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Brightness & Contrast
To read about our monitor tests in depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test Monitors and TVs. Brightness and Contrast testing are covered on page two.
Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
Today’s group is made up of professional screens ranging from 27” to 40”. All employ IPS panels except the AOC C4008VU8, which uses a high-contrast VA part. The Dell UP2718Q is unique with its 384-zone backlight and HDR10 support. Rounding out the pack is ViewSonic’s VP2771, BenQ’s PD3200U, which earned a Tom’s Hardware Editor’s Choice Award, and Acer’s BM320.
The VP2768 provides plenty of output and meets its claimed 350cd/m2 spec while drawing only 29 watts at max brightness thanks to a power-efficient panel part. There is plenty of overhead available if you want to use uniformity compensation, which is turned on by default in the preset color modes. Black levels are about average for the class as is the contrast ratio of just under 1000:1. If you’re looking for ultimate image depth, the C4008VU8 delivers almost five times more dynamic range than the next best screen.
Uncalibrated – Minimum Backlight Level
At just over 46cd/m2, the VP2768’s minimum backlight setting is ideal for working in the dark environment of a video editing bay. Black levels shift proportionally, which means a nearly identical contrast ratio of 980.5:1. Users can tailor output to whatever level they wish without sacrificing any image depth.
After Calibration to 200cd/m2
After calibration, the contrast ratio has dropped a little, to 957.2:1. The uniformity compensation mainly affects higher brightness levels and results in a 33% loss of output. There is a caveat here, however: UC is not available in the Custom mode where we performed our adjustments. You can only access it in the preset color modes or with Colorbration. Therefore, our comparison is not entirely fair. If you simply choose sRGB, for example, you’ll be locked into that 132.4447cd/m2 value. But if you turn compensation off, the brightness control becomes available and you can run output right up to the 350cd/m2 maximum. You can also see the deleterious effect of UC on contrast: it’s cut nearly in half.
ANSI Contrast Ratio
ANSI contrast stays strong at only 4% below the sequential value. That’s excellent performance, and what we’d expect from a premium panel like the VP2768. Engaging the uniformity compensation results in the same drop in dynamic range we saw above: around 50%. Our sample didn’t need any help in that department so we left it off for all further tests.
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