Viewing Angles, Uniformity, Response & Lag
Viewing Angles
You just might have a few friends around when watching Ultra HD Blu-rays on the S2718D. It’s a good thing it offers decent viewing angles, so sharing won’t cause too many arguments over who gets to sit in the center seat. The side photo shows a slight blue shift and a reasonably small reduction in luminance. The top-down view is quite a bit dimmer with an obvious red tint, though it’s rare that anyone needs to watch from this angle. Performance is right in line with the better IPS panels we’ve tested, though it’s not quite as good as some AHVA screens in our experience.
Screen Uniformity
To learn how we measure screen uniformity, please click here.
A few slight hotspots spoil the black field test result. We saw a bit of glow in the center and lower-left zones of the screen. Once the brightness levels rise from black, things improve very quickly. The white field measurement is one of the best we’ve ever recorded. Color uniformity is about average with a slight tint observed in the lower-right zone. Overall quality control seems adequate, and we don’t expect to see many complaints from users. This is a decent looking monitor for sure.
Pixel Response & Input Lag
Please click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.
With a 60Hz refresh rate and the absence of adaptive-sync, gamers will likely be considering other displays. But if your gameplay is of the casual variety, the S2718D offers reasonably low input lag and a typical screen draw time. When overdrive is set to Fast, you’ll see very little motion blur and only the slightest ghosting, which is more apparent in the Blur-Busters UFO test than it is in actual content. The only tiny flaw is that it can’t render 24p at a refresh multiple; it’s locked at 60Hz. That causes a bit of judder during side-to-side camera pans, but the image doesn’t break up or become blocky. A fix for this would be a 72Hz refresh rate option.
MORE: Best Gaming Monitors
MORE: Best Professional Monitors
MORE: How We Test Monitors
MORE: How To Choose A Monitor
MORE: All Monitor Content