Sceptre X270W-1080P Review: A Value 27" That Delivers
by Brian Klug on May 17, 2010 10:22 PM ESTBrightness Uniformity - White
In addition to the performance a center, we’ve also added 9-point testing for brightness, both white and black. This is done the same way we measure color uniformity, except we only care about measured intensity. We set the monitor through OSD controls as close to 200 nits as possible, and then measured those 9 points.
Brightness Uniformity - Black
Our plots here do exaggerate differences, but there’s a fairly linear falloff in brightness from right to left across the display as measured. I tested this three times because I couldn’t believe it. Using the monitor, I couldn’t perceive any brightness irregularities at all; it seemed homogenous. If anything, I would’ve said that there was a tiny strip of brightness fall off in the vertical direction, not horizontal, but numbers are numbers. The standard deviation across the monitor here is on the order of 17 nits, for an average of 193.7 nits. It’d be nice to see a bit more uniformity, but it definitely isn’t an issue.
For blacks, there’s a central depression and a bit more brightness at the left and right edges, but then again in practice I never was disturbed nor noticed. Note that the standard deviations here are on the order of 0.035 nits which is pretty darn tiny. Moreover, we’re at respectable black performance to begin with at an average of 0.36.
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HollyDOL - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
I really wonder whether this screen contains true 8bit per channel mask or whether it uses dithering to fake it...Usualy, TN panels are just 6bit per channel and remaining colours are faked using dithering or frame rate control.
Brian Klug - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
I wonder that too, and in all honesty it's likely 6-bit and dithered like you said.I'm still trying to figure out a good way to test - displaying the color pattern works, but there's still some dithering on even the highest end stuff I can find. Still trying to get to the bottom of it.
I'm open to any ideas though! ;)
-Brian
Luke212 - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
the Sony G520 does 1024x768x120Hz. I recently bought one for $20 so i'm sure you can find one to testLuke212 - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
sorry, btw the g520 is VGA not DVI. i also had no luck finding a dvi crt.RavnosCC - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
I needs me some high hrz gaming!Brian Klug - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
They're definitely coming ;) I'm working hard on getting a number of 120Hz panels in for reviewing pleasure ;)Stay tuned!
-Brian
jaydee - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
Count me among those dissapointed in the resolution. That big has got to be at least 1920x1200. I know it's cheap, but would it really add that much cost?I bought a 20.1" Sceptre LCD above 4 years ago (for around $350, ughh...), which I'm overall pleased with. The only thing that bothered me, was really dark scenes, there was a fairly noticable criss-cross of light coming from the corners. I've heard the only way to truly avoid this was to get a LED-backlit LCD. How bad was this on the review unit? I didn't see mention of, but maybe you covered it and I'm just not familar enough with the terminology.
Also, I'd like to see review(s) of some of the ASUS units, namely the VW266h (25.5" 1920x1200 for $250 AR right now) and the above mentioned ASUS MT276HE (27" 1920x1080 for $320 AR).
theoflow - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
Hey Anand and crew,Really digging all the reviews in the past couple of months and it is definitely helping me steer myself in the right direction for product purchases.
Although this might delve into a realm that isn't your speciality, I would be very interested in inexpensive 32" LCD review for HTPC usage. I think this is a sweet spot that is neglected quite a bit, with reviews and suggestions jumping to 42" displays way too quickly.
Keep up the good work and looking forward to whatever is in the review pipeline.
Brian Klug - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - link
Hmmz, there have been more than a few requests for us to take a look at some smaller (well, is 32" small? Small for a TV, large for a monitor, hehe) TVs and profile them against monitors. I've seen an increasing number of friends dropping their computer-LCDs in favor of LCD-TVs, so I think it'd be an interesting thing to take a look at.It's definitely something we haven't tackled yet. I've got a 32" Vizio of my own (oh boy, the irony of having such nice LCD displays and then two Vizio TVs - though they've improved significantly as of late) that I could try, hmmz. I'll see what I can fit in! Thanks for the idea/feedback!
-Brian
Corporate Thug - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
Anandtech/Brian, can you please please please review the DoubleSight DS-2700DW...I know a lot of people who are interested in seeing ONE review of this thing. I think at $399, it would be a nice comparison.