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We tested the monitor with a Playstation 3 /1080p Bluray and a Intel Core i7 PC with an AMD reference HD6870 graphics card and Catalyst 10.10 driver running via Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. We also used a Macbook Pro 17 inch (3ghz) with HDMI adapter.
The Iiyama ProLite B2712HDS as we mentioned earlier is supplied in a rather unpleasant default state with both contrast and brightness levels set extremely high. The first task was to fine tune these to more acceptable levels. We found that a contrast level around 30 and a brightness level around 65 gave a high quality image, however everyone will have different views on this. The onscreen configuration menu which we detailed on the last page is comprehensive and offers a plethora of settings to change many areas of the display. I would avoid the dynamic contrast setting completely as it was distracting and added nothing to the overall image quality. As this is a Twisted nematic panel, we need to keep our expectations realistic.
Response time is difficult to measure, but the Ilyama rating of 2ms seemed pretty accurate to us. We noticed no ghosting, artificating when playing games such as Call Of Duty, and watching bluray movies, such as Avatar. The 400 cd/m2 rating is also very accurate, we measured around 397 cd/m2 with our LaCie equipment which is very close to specification and more honest than many manufacturers.
Offset viewing is very good, both horizontally and vertically and this is helped by the stand mechanism. This offers a swivel angle of 60 degrees and a backward tilt angle of 20 degrees. Sadly there is no swivel portrait mode offered which might affect a portion of the audience considering this screen.
We used Displaymate to test the monitor and we were reasonably happy with the image quality. The gamut range in GamutVision was above average, falling in line with what we had expected. Text is sharp and colour reproduction is excellent, although we did notice a slight pink tinge to grey screen which is not really noticeable under real world conditions. This is slightly more pronounced at the sides of the screen which is unusual. The gamut however is wide enough to help deliver a realistic image, especially when watching HD 1080p material from the Playstation 3 over HDMI.
The depth of black is excellent and superior to many budget panels we have seen recently, this helps when watching high definition content and I did not record any unpleasant lagging when watching fast paced action movies. The colour depth was acceptable, although if you are a professional designer or photographer then you will need to spend more money on a screen this size to get truly accurate results.
There is a slight shift when testing black definition, with minor leaks from edges of the panel. It looks worse in our technical data image, however under real world conditions it isn't very noticeable. The shift was between 5 and 15% percent which is acceptable for a monitor in this range.
White purity again shows minor shift between 4% and 15% across the width, with the higher levels recorded at the panel edges. This is actually a really good result and whites look very pure across a variety of media. As we mentioned earlier there is a slight pink hue apparent when viewing neutral background (recorded cast of around 5%) although I feel that many people would not notice this.
Power consumption is very good, considering the specifications and size. ECO mode reduces power by around 24 watts, although I found it hard to live with as it lowered the settings too much to be usable 24/7. A realistic power drain for our calibrated screen was around 30 watts, which is a truly excellent result for such a large screen.
