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As we mentioned earlier in the review, this screen features a 10 bit H-IPS panel which is technically capable of rendering 1.07 billion colours. This P-IPS panel has 98% coverage of the Adobe colour space (100% RGB coverage and 102% NTSC coverage).
IPS panels have been long capable of rendering true 8 bit colour depth which many people will refer to as ’24 bit colour’, this is an 8 bit design on a sub pixel level across the blue, green and red planes. This realistically means that an 8 bit colour depth screen can render the full 16.7 million colours without having to dither the image, which can cause subtle ‘stepping’ of the images.
When looking at other panel technologies such as TN, they are limited to 18 bit colour, or 6 bit colour depth and will use FRC to generate more colours to reach the final 16.2 million scope. In regards to image quality it is clearly apparent that the bit precision of a panel will be directly related to the steps of brightness which are possible.
The more steps, the better the overall image quality, as less apparent stepped banding will be noticeable. Smoother gradients, less banding will result in a higher quality image, especially for people who need critical colour accuracy, such as web designers and photo editing professionals.
While this sounds like everyone should jump immediately into purchasing a more expensive 10 bit IPS panel, in reality it doesn’t always translate into a ‘must have’ situation. People who render images for a living would notice less banding between the 10 bit and 8 bit panels, especially with subtle swatches of constant colour tones. Of course you also have to ensure that the software and complimentary hardware are capable of 10 bit colour and depending on your specific configuration this might not be the case.
This is a prime factor as to why DisplayPort is becoming more and more adopted within the professional industry, because a DVI interface is limited to 24 bit colour. The vast majority of people today will be using DVI, and even aging VGA technology. Some panels even have extended internal processing – 12 bit LUT for instance, which can help improve colour accuracy, but they should really only be used on 10 bit panels, not 8 bit panels.
Out of the box this screen is very well calibrated, a distinct advantage over purchasing a cheaper screen. We use a LaCie calibration gun (Blue Eye Pro) and their software to measure specific findings. As we already expected the colour gamut is noticeably wider over a standard panel we would normally review. A larger colour gamut gives advantages as it will enable the panel to display colours which a lesser gamut limited panel could never display.
Gamut registered at 2.2 out of the box which is classified as a perfect setting for a computer monitor. We switched the gamma to 1.8 and it read exactly 1.8 with our testing equipment, showing pinpoint accuracy. There is some panel variance with a difference of up to 12% from the center rating of 120 nits. This is hard to register with the naked eye however, so it isn't a huge issue, even for a professional user. Colour ratings are excellent and our equipment measured very close to reference results. The colour definition from the screen is excellent and falls into the same class as the Dell U2410. We did notice a very slight red cast depending on the setting, but it is easily dialed out via the interface or with software.
Viewing angles are class leading with only a slight contrast shift horizontally. The IPS panel can display very wide fields of view and is one of the biggest selling points of this technology. It is basically free from off center contrast shifting which can plague lesser panels.
Black definition is fairly pure with only minor shifting, there is about a 10-14% leak at the bottom corners which is not that noticeable under real world conditions. This makes the panel very good for high definition movies and gaming.
Purity of the screen is good across the full area, with approximately 5-8% shift across the width reaching around between 9-13% at the edges. In real world situations we were extremely impressed with the purity of the screen, making it ideal for a variety of design duties. There is very little colour fluctuation, measuring 0.8% via the R channel. We dialed this out via software.
For gaming, we didn't notice any lag, however those with hyper sensitive eyes may want to look elsewhere. A rating of 6ms falls short of the 2ms class leading gaming panels, but we can say that several people who spent time with the screen didn't notice any problems when playing fast action 3D titles such as Dirt 2, F1 2010 and other games such as Dragon Age 2 looked fantastic. It is worth reiterating that a panel such as this focuses entirely on colour accuracy, not class leading response times. For watching movies it is worth bearing in mind that this is a 16:10 panel (not 16:9), so images will either be slightly stretched, or have black bars along the top and bottom of the display.
Viewing angles for an IPS screen are excellent, measuring just under 180 degrees, far in advance of any TN screen on the market.
The power drain is slightly higher than an ‘average' TN panel, which we expected beforehand. The improved circuitry in an IPS panel tends to demand more power under similar conditions. Under normal circumstances however and with some modest calibration settings a power demand around 40-45 watts is feasible.
