) is rewarded with perfect grayscale tracking. Errors in the mid-tones are under 0.1 Delta E (dE), which is super low. Our adjustments make an obvious and profound improvement in image quality. And you’ll see below that color is improved as well.
Comparisons
Both Pixio screens come with white points that need adjustment. The PX248 Prime’s default error of 6.15dE is below average when compared to all types of monitors. You can fix the gamma tracking by turning that option off, but the color temperature still needs to be made right. Once that’s done, the PX248 Prime goes from last to first in our grayscale error comparison.
With gamma turned off, tracking is very tight with a 0.14 range of values and an average that’s just 0.9% off from 2.2. That represents a value of 2.22 -- excellent performance.
Color Gamut Accuracy
For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, please click here.
The PX248 Prime’s default color gamut accuracy suffers from poor out-of-box grayscale and gamma tracking. Though it easily covers the sRGB volume, there are obvious hue errors, especially in the secondary colors cyan, magenta and yellow. Turning gamma off (second chart) helps a little with a 2.4dE drop in the error level, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement. Our final calibration (third chart) brings the secondaries much closer to their targets with a little oversaturation in all colors. Though we’d prefer to see all the dots within the target squares, a little extra color is better than not enough. This is very good performance.
Comparisons
Considering where it started, the PX248 Prime displays decent color accuracy once calibrated. Its score of 2.95dE is a bit higher than many gaming monitors we’ve tested, but that number still represents a barely visible error. Our only complaint is that calibration is required to unlock this monitor’s full potential.
Color volume is exactly as Pixio claims, 103% of sRGB. Obviously, there’s no attempt at the P3 color space here, but for $170, that’s not a problem. It’s doubtful that the PX248 Prime will see duty in a professional environment, but it has enough gamut volume to rise to the task if you use a software profile.
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