Acceptable uniformity variance?

J

jyi786

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 13, 2002
Messages
5,758
I just got my BL3201PH in. It's absolutely gorgeous. I was lucky that I got one that has:

1. No dead pixels
2. Virtually minimal to no backlight bleed
3. No banding issues
4. Excellent black point (when calibrated)
5. No ghost stains or anything else

So in other words, almost perfect. The problem? It seems to have a pretty bad uniformity problem. The left side of the screen is brighter than the right side.

Now, this only happens on light colors (mostly white/really light gray). I measured the variance with my colorimeter, and it's a solid 14% variance. There is no variance on dark or other colors (it's 0~2%).

Think this is a returnable offense for this monitor? Is it normal for a monitor this size to have an acceptable variance of 14% for bright colors?
 
If it's noticeable/distracting then I would return it. Only you can make that determination.
 
14% is noticeable to you? that's the largest difference? Most reviews at TFTcentral have spots that are 20-30% in the extreme spots (small areas) while most the screen is sub 20 or sub 15%. I don't recall any monitor review on tftcentral that I have read that has no spots greater than 15%.

That sounds like a nice screen to me in regards to uniformity.

Seriously largest difference is 15%?

Maybe I am mistaken but that seems really good.
 
SomeGuy133 said:
14% is noticeable to you? that's the largest difference? Most reviews at TFTcentral have spots that are 20-30% in the extreme spots (small areas) while most the screen is sub 20 or sub 15%. I don't recall any monitor review on tftcentral that I have read that has no spots greater than 15%.

That sounds like a nice screen to me in regards to uniformity.

Seriously largest difference is 15%?

Maybe I am mistaken but that seems really good.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm with you. To be clear, and completely honest, it's not really THAT noticeable. It's only truly noticeable on pure white and light gray, but again, only if I go looking for it.

I am also hoping it's due to the crappy mini-DP to DP cable that came with the monitor. It's known to have some issues out of the box. My new, quality DP to DP cable will be here today. I'm truly not stressing out too much over it, because overall the monitor is absolutely gorgeous.

Edit: looks like you're absolutely right. In this review of the BL3201PT (exactly the same as the BL3201PH which is for North America), look at the luminance uniformity section. My monitor measures EXACTLY like the one in the review. Almost to a T.

https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/benq-bl3201pt-bl3201ph/
 
Last edited:
Don't stare at a pure white/gray screen and you'll never notice it. :p

I'd keep it.
 
SomeGuy133 said:
good to hear...I don't need to slap some sense into you :D
Click to expand...

lol yeah. :D

Pretty much every review I've come across of this screen shows a very similar if not the same variation, so I'm 100% cool with it.
 
Y'all may want to hold that thought. :(

Thanks to picky, OCD me, after using it for 2 days, I just can't get over it. It's glaringly obvious now. Right side is always so much darker than the left side, and it's all I see now when I look at the screen.

I reached out to Amazon. They are overnighting me another screen. I will pick the best, and return the other.

Really hate having to do this because it's a bear to set up exactly how I want it, and the first one was almost, almost there (perfect). :eek:
 
Just got the new one in, all set up and calibrated.

Once again, the replacement has no stuck pixels, very uniform black, no banding, minimal backlight bleed. The backlight is actually more uniform than the last one.

The fade from left to right is still there, but variances are lower. Instead of 14% on the right side, it's down to a 10% variation. It's now more acceptable in real world usage, because luminance is only off by a few delta points anyway. I don't notice it all that much.

I don't think it'll get any better than this, so I won't play the return game again with Amazon. The old one is going back today.
 
Kinda spamming my own thread. :D

After calibration:

Whites are at around 10~14% (at worst) variation.
Light gray is around 8% (at worst) variation.
Dark gray/color is 0% variation!!! :)
 
jyi786 said:
Kinda spamming my own thread. :D

After calibration:

Whites are at around 10~14% (at worst) variation.
Light gray is around 8% (at worst) variation.
Dark gray/color is 0% variation!!! :)
Click to expand...

I would say that is very good! I loved this screen, only downside was no g-sync and mine had some fairly severe vertical banding... so I returned it :/

I see Acer has a gsync version of this panel coming out soon, that should be real nice.

I removed the AG filter on this screen, if you look at my posts previously you will see pics of it, it made a huge difference!

I can remove the AG filter for you too, just pay for shipping if you would like it done.
 
coolhandm3 said:
I would say that is very good! I loved this screen, only downside was no g-sync and mine had some fairly severe vertical banding... so I returned it :/
Click to expand...

Yep, absolutely no vertical banding on mine.

coolhandm3 said:
I removed the AG filter on this screen, if you look at my posts previously you will see pics of it, it made a huge difference!

I can remove the AG filter for you too, just pay for shipping if you would like it done.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the offer, but one of the reasons why I bought this screen was because it has AG. I absolutely detest glossy screens, because for me, the lighting has to be perfect in order to NOT notice myself as looking in a mirror, which drives me nuts. Actually, this screen is just semi-gloss, so I can see way more reflection in it than my old HP LP3065. I had to adjust the lighting in my room because I was getting glare from the back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top