Introduction

Eizo have a long-standing reputation for making quality desktop monitors. Their focus over the years has often been on higher end displays with professional grade performance and features. Their FlexScan range are "monitors for business, finance, CAD and photography" according to their website, and "this extensive line-up of LCD monitors offers optimal performance and eco-friendly features for home and business use, financial trading and graphics applications". Quite an extensive target market there but hopefully gives you an idea about where this range fits. One of their newer models is the EV2736W, a 27" screen with 2560 x 1440 resolution and a host of features designed to fit those requirements already mentioned. User comfort, ergonomics and power usage are of particular focus here when it comes to technology.

Eizo's website states: "stellar results for your business and your budget. The ergonomic and eco features of this 27" monitor make office work more comfortable while keeping power usage in check"

Eizo EV2736W Now Available
 

Specifications and Features

The following table gives detailed information about the specs of the screen:

The EV2736W offers a somewhat limited range of connectivity options. There are only dual-link DVI and DisplayPort interfaces provided for video connections which can both support the native 2560 x 1440 resolution. HDMI and VGA connections are unfortunately missing and it would have been nice to see them included really. The digital interfaces are HDCP certified for encrypted content. Cables are provided in the box for both DVI and DisplayPort which is good.

The screen has an internal power supply so all you need is the provided kettle lead power cable. There are integrated 2x 1.0 W stereo speakers on this model and an audio jack. There are also 2x USB 2.0 ports located on the left hand side of the back section for relatively easy access. There are no USB 3.0 ports however which are now offered on some monitors. Also oddly there is no USB cable provided in the box for you to connect the screen up to your PC so that the USB ports can work, not sure why that was omitted. An ambient light sensor (Auto EcoView) is built into the screen as well for automatically adjusting your brightness setting depending on the lighting conditions of your environment. There is also a human motion sensor (EcoView Sense 2) which can turn the screen off when it detects no usage.

Below is a summary of the features and connections of the screen:

OSD Menu

Above: views of OSD operational buttons. Click for larger version

The OSD menu is accessed and controlled through a series of 6 pressable buttons along the bottom edge of the screen, as well as a power on/off button. To the left of the buttons you will notice the ambient light sensor, and to the right of the power button is the power LED.

There is quick access to some options directly. The 'mode' button gives you quick access to the 5 preset modes as shown above. There is then access from the down and up arrows to the volume and brightness respectively.

The button labelled with a leaf gives you quick access to some of the power saving options, including the ambient light sensor (Auto EcoView) and human motion sensor (EcoView Sense).

Pressing the 'enter' button brings up the main OSD. This is a fairly plain looking software and gives you 7 options to select as shown above. You then need to press 'enter' to drill into the options within each section.

The 'color' section has a fair few options to play with. You can change brightness and contrast here, select between the different colour temperature modes, gamma modes and enter into the 'advanced settings' section.

In advanced settings there is control over the RGB channels available, as well as the overdrive setting for response time control.

The next section of the main menu is the 'screen' section, allowing you to control the hardware aspect ratio control. We will look at this later on in the review.

The 'sound' section gives you some sound options if you are sending sound to the screen at all and want to use the speakers of headphone jack.

The 'PowerManager' section lets you control a couple more power options.

The 'Monitor settings' section gives you some self-explanatory options as shown above. You can turn off the power LED here if you like.

The information section is shown above for completeness too, but there's no options to choose in here.

Overall the menu offered a decent enough set of options and settings. Navigation was sometimes a little fiddly, especially as none of the buttons acted as a 'back' button. Instead you had to cycle up to the 'return' option within each section to go back a level. This also meant you couldn't just simply exit the menu without cycling back to the start via the 'return' options, and then down to the 'exit' option. Pressing the 'mode' button quickly exited the menu for you but does then pop up the preset menu instead. The whole process just felt a bit lacking.

 

Power Consumption

In terms of power consumption the manufacturer lists 67.0W maximum usage and less than 0.5W in standby. We carried out our normal tests to establish its power consumption ourselves.

We tested this ourselves and found that out of the box the screen used 43.8W at the default 100% brightness setting. Considering this is the maximum brightness setting the additional power draw for the specified 67.0W consumption must be based on having other things connected to USB. Once calibrated the screen reached 25.1W consumption, and in standby it used only 0.5W. We have plotted these results below compared with other screens we have tested. The consumption is very comparable to other W-LED backlit displays, with wide gamut GB-r-LED units like the Dell U2713H and ViewSonic VP2772 using slightly more (comparing calibrated states). The CCFL units like the Eizo SX2762W are even more power hungry.

Panel and Backlighting

Panel Part and Colour Depth

The Eizo EV2736W utilises a Samsung LTM270DL04-N01 PLS (Plane to Line Switching) panel which is capable of producing 16.77 million colours. This is achieved through a true 8-bit colour depth as opposed to Frame Rate Control (FRC) being needed. It is worth noting that the screen is advertised as using an IPS panel, when in fact it is using Samsung's very similar, competing PLS technology. Semantics perhaps, but a common trend when adopting the well-known and well-established IPS name but using a slightly different panel technically.

The panel is confirmed when dismantling the screen as shown:

Screen Coating

The screen coating on the EV2736W is a light, semi-glossy anti-glare (AG) offering. It retains its anti-glare properties to avoid too many unwanted reflections of a full glossy coating, but does not produce an overly grainy or dirty image that some thicker AG coatings can. There were no cross-hatching patterns visible on the coating

Backlight Type and Colour Gamut

The screen uses a White-LED (W-LED) backlight unit which has become very popular in today's market. This helps reduce power consumption compared with older CCFL backlight units and brings about some environmental benefits as well. The W-LED unit offers a standard colour gamut which is approximately equal to the sRGB colour space. While we don't have the detailed panel spec sheet for this exact panel, we can draw some comparisons when studying the sheets for the DL02 and DL06 panels. We anticipate approximately an 81% NTSC, 100.0% sRGB and 79.0% Adobe RGB coverage from the backlight based on what we know about the other versions. Anyone wanting to work with wider colour spaces would need to consider wide gamut CCFL screens, or perhaps the newer range of GB-r-LED displays available now. If you want to read more about colour spaces and gamut then please have a read of our detailed article.

Backlight Dimming and Flicker

We tested the screen to establish the methods used to control backlight dimming. Our in depth article talks in more details about a common method used for this which is called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). This in itself gives cause for concern to some users who have experienced eye strain, headaches and other symptoms as a result of the flickering backlight caused by this technology. We use a photosensor +  oscilloscope system to measure backlight dimming control with a high level of accuracy and ease. These tests allow us to establish

1) Whether PWM is being used to control the backlight
2) The frequency and other characteristics at which this operates, if it is used
3) Whether a flicker may be introduced or potentially noticeable at certain settings

If PWM is used for backlight dimming, the higher the frequency, the less likely you are to see artefacts and flicker. The duty cycle (the time for which the backlight is on) is also important and the shorter the duty cycle, the more potential there is that you may see flicker. The other factor which can influence flicker is the amplitude of the PWM, measuring the difference in brightness output between the 'on' and 'off' states. Please remember that not every user would notice a flicker from a backlight using PWM, but it is something to be wary of. It is also a hard thing to quantify as it is very subjective when talking about whether a user may or may not experience the side effects.

100%                                                  50%                                                  20%

Above scale = 1 horizontal grid = 1ms

At 100% brightness a constant voltage is applied to the backlight and there is no need for any kind of PWM regulation as normal for most screens. As you begin to lower the brightness setting a Direct Current (DC) method is used initially, as opposed to any kind of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). As a result, there is no oscillation or PWM off/on backlight flickering. This applies for all settings between 100% and 20% brightness.

19%                                                                            16%

Above scale = 1 horizontal grid = 5ms

As you lower the brightness below 20% a PWM oscillation is introduced. Initially the duty cycle (the "on" period) is kept constant, and the amplitude (difference in brightness between the on and off states) is slowly increased as you can see from the measurements above.

10%                                                                            5%

Above scale = 1 horizontal grid = 5ms

Once you reach a setting of 16% brightness, the amplitude reaches a maximum (i.e. completely turned the backlight off to 0V and on again). From settings below 16% the backlight is dimmed further by increasing the "off" period each time, therefore reducing the duty cycle (on period).

2%                                                                            1%


0%

Above scale = 1 horizontal grid = 5ms

This continues all the way down until you reach a setting of 1% at which point the duty cycle (on period) is so short that instead, the luminance of the on period is then reduced. This is even more drastic at a brightness setting of 0% where the backlight is at a very low luminance for the "on" period of the cycle.

Anyway, regardless of the operation here there is a PWM method used when you reach below 20% brightness. This operates at a low 200Hz frequency as well so may well introduce some flicker for users if you want to operate the screen at these low brightness settings. Anything above 20% brightness is flicker free.

For an up to date list of all flicker-free (PWM free) monitors please see our Flicker Free Monitor Database.

 

Contrast Stability and Brightness

We turned off all the ECO modes for this test to allow us to measure the maximum variance. The brightness control gave us a very good range of adjustment. At the top end the maximum luminance reached 282 cd/m² which was high, and only just shy of the specified maximum brightness of 300 cd/m² from the manufacturer. There was a large 281 cd/m² adjustment range in total, and so at the minimum setting you could reach down to a ridiculously low luminance 0.78 cd/m². The 0% brightness setting was very dark indeed, and so not really useable in practice for anything. Small 1% steps between about 10 and 0% will give you a wide control over the luminance of the display though if you really need a very dark screen. This should certainly be adequate for those wanting to work in darkened room conditions with low ambient light. A setting of 35 in the OSD menu should return you a luminance of around 120 cd/m² at default settings.

We have plotted the luminance trend on the graph above. The screen behaves as it should in this regard, with a reduction in the luminance output of the screen controlled by the reduction in the OSD brightness setting. This is mostly a linear relationship as you can see from the line but from 20 - 0%, where the PWM usage kicks in, there is a steeper curve where the brightness adjustments makes slightly more differences to the luminance. It should be noted that the brightness regulation is controlled without the need of Pulse Width Modulation using a Direct Current (DC) method for settings between 100 and 20% and so the screen is flicker free at anything above 20%. Below that, a PWM method is used at a low frequency of 200Hz, which may present problems to those sensitive to its use. Thankfully you can get down to a very low luminance of ~80 cd/m² before you even need to enter the PWM-zone so it's likely that most people would never need to worry about it.

The average contrast ratio of the screen was excellent for a PLS panel at 965:1. This was pretty stable across the brightness adjustment range as shown above.

Testing Methodology

An important thing to consider for most users is how a screen will perform out of the box and with some basic manual adjustments. Since most users won't have access to hardware colorimeter tools, it is important to understand how the screen is going to perform in terms of colour accuracy for the average user.

I restored my graphics card to default settings and disabled any previously active ICC profiles and gamma corrections. The screen was tested at default factory settings using the DVI interface, and analysed using an X-rite i1 Pro Spectrophotometer (not to be confused with the i1 Display Pro colorimeter) combined with LaCie's Blue Eye Pro software suite. An X-rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter was also used to verify the black point and contrast ratio since the i1 Pro spectrophotometer is less reliable at the darker end.

Targets for these tests are as follows:

• CIE Diagram - validates the colour space covered by the monitors backlighting in a 2D view, with the black triangle representing the displays gamut, and other reference colour spaces shown for comparison

• Gamma - we aim for 2.2 which is the default for computer monitors

• Colour temperature / white point - we aim for 6500k which is the temperature of daylight

• Luminance - we aim for 120 cd/m², which is the recommended luminance for LCD monitors in normal lighting conditions

• Black depth - we aim for as low as possible to maximise shadow detail and to offer us the best contrast ratio

• Contrast ratio - we aim for as high as possible. Any dynamic contrast ratio controls are turned off here if present

• dE average / maximum - as low as possible. If DeltaE >3, the color displayed is significantly different from the theoretical one, meaning that the difference will be perceptible to the viewer. If DeltaE <2, LaCie considers the calibration a success; there remains a slight difference, but it is barely undetectable. If DeltaE < 1, the color fidelity is excellent.

Default Performance and Setup

Default settings of the screen were as follows:

Eizo EV2736W - Default Factory Settings

  

 

Initially out of the box despite being set at 100% brightness in the OSD menu, the screen did not appear overly bright at all. That is because the EcoView ambient light sensor is active by default and is dimming the backlight accordingly. Before we started these tests we disabled the Auto EcoView (ambient light sensor) and EcoView Sense (human motion sensor), but left all other settings at default. The screen looked reasonable to the naked eye although the screen was now extremely bright and the colour balance didn't feel quite right. You could tell the screen was a standard sRGB gamut of course, as compared with any wide gamut display. We went ahead and measured the default state with the i1 Pro.

 

The CIE diagram on the left of the image confirms that the monitors colour gamut (black triangle) is roughly equal to the sRGB colour space. There is some over-coverage in some shades, with blue being notably wider than the sRGB space. This was leading to some oversaturation in blues. Default gamma was recorded at 2.2 average, leaving it with a minor 1% deviance from the target of 2.2 which was very pleasing. White point was measured at 6517k being basically spot on to the target of 6500k which was also very good.

 

 

Luminance was recorded at a very bright 293 cd/m² which is far too high for prolonged general use. The screen was set at a default 100% brightness in the OSD menu but that is easy to change of course to reach a more comfortable setting. The black depth was 0.30 cd/m² at this default brightness setting, giving us a very good (for a PLS panel) static contrast ratio of 971:1. Colour accuracy was poor out of the box with some obvious colour balance issues, with a default dE average of 3.0, and maximum of 11.0. Testing the screen with various gradients showed smooth transitions with no sign of any banding thankfully. There was some gradation evident as you will see from most monitors. Overall the default setup was decent enough, with the gamma and white point being accurate and a good contrast ratio being offered. We will see if we can correct the colour accuracy through calibration and profiling in the following sections.
 

 

 

 

Calibration - Software Profiling

 

We used the X-rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer combined with the LaCie Blue Eye Pro software package to achieve these results and reports. An X-rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter was used to validate the black depth and contrast ratios due to lower end limitations of the i1 Pro device.

 

Eizo EV2736W - Calibrated Settings

   

 

We stuck with the default temperature mode of 'off' and gamma of 2.2 as we'd already seen these were very accurate out of the box. Minor adjustments were made during the process to the RGB settings as shown in the table above. All these OSD changes allowed us to obtain an optimum hardware starting point and setup before software level changes would be made at the graphics card level. We left the  LaCie software to calibrate to "max" brightness which would just retain the luminance of whatever brightness we'd set the screen to, and would not in any way try and alter the luminance at the graphics card level, which can reduce contrast ratio. These adjustments before profiling the screen would help preserve tonal values and limit banding issues. After this we let the software carry out the LUT adjustments and create an ICC profile.

 

 

Average gamma remained accurate at 2.2 average, correcting the minor 1% deviance we'd seen out of the box. The target white point was also retained at 6520k. Luminance had been improved thanks to the adjustment to the brightness control and was now being measured at 120 cd/m². This left us a black depth of 0.12 cd/m² and maintained a very high static contrast ratio (for a PLS panel) of 971:1. Colour accuracy of the resulting profile was excellent, with dE average of 0.3 and maximum of 0.5. LaCie would consider colour fidelity to be excellent. Testing the screen with various colour gradients showed mostly smooth transitions. There was some slight gradation in darker tones but no banding introduced due to the adjustments to the graphics card LUT from the profilation of the screen which was pleasing. You can use our settings and try our calibrated ICC profile if you wish, which are available in our ICC profile database. Keep in mind that results will vary from one screen to another and from one computer / graphics card to another.

 

 

Eizo EasyPIX (updated)

 

 

To allow users to get the most out of their screens like this, Eizo provide their own 'EasyPIX' calibration package which is an optional extra with this FlexScan EV2736W screen and other compatible products. The package consists of an EasyPIX software CD along with an Eizo branded DataColor Spyder4 device which they refer to as the "EX2 Photo Sensor". It allows you to calibrate and tweak your screen and can also be used for colour matching between your prints and monitor.

 

Update 26/6/14 - It should be noted that the FlexScan models (EV2736W and EV2436W) are advertised on some parts of Eizo's website as supporting hardware calibration. We clarified this with Eizo as there is some conflicting information about what is actually supported. The EasyPIX package can be used on these FlexScan models to calibrate the screen primarily at a software level (graphics card profile), but it DOES allow for automated adjustment of the monitors brightness and RGB settings during the process. The user does not need to make those changes manually during the calibration when using EasyPIX. The screen does not however support adjustments to the internal hardware LUT which is what we would normally refer to as "hardware calibration" in the strictest sense. ColorEdge range models on the other hand do allow full hardware LUT adjustment for a more traditional "hardware calibration". As such, the only advantage EasyPIX really offers is that it can automatically control brightness and RGB for you, but using any other device and calibration software could achieve similar results, just with the requirement for you to alter those controls during the process as you would normally on other screens.

 

We downloaded the latest version of the software to have a look at it (v2.3.2). Unfortunately though we did not have access to the EX2 Sensor in the package and so the tests are limited here.

 

We have used and tested various Spyder3 and Spyder4 tools in the past and to be honest have found the results very varied and not particularly reliable. We expect as part of this EasyPIX package the units have been custom tweaked and set up for use with Eizo displays, and so would hopefully offer a high level of performance as a result. The monitor must be connected via the USB cable to your PC in order for it to communicate. We will have a quick look at the software package here:
 

 

 

When launching the software it loads as a utility in your system tray. You can access the settings from here and when you launch the main window for the program. There are some options to enable/disable auto-start and set reminders to adjust the screen at an interval to suit.

 

 

 

Loading the main software window presents you with a basic adjustment screen as shown above, giving you 3 possible calibration profiles along the left hand side. If this is the first time you've adjusted the screen you have to click "adjust from the beginning" to progress. It should be noted that because we didn't have access to the EX2 Sensor device, clicking "adjust from the beginning" did not allow us to carry out a calibration of the screen ourselves. We tried the software with various devices including an i1 Display Pro, i1 Display 2, i1 Pro and even a normal Spyder3 device. None communicated with the software to allow for a screen calibration, and on checking with Eizo they confirmed that the software is locked to their EX1 and EX2 sensors. This is a bit of a shame as it forces you to buy their device if you want their free software solution to calibrating the screen using this software.

 

If you don't have the EX2 Sensor then you will need to find another software package which allows you to calibrate the screen at a graphics card level as normal. It would have been nice if Eizo had allowed compatibility of their EasyPIX software with third party devices for those who already own a colorimeter and just want to calibrate their new screen using it.

 

 

 

For a quick overview we have provided some screenshots of what would be available from the software if you did use an EX2 Sensor and could carry out the calibration as normal. Once you have entered the process, you can define your targets for luminance, colour temperature, the gamut of the screen and the gamma. Once defined you can start the process and it will automatically adjust these for you within the OSD display, but will not make any changes to the internal monitor LUT (not supported on the FlexScan models). The option for gamut is not applicable here as the EV2736W is a native standard gamut screen only and that option is only supported on wide gamut SX series screens. These are the only settings you can define and you can then progress into the calibration process.

 

 

 

At the end you are presented with a summary screen of your results but it has very small amounts of data as you can see. There's no more complex validation report available sadly like you might see from other packages such as those from LaCie and BasICColor.

 

Once completed, if necessary, you can fine-tune the brightness and colour manually by selecting "Finely Adjust." We would have liked to have been able to test this software in full but as we've said it is unfortunately locked to the EX2 sensor. As such you can't use this software to calibrate the screen with other devices and so we will find an alternative to get the most out of the screen through adjustments to the monitors LUT. The software itself seems easy enough to use although is quite basic and lacks any real reporting or validation function.

For more information about EasyPIX please see Eizo's website.

 

 

 

Calibration Performance Comparisons

 

The comparisons made in this section try to give you a better view of how each screen performs, particularly out of the box which is what is going to matter to most consumers. When comparing the default factory settings for each monitor it is important to take into account several measurement areas - gamma, white point and colour accuracy. There's no point having a low dE colour accuracy figure if the gamma curve is way off for instance. A good factory calibration requires all 3 to be well set up. We have deliberately not included luminance in this comparison since this is normally far too high by default on every screen. However, that is very easily controlled through the brightness setting (on most screens) and should not impact the other areas being measured anyway. It is easy enough to obtain a suitable luminance for your working conditions and individual preferences, but a reliable factory setup in gamma, white point and colour accuracy is important and not as easy to change accurately without a calibration tool.

 

From these comparisons we can also compare the calibrated colour accuracy, black depth and contrast ratio. After a calibration the gamma, white point and luminance should all be at their desired targets.

 

 

Default setup of the screen out of the box was decent enough and it was pleasing to see an accurate gamma curve (minor 1% deviance) and reliable white point (0% deviance). There was also a good default static contrast ratio close to 1000:1 which was impressive for a PLS. The colour accuracy was a little out which was a shame, mostly down to the slightly oversaturated blues from the backlights colour gamut which was a bit wider than sRGB.

 

 

 

The display did do very well in terms of black depth and contrast ratio for a PLS type panel. In fact this was the best contrast ratio we'd seen from this Samsung panel technology, out-doing previous PLS based models like the Asus PB278Q (858:1), Samsung S27B970D (800:1) and ViewSonic VP2770-LED (752:1) quite nicely. A contrast ratio of around 1000:1 is a good result for an IPS/PLS/AHVA panel type so we were pleased here. Of course AMVA based screens like the BenQ BL3200PT (2464:1) and MVA models like Eizo's own gaming screen, the FG2421 (4845:1) can offer much higher contrast ratios still.

 

Viewing Angles

Above: Viewing angles shown from front and side, and  from above and below. Click for larger image

Viewing angles of the EV2736W were very good as you would expect from an IPS-type panel. Horizontally there was very little colour tone shift until wide angles past about 45° although the image did get paler from a wide angle. Shifts were slightly more noticeable in the vertical field but overall they were very good, with some darkening introduced as you get to a wide angle. The screen offered the wide viewing angles of PLS technology and was free from the very restrictive fields of view of TN Film panels, especially in the vertical plane. It was also free of the off-centre contrast shift you see from VA panels and a lot of the quite obvious gamma and colour tone shift you see from some of the modern AMVA and PVA offerings. All as expected really from a modern IPS panel.

Above: View of an all black screen from the side. Click for larger version

On a black image we were very pleasantly surprised. We expected to see the normal "IPS-glow" from this screen but actually there was basically no glow at all. The black image remained dark, and no obvious white glow was introduced. Excellent news here.

Panel Uniformity

We wanted to test here how uniform the brightness and colour temperature was across the screen, as well as identify any leakage from the backlight in dark lighting conditions. Measurements of the luminance and colour temperature were taken at 35 points across the panel on a pure white background. The measurements for luminance were taken using BasICColor's calibration software package, combined with an X-rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter with a central point on the screen calibrated to 120 cd/m². Measurements for colour temperature (white point) were taken using BasICColor software and the i1 Pro spectrophotometer which can more accurately measure the white point of different backlighting technologies. The below uniformity diagram shows the difference, as a percentage, between the measurement recorded at each point on the screen, as compared with the central reference point.

It is worth noting that panel uniformity can vary from one screen to another, and can depend on manufacturing lines, screen transport and other local factors. This is only a guide of the uniformity of the sample screen we have for review.
 

Uniformity of Luminance

The luminance uniformity of the screen was moderate. There seemed to be some imbalance between the top and bottom areas of the screen, with the brightest area being in the middle top region. Here the luminance reached up to 132 cd/m² maximum, a +9% deviance. The bottom corners were the darkest regions where luminance dropped down to 104 cd/m² (-15% deviance from the central 120 cd/m² point).

Backlight Leakage

Above: All black screen in a darkened room. Click for larger version

As usual we also tested the screen with an all black image and in a darkened room. A camera was used to capture the result. There was no obvious backlight bleeding detectable to the naked eye at all. The camera picked up some very slight clouding in the top right hand corner, but nothing you should notice in day to day use at all though. A very good result in terms of backlight bleed here.

 

General and Office Applications

The EV2736W feature a large 2560 x 1440 WQHD resolution which is only just a little bit less vertically than a 30" screen. The pixel pitch of 0.231mm is very small as a result, and by comparison a standard 16:10 format 24" model has a pixel pitch of 0.270mm and a 30" model has 0.250mm. These ultra-high resolution 27" models offer the tightest pixel pitch and therefore the smallest text as well. We found it quite a change originally coming from 21.5 - 24" sized screens, even those offering quite high resolutions and small pixel pitches.  Some users may find the small text a little too small to read comfortably, and we'd advise caution if you are coming from a 19" or 22" screen for instance where the pixel pitch and text are much larger. The extra screen size takes some getting used to over a few days as there really is a lot of room to work with but once you do, it's excellent.

The massive resolution is really good for office and general use, giving you a really big screen area to work with. It is a noticeable upgrade from a 24" 1920 x 1200 resolution, and it's good to see Eizo have opted to stick with the high res panel here rather than reverting to some other 1920 x 1200 / 1920 x 1080 res panel as you may find in other 27" models. For those wanting a high resolution for CAD, design, photo work etc, this is a really good option. The image was very sharp and crisp and text was very clear. With its WQHD display, you enjoy 77% more desktop space than a full HD screen to spread out your windows and palettes.

The light semi-glossy AG coating from the PLS panel is a positive feature when it comes to these kind of uses and we had been pleased with the coating on this model. This light panel coating ensures that white backgrounds of office documents looked good, and did not suffer from the overly grainy and dirty feel of some competing older IPS panels featuring heavy, aggressive AG coating. It also remained free from the reflections you might experience from a full glossy solution so seems to be a good half-way between the two.

The wide viewing angles provided by the PLS panel technology on both horizontal and vertical planes, helps minimize on-screen colour shift when viewed from different angles. The default setup of the screen was good overall with an accurate gamma and white point, and should provide a reasonably reliable setup for those who don't have access to a calibration device of their own.

The brightness range of the screen was also very good, with the ability to offer a luminance between approximately 282 and 0.78 cd/m² (yes, 0.78!!) This should mean the screen is perfectly useable in a wide variety of ambient light conditions, including darkened rooms. A setting of ~35 in the OSD brightness control should return you a luminance close to 120 cd/m². The backlight regulation is controlled using a Hybrid method and is PWM-free for brightness settings between 100 and 20%. You can reach down to a luminance of ~80 cd/m² without needing to enter the PWM-zone. From 20% brightness and below, a low frequency 200 Hz PWM oscillation is introduced which may be problematic to those sensitive to flickering backlights who need to work with a particular dark screen. For most, you probably won't ever need to drop brightness below 20% anyway.

There was no audible buzzing from the screen, even when specifically looking for it using test images with a large amount of text at once. The screen remains cool even during prolonged use. There is a specific 'paper' preset mode available from the menu which is very yellow in appearance but may help limit the blue spectral output of the backlight and make it easier on the eye if there's a lot of text use required. There are some useful additional extras from the screen as well designed for office-type uses. The ambient light sensor can be handy to adjust your backlight with changing ambient light conditions. Likewise the human motion sensor can be useful to save power while you're away from your screen. The 2x USB 2.0 ports and audio connection on the left hand side are handy, and the integrated speakers may be useful to some people for the odd mp3 or Youtube video. We might have liked to have seen USB 3.0 ports provided and maybe a card reader as well, but Eizo have done a reasonable job providing some additional features here anyway. The stand also offers a wide range of adjustments thankfully, although the tilt and height movements were a little stiff.

 
Above: photo of text at 2560x 1440 (top) and 1920 x 1080 (bottom)

The screen is designed to run at its native resolution of 2560 x 1440 and at a 60Hz recommended refresh rate. However, if you want you are able to run the screen outside of this resolution. We tested the screen at a lower 1920 x 1080 resolution to see how the screen handles the interpolation of the resolution, while maintaining the same aspect ratio of 16:9. At native resolution the text was sharp as you can see from the top photograph. When you switch to a lower resolution the text is larger of course but still reasonably clear with only low amounts of overlap between pixels. The screen seems to interpolate the image well although you of course lose a lot of desktop real-estate running at a lower resolution.

Responsiveness and Gaming

The EV2736W is rated by Eizo as having a 6ms G2G response time which indicates the panel uses overdrive / response time compensation (RTC) technology to boost pixel transitions across grey to grey changes. There is user control over the overdrive impulse within the OSD menu using the 'overdrive' option. The part being used is the Samsung LTM270DL04-N01 PLS (Plane to Line Switching) panel. Have a read about response time in our specs section if you need additional information about this measurement.

We will first test the screen using our thorough response time testing method. This uses an oscilloscope and photosensor to measure the pixel response times across a series of different transitions, in the full range from 0 (black) to 255 (white). This will give us a realistic view of how the monitor performs in real life, as opposed to being reliant only on a manufacturers spec. We can work out the response times for changing between many different shades, calculate the maximum, minimum and average grey to grey (G2G) response times, and provide an evaluation of any overshoot present on the monitor.

We use an ETC M526 oscilloscope for these measurements along with a custom photosensor device. Have a read of our response time measurement article for a full explanation of the testing methodology and reported data.
 

Overdrive Setting Comparison

First of all we carried out a smaller sample set of measurements in each of the three overdrive settings. These, along with various motion tests allowed us to quickly identify which was the optimum overdrive setting for this screen.

First we tested the screen with the overdrive option set to 'off'. Response times were slow with an average of 14.8ms G2G being measured. There was no overshoot at all as overdrive was not being used, but response times were too slow and it resulted in a lot of noticeable blurring in practice.

With overdrive now switched up to the standard mode, response times had improved quite nicely, with an average now of 10.1ms G2G measured. They were only moderate though still and couldn't be classified as "fast" compared with technologies like TN Film. However they were pretty comparable to other modern IPS type panels so a decent result. Certainly an improvement in motion and blurring in practice though with no obvious overshoot detectable to the naked eye. There was some minor overshoot on some transitions as you can see in the table above, but nothing severe. This mode seemed to offer the optimum balance between response times and overshoot.

The final 'enhanced' overdrive setting boosted the response times a little, but only down to an average of 8.8ms G2G. However there was some very noticeable and significant overshoot introduced as a result which was a shame. You could easily spot this with the naked eye in motion tests too. As a result, this mode should probably be avoided.

If we take some test photos using the PixPerAn tool you can make some further visual comparisons between the overdrive settings. With overdrive off the slow response times lead to a pronounced blur to the moving image in practice which you can easily see. Turning the setting up to Standard brings some improvement in visual appearance. The blur is reduced noticeably and the moving image becomes sharper. There is some slight dark trailing in places caused by the overshoot of the RTC impulse but it's very slight. The Enhanced setting is too aggressive though and you are left with some very noticeable overshoot artefacts in the form of both dark and light halos and shadows. Again these tests confirm the Standard setting to be optimal on this model.

 

More Detailed Measurements - Overdrive = Standard

Having established that the overdrive 'standard' mode seemed to offer the best response/overshoot balance we carried out our normal wider range of measurements as shown below:

The average G2G response time was more accurately measured at 10.0ms which was not too bad overall, and represented a moderate response time. It can't live up to its advertised 6ms G2G response time spec though, even on the fastest transitions. If you push the overdrive setting up to 'Enhanced' then some transitions reach down to around 7ms, but only at the cost of excessive overshoot. Rise times were on average a little slower (10.4ms) than fall times (9.5ms) but not by much. This overall responsiveness was a little slower than the better IPS/PLS panels around, but not by much. The overdrive 'standard' mode was certainly better than the other options as we've already established above in the previous section.

There was pretty minimal overshoot as well in this overdrive mode, with only a couple of transitions showing anything significant. The changes from black to darker grey shades (0-50, 0-100) were the most problematic with up to 12.7% overshoot, but this was still pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. The overdrive impulse was being applied quite modestly and in a controlled fashion which was pleasing.

Display Comparisons

As we begin to measure more screens with the oscilloscope system we can begin to plot them on a graph like the above for easy comparison. This shows you the lowest, average and highest G2G response time measurement for each screen. There is also a traffic light style circle mark to indicate the RTC overshoot error for each screen, as the response time figure alone doesn't tell the whole story.

The response time performance of the EV2736W is pretty comparable to other decent IPS-type panels we have tested. The best cases we've seen are models like the Dell U2414H and P2414H which reach down to a response time of around 8.9ms G2G, while maintaining very low levels of overshoot. Those models which are pushed to faster response times around 7.2 - 8ms G2G (Dell U2413, U2713H, U3014) achieve this only through a very aggressive overdrive impulse and the resulting overshoot is far too obvious and problematic. With the average 10ms G2G response time the EV2736W is a decent performer for an IPS-type panel. Of course the TN Film models like the BenQ XL2720Z achieve much faster overall response times, around 3.8ms G2G average, so if you're looking for a gaming screen you may want to consider TN Film technology. As far as IPS-type screens go, this isn't a bad option from a response time point of view in the 27" sector, although gaming isn't specifically a target use.

 

The screen was also tested using the chase test in PixPerAn for the following display comparisons. As a reminder, a series of pictures are taken on the highest shutter speed and compared, with the best case example shown on the left, and worst case example on the right. This should only be used as a rough guide to comparative responsiveness but is handy for a comparison between different screens and technologies as well as a means to compare those screens we tested before the introduction of our oscilloscope method.

27" 6ms G2G Samsung PLS (Overdrive = Standard)

In practice the Eizo EV2736W performed best with the Overdrive setting on 'standard'. There was still some low levels of blurring to the moving image but nothing too noticeable. Thankfully there was very little overshoot introduced although you could sometimes pick out some slight dark trailing in certain situations.

27" 6ms G2G Samsung PLS (Overdrive = Standard)

27" 4ms G2G AU Optronics AHVA (AMA Setting = High)

27" 8ms G2G LG.Display AH-IPS

27" 5ms G2G Samsung PLS (Trace Free = 40)

27" 12ms G2G Samsung PLS (Response Time = Advanced)

Firstly it is interesting to compare the EV2736W to some of the other popular 27" models we have tested with 2560 x 1440 resolutions and IPS-type panels (IPS, PLS and AHVA). You can see first of all a comparison against the BenQ BL2710PT which shows a very comparable performance to the EV2736W in practice, with similar levels of blur and no overshoot issues. The Dell U2713HM was a bit faster and eliminated a lot of the visible blurring, but also remained free from overshoot which was a bonus. The Asus PB278Q was again a little faster than the EV2736W and although it showed a little dark overshoot it was very slight. The ViewSonic VP2770-LED was more comparable to the EV2736W in visible blurring as well.

 

27" 6ms G2G Samsung PLS (Overdrive = Standard)

27" 2ms G2G Chi Mei Innolux TN Film +144Hz (Trace Free = 60)

27" 1ms G2G AU Optronics TN Film + 144Hz (AMA = High)

23.5" 4ms G2G Sharp MVA + 120Hz

We've also included a comparison above against 3 very fast 120Hz+ compatible screens we have tested. The other screens shown here are all aimed primarily at gamers and have various features and extras which make them more suitable overall for gaming. Firstly there is a comparison against the Asus VG278HE with its 144Hz refresh rate and fast response time TN Film panel. This showed very fast pixel response times and smooth movement thanks to its increased refresh rate. You are able to reduce the motion blur even more through the use of the LightBoost strobed backlight which we talked about in depth in our article about Motion Blur Reduction Backlights.

Then there is a comparison against the BenQ XL2720Z with another very fast TN Film panel and 144Hz refresh rate. This showed very low levels of motion blur, but some dark overshoot was introduced as a side-effect as you can see. This screen even includes a native Blur Reduction mode to help eliminate further perceived motion blur.

Lastly there is the MVA based Eizo FG2421 screen with a fast response time (especially for the panel technology being used) and 120Hz refresh rate support. There is also an additional 'Turbo 240' motion blur reduction mode which really helps reduce the perceived motion blur in practice.

While these pixel response tests from PixPerAn give one view of the performance of the panel, there is something else going on as well here which can't be picked out by the camera. All of these other gaming models are running at 120Hz (or higher) refresh rates, which allows for improved 120fps+ frame rates and in some cases the support of 3D stereoscopic content as well. This can really help improve smoothness and the overall gaming experience so these screens still have the edge when it comes to fast gaming. Any additional extras to reduce perceived motion blur can also have a real benefit in practical terms, and again not easy to pick out with this camera method.

The overall gaming performance of the EV2736W was good really for an IPS-type panel. It wasn't quite as fast as some other models we've seen, but was very close really once you've selected the optimum overdrive setting (standard). Perhaps most pleasing of all was that this didn't then introduce much noticeable overshoot which can be very distracting in use if response times are pushed too far. The EV2736W can certainly keep up with the competing 27" 1440p models out there with IPS-type panels. If gaming is really your priority you may want to consider some of the more gamer orientated 120Hz+, TN Film based compatible displays out there, or perhaps something like the Eizo FG2421. Even better still would be models equipped with LightBoost systems or other motion blur reduction backlights for optimum motion blur elimination.

Additional Gaming Features

Aspect Ratio Control - The EV2736W has three options for aspect ratio control through the OSD 'screen' menu, using the 'screen size' option. There are options for full screen (stretch to fill full screen no matter what source aspect is), enlarged (fill as much of the screen as possible while maintaining aspect ratio) and normal (1:1 pixel mapping). A good set of options here which should meet all your needs.

Preset Modes - There are no specific gaming preset modes available in the OSD although you can set up one of the two user modes to your liking for gaming needs if you want.

Lag

We have written an in depth article about input lag and the various measurement techniques which are used to evaluate this aspect of a display. It's important to first of all understand the different methods available and also what this lag means to you as an end-user.

Input Lag vs. Display Lag vs. Signal Processing

To avoid confusion with different terminology we will refer to this section of our reviews as just "lag" from now on, as there are a few different aspects to consider, and different interpretations of the term "input lag". We will consider the following points here as much as possible. The overall "display lag" is the first, that being the delay between the image being shown on the TFT display and that being shown on a CRT. This is what many people will know as input lag and originally was the measure made to explain why the image is a little behind when using a CRT. The older stopwatch based methods were the common way to measure this in the past, but through advanced studies have been shown to be quite inaccurate. As a result, more advanced tools like SMTT provide a method to measure that delay between a TFT and CRT while removing the inaccuracies of older stopwatch methods.

In reality that lag / delay is caused by a combination of two things - the signal processing delay caused by the TFT electronics / scaler, and the response time of the pixels themselves. Most "input lag" measurements over the years have always been based on the overall display lag (signal processing + response time) and indeed the SMTT tool is based on this visual difference between a CRT and TFT and so measures the overall display lag. In practice the signal processing is the element which gives the feel of lag to the user, and the response time of course can impact blurring, and overall image quality in moving scenes. As people become more aware of lag as a possible issue, we are of course keen to try and understand the split between the two as much as possible to give a complete picture.

The signal processing element within that is quite hard to identify without extremely high end equipment and very complicated methods. In fact the studies by Thomas Thiemann which really kicked this whole thing off were based on equipment worth >100,1000 Euro, requiring extremely high bandwidths and very complicated methods to trigger the correct behaviour and accurately measure the signal processing on its own. Other techniques which are being used since are not conducted by Thomas (he is a freelance writer) or based on this equipment or technique, and may also be subject to other errors or inaccuracies based on our conversations with him since. It's very hard as a result to produce a technique which will measure just the signal processing on its own unfortunately. Many measurement techniques are also not explained and so it is important to try and get a picture from various sources if possible to make an informed judgement about a display overall.

For our tests we will continue to use the SMTT tool to measure the overall "display lag". From there we can use our oscilloscope system to measure the response time across a wide range of grey to grey (G2G) transitions as recorded in our response time tests. Since SMTT will not include the full response time within its measurements, after speaking with Thomas further about the situation we will subtract half of the average G2G response time from the total display lag. This should allow us to give a good estimation of how much of the overall lag is attributable to the signal processing element on its own.

 

Lag Classification

To help in this section we will also introduce a broader classification system for these results to help categorise each screen as one of the following levels:

• Class 1) Less than 16ms / 1 frame lag - should be fine for gamers, even at high levels

• Class 2) A lag of 16 - 32ms / One to two frames - moderate lag but should be fine for many gamers. Caution advised for serious gaming and FPS

• Class 3) A lag of more than 32ms / more than 2 frames - Some noticeable lag in daily usage, not suitable for high end gaming

For the full reviews of the models compared here and the dates they were written (and when screens were approximately released to the market), please see our full reviews index.

We have provided a comparison above against other models we have tested to give an indication between screens. Those shown with blue bars in the bottom half represent the total "display lag" as at the time of review we did not have access to an oscilloscope system to measure the response time element and provide an estimation of the signal processing. The screens tested more recently in the top half are split into two measurements which are based on our overall display lag tests (using SMTT) and half the average G2G response time, as measured by the oscilloscope. The response time is split from the overall display lag and shown on the graph as the green bar. From there, the signal processing (red bar) can be provided as a good estimation.

The screen showed a total average display lag of 18 ms as measured with SMTT 2. Taking into account half the average G2G response time at 5.0ms, we can estimate that there is ~13 ms of signal processing lag on this screen. This is pretty low and probably won't represent any real problem for gaming.

 

Movies and Video

The following summarises the screens performance in video applications:

• 27" screen size makes it a reasonable option for an all-in-one multimedia screen, but being quite a bit smaller than most modern LCD TV's of course.

• 16:9 aspect ratio is more well suited to videos than a 16:10 format screen, leaving smaller borders on DVD's and wide screen content at the top and bottom.

• 2560 x 1440 resolution can support full 1080 HD resolution content.

• Digital interface support HDCP for any encrypted and protected content

• Only DVI and DisplayPort connections available. Shame to be missing the widely used HDMI connectivity for modern DVD players, Blu-ray, consoles etc.

• Cables provided in the box for DVI and DisplayPort.

• Light semi-glossy AG coating provides clear images with no major graininess, and without the unwanted reflections of a glossy solution.

• Wide brightness range adjustment possible from the display, including high maximum luminance of ~282 cd/m² and an amazing minimum luminance of 0.78 cd/m². This should afford you very good control for different lighting conditions. Contrast ratio remains stable across that adjustment range as well and is high for an IPS-type panel. Brightness regulation is controlled without the need for PWM and so is flicker free between settings of 100 and 20% brightness, allowing you to reach down to ~80 cd/m² before you need to enter the PWM-zone. For very low lighting conditions the use of a low frequency 200Hz PWM below 20% brightness may present some problems.

• Black depth and contrast ratio are strong for a PLS panel at 974:1 after calibration. Detail in darker scenes should not be lost as a result.

• There is a specific 'movie' preset mode available for movies or video if you want, which seems to be a little cooler than our calibrated user1 mode.

• Good pixel responsiveness which can handle fast moving scenes in movies without issue. No real overshoot issues which is good news.

• Wide viewing angles from PLS panel technology meaning several people could view the screen at once comfortable and from a whole host of different angles. White glow from an angle on black content is also very low indeed which was pleasantly surprising.

• No noticeable backlight leakage which is good, even in darkened room conditions.

• Wide range of ergonomic adjustments available from the stand, allowing you to obtain a comfortable position for multiple users or if you want to sit further away from the screen for movie viewing.

• 2x 1.0W integrated stereo speakers on this model and a headphone jack if sending sound to the screen over HDMI. Probably only useful for the occasional Youtube clip and not for movies though.

• Decent range of hardware aspect ratio options available which is very useful for external devices.

• Picture in picture (PiP) and Picture By Picture (PbP) are not available on this model.
  
   

Conclusion

The Eizo EV2736W packed a very good all-round punch. There are some nice additional features focusing in on economic and ergonomic benefits it targets specifically. The ambient light sensor and human motion sensor are useful in this regard, as are the USB ports and the wide range of adjustments from the stand. Of course the use of a W-LED backlight also helps keep power consumption down. Performance wise we were impressed with the default setup, delivering a good gamma and white point and a strong contrast ratio for a PLS panel. The slight oversaturation you will see from some shades due to the slightly wide gamut was a bit disappointing but it was still pretty close to the sRGB colour space. The responsiveness of the panel was also very good, and it was very pleasing to see little overshoot had been introduced. Display lag was also very low which makes this a decent option in fact as a 27" IPS-type gaming screen.

In other areas the use of a Hybrid backlight dimming technique was very pleasing, and the PWM-free zone of brightness adjustments gave you a very good luminance range without needing to even drop into the <20% range where PWM then kicked in. A pleasant surprise was the freedom of any obvious white-glow from an angle when viewing dark content, something which can be problematic on most IPS/PLS panels, especially when you get into the larger screen sizes like this.

There were a couple of areas where the screen felt a little lacking though, but these were fairly minor. The OSD menu was a little fiddly to operate and looked a bit old fashioned. The lack of an HDMI connection might put some people off and certainly limits the connectivity options for external devices. Lastly we would like to see more flexibility with the calibration package, allowing for other popular (and good) devices if possible.

At a price of £522 GBP (inc VAT) at the time of writing it is a pretty comparable cost to some of its closest competitors as well. Considering it has a few additional extras and a very good all-round performance it's definitely worth a good look if you're after a good all-round 27" screen.

 

Eizo EV2736W Now Available