Pixio PX259 Prime 25-inch 280 Hz Monitor Review: High Performance, Low Price

The PX259 Prime’s presets all show different color temps and gamma curves. Standard starts reasonably close to spec but needs some massaging to achieve full potential. We recommend dialing in our recommended calibration settings from page 1if you don’t have the means to calibrate.

Grayscale and Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests use Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays. We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.

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The PX259 Prime’s default color temp is labeled warm, but it is decidedly cool in tone. Blue errors are visible throughout the brightness range in increasing measure. At 100% brightness, there’s an error over 6 Delta E (dE). You’ll see this in actual content, and it flattens the picture somewhat. Gamma is also too light, which further reduces perceived contrast.

Calibration fixes the grayscale errors neatly to where they are all invisible. Gamma is unchanged. The image looks much better in neutral tones but still appears a bit flat. Gamma presets would be an easy fix for this issue.

Comparisons

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Starting with an average grayscale error of 5.24dE, the PX259 Prime looks just OK. It needs some attention. Calibration produced a significant gain in accuracy and though it is still in last place, we have no complaints about a 1.02dE score. The Pixio performs as expected for a budget screen.

Though gamma is light, 9.55% off the 2.2 spec (actual value, 1.99), it tracks straight with only a 0.18 range of values. That puts it in the upper tier of our comparison group. Though the picture is a little light for our taste, it has nicely saturated color, which you’ll see in our next round of tests.

Color Gamut Accuracy

Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

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The PX259 Prime is strictly an sRGB monitor, like all the other fast 25-inch monitors we’ve tested, save the HP Omen 25i. Before calibration, the Pixio has hue errors in the secondary colors, magenta, cyan and yellow. Red is generally undersaturated, while green is on target and blue is slightly over.

Calibration (2nd chart above) pulls all the color targets in line to where only red still shows slight undersaturation. And that error is more visible in the chart than it is in actual content. This is excellent color performance for any monitor.

Comparisons

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All the monitors track color well. The differences between them are only visible to our color meter. The PX259 Prime’s 2.42dE score is very respectable and more impressive when considering its price tag.

Only the HP provides extended color, but the PX259 Prime has the largest gamut of the rest. 112.56% of sRGB means, in this case, that you’ll see a little bonus saturation from all colors. If you refer back to the gamut triangle charts,you can see some extra volume. While we don’t expect the Pixio to be used for color-critical work, it can do so with the proper profile installed. For gamers, it delivers solid color that looks natural and pleasing.