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Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
The XG2431 is rated for 350 nits, and my sample easily topped 376 in the out-of-box test. This is plenty of light output for SDR content. The one flaw in this monitor is its black level. At 0.5050 nits, that’s higher than average, and it contributes to a lower than average contrast ratio of 745.3:1. A darker gamma option could mitigate this, but ultimately, a retuning of the black threshold would be a better solution. I checked every OSD setting I could find that affected dynamic range and none would improve the result.
After Calibration to 200 nits
Calibration does not change the contrast ratio, which is still lower than the rest at 727.3:1. Though the XG2431’s color is nicely saturated and accurate, its image isn’t quite as three-dimensional as the other screens.
Due to the corner hotspots I noted earlier, the ANSI contrast result is lower than the static at 665.1:1. This is also a lower than average value for an IPS panel. While the XG2431 achieves the same peak output as its competitors, it has higher black levels.
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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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Giroro Do any of these monitors support the ability to "Mirror flip" (reflect) the image. IE, so that that image and text will look normal when reflected in a mirror?Reply
I realized recently that neither Windows nor AMD graphics drivers support this feature, and it is extremely hard to figure out which monitors support it. It is one of those "impossible to google" questions, because "screen mirroring" has been defined by many companies to mean that copies of a single image are displayed on multiple displays at the same time. Also I'm yet to find a company with customer support that understands the difference between reflecting an image and rotating it.