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Grayscale, Gamma & Color
Grayscale Tracking
Only the S2719DM’s Custom Color mode allows access to the RGB sliders. All other modes are fixed. Standard is quite good out of the box and hits the International Commission on Illumination's D65 standard illuminant almost perfectly. Most users will be satisfied with this, but we calibrated anyway to see if there were any gains to be had.
Our grayscale and gamma tests are described in detail here.
The Standard mode runs a tiny bit warm, but the error is comfortably below 3dE average. There is no need for adjustment, impressive considering the S2719DM does not include a factory-certified calibration.
Still, you can enjoy slightly better performance in Custom mode before adjustment, but the difference is not visible to the eyes. We reduced red and green one click each and generated a pro-level chart. The only compromise happens at 100% brightness, where we saw a bit of clipping. Lowering the contrast slider cures that but costs a bit of dynamic range.
Comparisons
1.9dE is an excellent out-of-box result. The image looks superb with all default settings in place.
Calibration is only a matter of ego, not necessity. Minor adjustments bring the monitor to an extremely high level of accuracy.
Gamma Response
Gamma tracking is close to perfect in all modes. Standard and Custom (uncalibrated) show a slight hump from 60-90% brightness. Luminance should be a bit higher in this range, but you'll be hard-pressed to notice an issue. And calibration reduces that error to almost nothing.
Comparisons
All the monitors tested exhibit tight gamma tracking, but the S2719DM is one of the very few that hits a 2.2 average on the nose. It can’t get better than that.
Color Gamut & Luminance
We’ve dubbed the S2719DM an sRGB+ monitor because it is capable of a little extra saturation in HDR mode. For SDR signals, it tracks sRGB closely with just a tiny bit of bonus red and green, along with a little extra blue.
For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.
While this monitor is not factory-certified for color accuracy, it performs well enough to be so.
With such accurate gamma and grayscale, the S2719DM is poised to do well in gamut saturation and luminance. All color points are on-target except for the 100% levels of blue and magenta, which are oversaturated. You can fix this by lowering the luminance levels, which brings the error under 3dE.
Comparisons
Our calibration efforts yield only small gains in color gamut accuracy and are certainly not necessary.
In the color gamut volume test, we used DCI-P3 as our benchmark. We measured in HDR mode to ensure we were recording the largest numbers possible. The S2719DM doesn’t get quite as high as the others. That’s why we say the monitor is “sRGB+.” It is correct to call it extended color, but it isn’t in the 90% range like other screens. The extra saturation in SDR mode comes from all three primaries, principally blue where you get a little bonus.
For color-critical work, we recommend a custom profile to ensure maximum accuracy for photo editing.
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