NEC EA231WMi e-IPS 23" LCD - $274.59 After Amazon CB through Buy.com

[rootaxs]

http://www.buy.com/prod/nec-display-...211579088.html

NEC Display MultiSync EA231WMi Widescreen LCD Monitor
EA231WMI-BK
23"
1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
16:9
14 ms
0.265 mm
1000:1
Black

It's $304.99 at Buy.com, but if you purchase using Amazons Payphrase feature, you get 10% cash back.

Payphrase details:
http://www.buy.com/toc/payphrase/67961.html

 

[gorobei]

seemed like forever for these things to come out. i remember hearing about these over 2 years ago.
if this had come out last year i would be all over it. But i got a dell 2408 so i'm kinda committed to 19x12. i'm about to get another one.

otherwise this looks great for an eyefinity setup. stand has pivot so you can even do 3240x1920 3wide1tall.

 

[postmortemIA]

wow, this is really a IPS for a price little more than a TN

 

[Kiyi]

14ms is a tad bit high though for gaming isn't it? Or does that not matter if it is a IPS?

 

[FuzzyWuzzyDan]

you might try bing cashback with that as well.

If anything it might cancel the bing, but because it was paid for through another service, it might work. I have heard that jr.com orders let you stack the amazon and bing cashback so far

 

[owdi]

14ms is a tad bit high though for gaming isn't it? Or does that not matter if it is a IPS?

All IPS panels are slower than TN, you trade speed for better colors. Howerver, it's a 60hz display. Assuming your video card can manage 60 fps, that's one frame every 16.7 ms.

 

[sleepeeg3]

Awesome deal!

This IPS panel is likely close to the same speed as a TN. The response time posted would most likely be B-to-W. LCD manufacturers calculate the "low" response time by using the lowest response time across the entire color spectrum - it's not linear. Example: blue-to-white-blue takes 2ms and the average for the rest of the colors is 20ms - it gets rated with a 2ms response time. This is what causes TN+Film monitors to also have hue and fast motion color changing problems. 8-bit panels (IPS) tend to have a flatter curve across the spectrum and more accurate colors, which means the dips aren't as low. It's a good thing, but not if you are using it to sell the monitor! Now manufacturers are even using an artificial gray-to-gray response time that depresses this number even more!

On TN+Film LCDs, actual number of colors each monitor produces is only 256k, however colors are "dithered" by having adjacent pixels rapidly switched on off, so they can ramp up the specs. Actual colors produced are still 256K. With dithering, max colors the specs should show is 16.2m, but many are stretching this lie even further by listing it as 16.7m to try and blend in with quality panels. This is why their black levels suck and it is more difficult to game in dark areas on a TN+Film panel, because they lack the varying levels of grey.

IPS has the closest to uniform color accuracy. They also have low input lag, unlike MVA/PVA 8-bit panels and like TN+Film panels, which is great for gaming.

Overall, the only real downside to IPS has been the price and the price of IPS will fall if people know the truth and continue to buy them.

 

[lothar]

How does this compare to the Dell 2209WA?
I got that for $212 shipped last week.

 

[hans007]

How does this compare to the Dell 2209WA?
I got that for $212 shipped last week.

they are similar monitors, but this one is 1080p which is a big edge i'd say.

 

[qliveur]

Wish it was 1920x1200. 1920x1080 isn't as suitable for a computer monitor.

 

[kidsafe]

The Dell UltraSharp 2209WA has the edge in price after haggling your favorite chat rep obviously, but the pixel count and pixel density in the NEC is greater. The NEC also has a DisplayPort, which is the interface to have moving forward. The 2209WA is known to be a great monitor, but I haven't heard that much about the NEC since it has only been available in Europe until now.

 

[kmmatney]

price went up to 331.99 before discount...

I bought one. I used the Amazon thingy, but didn't see the discount in the checkout window. Hopefully it is applied later.

I would have preferred a 1920 x 1200 monitor, but there just aren't too many monitors with that resolution these days, and certainly not an e-IPS monitor. When I receive it, I will test it against my Soyo Topaz, which has an excellent SPVA monitor.

 

[konakona]

price went up to 331.99 before discount...

I bought one. I used the Amazon thingy, but didn't see the discount in the checkout window. Hopefully it is applied later.

I would have preferred a 1920 x 1200 monitor, but there just aren't too many monitors with that resolution these days, and certainly not an e-IPS monitor. When I receive it, I will test it against my Soyo Topaz, which has an excellent SPVA monitor.

hmmm... I did remember seeing the claims of getting S-PVA panels, but I also heard the opposite, saying Topaz only shipped with P-MVA and TN. My P-MVA died soon after 1 year coverage, I think it was most likely the power brick. By the time I found out people had much success by ordering a replacement PSU from soyo, soyo was out of business

 

[kmmatney]

hmmm... I did remember seeing the claims of getting S-PVA panels, but I also heard the opposite, saying Topaz only shipped with P-MVA and TN. My P-MVA died soon after 1 year coverage, I think it was most likely the power brick. By the time I found out people had much success by ordering a replacement PSU from soyo, soyo was out of business

Yes, you are right - the Soyo is actually an MVA panel. I've had good luck with mine, going strong for over 2 years.

 

[kmmatney]

received the monitor today. Pretty gooid display overall, but not mind-blowing or anything. A few features:

* It has an auto-brightness feature that attempts to adjust the brightness of the screen based on content, and based on the ambient light level. This is turned on by default, and was driving me crazy before I figured this out. The stand adjusts height, which is a nice, and the monitor has a 4-port USB hub, and accepts RGB, DVI, and display port input.

* There is a setting to adjust the brightness of the "On" LED, which is a nice feature. I had to place black tape over the power LED on my Soyo.

* Viewing angles good. Nicer than my other TN displays I have, but I can't really say its any better than my old Soyo. Not as good as the more expensive IPS displays.

* Blacks are excellent, and movies look great. There is a little bit of light bleed in the lower left corner, but really not too bad. Overall, a very nice picture.

I have to say that I don't really like the 16:9 format for a computer monitor. It is fine for movies and most games, but really doesn't make good use of the desktop space for work, and after using 1920 x 1200 monitors for so long, the screen feels short. a 24" 1920 x 1200 monitor really gives you a better overall experience, except for movies. I primarily wanted this monitor for gaming with dark scenes, and it handles that quite well.

 

[konakona]

Blacks are excellent, and movies look great.

That's just about all I needed to hear, I will have to include this in the candidate list for my next monitor purchase. I am leaning towards a 32'' full HD LCD TV at the moment though.

 

[Password]

received the monitor today. Pretty gooid display overall, but not mind-blowing or anything. A few features:....

Maybe after a break-in period of say 24-48 hours it will look better?

 

[kmmatney]

double post...

 

[kmmatney]

Maybe after a break-in period of say 24-48 hours it will look better?

Well, either it does look better, or I'm just liking it more. After using this monitor for many long hours of writing code (and some gaming) I have to say its really nice. The blacks seem to have gotten blacker, and colors are fantastic (after a slight tweak to lower the blue and green levels by 1%). On my TN displays (I have 5 of them all told in the house), there is a lot more light bleed, and my eyes hurt after a period of time using them. I don't have that issue at all with this LCD - very easy on the eyes. Input lag and Ghosting are not an issue to me at all, either.

Compared to my TN displays, this e-IPS display is much better. The TN displays are all pretty equal - blacks aren't very great, and a bit of light bleed. Its a chore at times to play a dark game, or watch a dark movie. So as a general rule, all the TN displays are blown away by my MVA Soyo Topaz and this new NEC. TN displays might be "good enough" but after you use a display like this one or the Soyo, you just don't want to go back.

The comparison between this display and the Topaz is a bit harder. The NEC monitor has slighty better blacks, while the Topax has better whites. Overall, contrast is about the same. Movies are slightly better on the NEC, but this is mostly due to the 1080p aspect ratio. The NEC display looks slightly crisper, and it seems like the indivudal pixels are more visible compared to the Topaz. The Soyo panel has slighty softer (but still very good) appearance. I have noticed this before, when comparing Dell MVA and IPS panels. View angle is better on the NEC, but the Soyo view angle is still very good, and there is no real difference in use in real use.

Overall,not much difference between my MVA and e-IPS displays - at least to my eyes. They are both excellent, and a real upgrade from a TN display. The sad thing is as that I bought the Soyo 2 years ago for the same price, with an extra inch of screen, and a more desirable 1920 x 1200 resolution. In the end, I decided to keep using my Soyo on my main computer (some work, but mostly gaming), and use the NEC on my work computer. With display quality pretty close between the 2 displays, the larger size of the Soyo make it the winner. Too bad they stopped selling it a while back, so this NEC is the curent best offering, IMO.

Overall, this is a great monitor, and I think that this display, along with the new Viewsonic 23" e-IPS display, are the best you can get for a non-TN panel at this price point. I would just like to see this monitor at 24", with a 1920 x 1200 display - that would be awesome.

This monitor ships with a 11" thick, double-walled box, with very thick styrofoam padding. The box is thick to accomdate the stand, which is pre-attached. Very nice.

 

[s44]

The Soyo didn't have HDCP, right?

 

[kmmatney]

The Soyo didn't have HDCP, right?

Right, it just has DVI and RGB. The Soyo also has a cheap stand, and cheap elecronics, and gets a lot hotter than the NEC. The panel on the first generation models is similar to the panel used in the BenQ FP241WZ (which usually cost twice as much), so it was all about the panel. They switched to a TN panel about 6 months later, though. I would say the display on the NEC is the same or maybe slightly better - its just a smaller screen.

 

[konakona]

Now that you mention it, I remember how my experience went with a cheap 19'' TN I had bought as a stopgap measure about a year ago. This is when I still had that soyo working, and there was no comparison between the two; in particular, black crush was real annoying ono the TN and rendered oblivion almost unplayble in the dark spots. I wonder if 'better' TN monitors are really 'good enough', or people just don't care either way.

 

[qliveur]

Until recently they didn't have a choice because of price. It was either TN or nothing.

 

[Orubasarot]

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