Auria EQ276W review ($399 27" 2560x1440 IPS)

I was in the local MC today and saw one of these. They look NICE. The picture on the MC website is horrible, it has a glossy bezel but I don't think it looks cheesy at all (less so than my dual Emprex 26" monitors). The screen is glossy, which is a bummer, but I think I could live with it.

The stand does suck though. It will swivel and tilt a tiny amount, but no height adjustment (this does not shock me). They look like they come off easily enough and you have a 100x100 vesa mount on the back.

If I could find someone local to buy my 2 x 26" 1920x1200 monitors I would totally get 2 of these. Only downside for me is the extra 2 inches combined width will block my Klipsch promedia sats behind my monitors completely. Might be time to take off the bottoms stands and lay those on the side, under the monitors...
 
I was in the local MC today and saw one of these. They look NICE. The picture on the MC website is horrible, it has a glossy bezel but I don't think it looks cheesy at all (less so than my dual Emprex 26" monitors). The screen is glossy, which is a bummer, but I think I could live with it.

The stand does suck though. It will swivel and tilt a tiny amount, but no height adjustment (this does not shock me). They look like they come off easily enough and you have a 100x100 vesa mount on the back.

If I could find someone local to buy my 2 x 26" 1920x1200 monitors I would totally get 2 of these. Only downside for me is the extra 2 inches combined width will block my Klipsch promedia sats behind my monitors completely. Might be time to take off the bottoms stands and lay those on the side, under the monitors...

I have the Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultra's and the center channel is still too tall for this monitor with the stock stand. I'll soon be purchasing a VESA desk mount for this unit from Monoprice, and this will no longer be an issue. I just wanted to make you aware that the Klipsch sats, even if laid on their sides, won't have full clearance from the monitor. :)
 
I have the Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultra's and the center channel is still too tall for this monitor with the stock stand. I'll soon be purchasing a VESA desk mount for this unit from Monoprice, and this will no longer be an issue. I just wanted to make you aware that the Klipsch sats, even if laid on their sides, won't have full clearance from the monitor. :)

I have a dual monitor vesa mount already which gives 11cm clearance the way I have it set up. I just took the stands off, and laid them on their sides and they just barely fit. And they sound better too since I was blocking 50% of the speaker before. I put some small rubber feet under the front of them to tip upwards slightly and to keep them from roaming. The volume control is awkward being on the bottom right, but I can get used to it.

I'm super tempted now... I will have to stealth them in or the wife will not be pleased though. She thought I was dumb/nerdy to go dual. But since these are black and not much bigger I am not sure she would notice the difference honestly.
 
You wouldn't happen to have gone to the MN one by chance? That's exactly what they were configured like at my store (MN).
That's where I got mine for the original post; that first batch sold out quick. Glad to see these weren't a one-shot deal.
 
I noticed this weekend that the monitor doesn't seem to turn on until windows is booted (pretty quick due to ssd). till i get home i don't know if i can get into BIOS lol. scaler should pick up the bios correct? i know the shimian people had to switch the bootup graphics from the built in one to pci-e.
 
^ It is pretty slow to react to bios screens. When I had both this and the HP hooked up, the Aurio only showed the motherboard splash screen for an instant (probably because I set a delay) - the rest of the boot stuff never showed up. The HP showed everything as you would expect.

So yeah, if you are building/troubleshooting a system you probably want another monitor on hand (or know what keys to hold down...)
 
I noticed this weekend that the monitor doesn't seem to turn on until windows is booted (pretty quick due to ssd). till i get home i don't know if i can get into BIOS lol.

Uh yeah that's a bummer and a dealbreaker. Which input are you using?

I mean if I have to keep an old CRT laying around just to get into BIOS that's pretty sad
 
edit: nm since i don't own this specific monitor.
 
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This monitor will not play certain older apps like Marvel vs Capcom 2 on the PS3 or some cutscenes from games that were 480i/480p, for whatever reason it will not work. It also work not work correctly with Uverse, when I would turn Uverse off it would have to be rebooted each time - connected to my Asus 25 and LP2475w and it worked perfectly, no matter what I tried would work initially with this monitor until you turned it off. Great screen, though it does have it's quirk - I think the brightness is going to hurt the longevity of this display. I have my HP on 40 brightness and it's almost 4 years old, this display I had to have the contrast about 75 and the brightness in the mid 60's in the first week of ownership - not good.
 
hm i was hitting del as much as i could on but i can't get into BIOS at all on the DVI. I mainly get into BIOS to OC lol.
 
bios/POST load for me over VGA, so i guess i'll keep a cord hanging off the back to plug in when i need it
 
I can access the BIOS with my monitor hooked up via Display-port. The internal scaler is slow to change resolutions, so that's why we're not seeing the POST info. Just hit DEL like normal and you should be able to access it no problem. :)
 
Yeah i hit delete and let it hang not going to windows and nothing for me on DVI. I'll try hooking up a VGA cable to the DVI-D port on my 670 and see if that works.
 
so did anyone have any luck overclocking these? to 75hz atleast?
 
Picked one of these up the other day,
First one had a signal loss issue. The second one is working great. Tera, BF3, D3, WoW all work and look awesome.

I also don't get a screen until windows loads. My way around this is just keeping a VGA cable with the dvi adapter connected and swap when booting so I can see my boot screen and BIOS etc. (when I need it, otherwise dvi-hdmi)

Not a big deal to me as I've wanted one of these to replace my Hanns-G 27" 1080p for a while. My local MC sold through them pretty quick as well.
 
What settings is everyone finding to look the best?

I've tried default settings and upping the brightness to 75 and contrast to 60. DCR off and Standard color.
 
63 brightness
50 contrast
DCR off
User color: R100 G86 B73
eyeball calibration but I'm pretty happy
 
63 brightness
50 contrast
DCR off
User color: R100 G86 B73
eyeball calibration but I'm pretty happy

Rather not have to mess with calibration software lol.

It seems R100 G85 and B73 seems to be pretty good.

I seem to like my Brightness higher though around 75 and contrast 55.
 
posted these setting from a spyder 4 pro a couple days ago and they loooooooook greeeeeeeat.


Got this from overclock.net and its much better with the profile from pabloedvardo. grab the profile from the link
http://www.overclock.net/t/1257538/...60x1440-korean-ips-monitors/250#post_17389912
[quote name="pabloedvardo" url="/t/1257538/microcenter-now-carrying-the-27-2560x1440-korean-ips-monitors/250#post_17389912"]Just received mine, working flawlessly with my GTX570 HD through Dual-Link DVI (included cable).
One dead pixel near the middle somewhat, but impossible to notice from a distance.
The contrast is great out of the box, after calibration just a minor color difference.
Attached is the color profile, calibrated for 2.2 gamma with 6500k white point.
Note this monitor DOES display 100% of sRGB
Definitely like this better than the Crossover 2720MDP. Couple quirks, but better price!

[ATTACHMENT=5128]Auria27226500k.zip (2k. zip file)[/ATTACHMENT]
Edit: I should mention, this profile is for using the default settings on the monitor after a factory reset. Have Eco on Standard, Brightness 80, Contrast 50, DCR OFF, and '6500k' white point color setting. The downside to this method is that the color is corrected in the LUT of the video card, so your color won't be corrected in most games unless you play in windowed fullscreen mode. If you want to use a profile that solves this, keep reading:
Using the Spyder4Elite I enabled an advanced option which allows me to utilize the RGB sliders on the OSD for the monitor. This means the Spyder will sample the color as you adjust the sliders so you can get 6500k with using only the monitor settings (the profile will still calibrate gamma though). Anyway, this is beneficial because then games in fullscreen should still look color accurate, since the white point is determined with your sliders.
I created a profile using this method, and it is attached below. To use it you must match the above settings mentioned (from a factory reset) in addition to changing the color temp from 6500k to 'USER'. Then set your color values to the following:
RED 100
GREEN 85
BLUE 73
Again, leaving DCR OFF and ECO STANDARD with default Brightness/Contrast.
Enjoy!
[ATTACHMENT=5132]Auria27226500kRGB.zip (2k. zip file)[/ATTACHMENT]
[/QUOTE]
 
Anyone using this monitor with one of the stands from monoprice? How do they perform?
 
Just got this yesterday. Coming from a single 17" monitor, this thing is amazing. :p
 
Yup did an instore pickup. They had a whole bunch of them in the NJ store. The customer service checked for dead or stuck pixels before I took it home and found none. The store is about 1 hour away. Just right IMO (not so close that I go bankrupt constantly buying things there, but close enough to make really nice deals worth getting).
 
Hi all, I was in the market for a 27" glossy monitor and after finding this thread I headed to my local Microcenter and got one. Created an account just to post my experience with the monitor.

I'm not going to discuss the stand, because it is irrelevant to me as far as monitor quality goes.

So far I have used a Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitor, that I got a few years back - 2407WFP.

Compared to the Dell, the Auria has worse viewing angles - at about 30-45 degrees you start seeing a whiteout. Looks good when facing straight though.

There is backlight bleeding - not noticeable unless looking at a black screen, but definitely more than the Dell.

Even after calibration, the monitor cannot display deep dark blacks, they are noticeably lighter than the black on my Dell.

Colors are good, but there is banding. Not noticeable unless you test for it. When testing, the Dell has barely just a hint of banding, while I could clearly see bands on the Auria, slight bands, but more noticeable than on the Dell. When seeing smoke and such in games I could see no evident banding. or at least it did not draw my attention.

Text is crisp, overall the picture looks smoother and cleaner than that of the Dell, due to the dot pitch I guess.

Switching resolutions as in game is set to 1920x1200 while desktop is 2560x1440 is jarring and heavy-handed, but quick enough.

While playing Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur at max quality and native resolution I was getting 45-60 FPS in Skyrim and 70-80 in Amalur - using a Radeon HD 5870 1GB.

The picture felt more...jittery..skippy..., especially when doing quick turns, which surprised me since these are not low frame rates.

I switched I to 1920x1200 to test if it will improve, and I got smooth playback at constant 60 fps in Skyrim (I believe the game is capped at 60), and 145ish in Amalur. - gameplay smooth as silk.

I'm no expert here, but my guess is I just need to upgrade my card to a HD7970. Is there another explanation? Could that be due to monitor dropping frames maybe?

Anyway to test one way or another?

P.S.
All rates as shown by Fraps. Monitor calibrated using i1 display sensor and its Advanced calibration method.
 
If you change your resolutions (which you shouldn't but to each their own) please change to 1920x1080 since that is the proper aspect ratio for this screen (16:9), same as 2560x1440. 1920x1200 is 16:10, which could be a part of why switching resolutions is so "jarring" to you.

Also, if you feel the need to upgrade your video card, you don't have to go a 7970. You could buy a 7850 for like $200 (or a bit more) that would give you plenty of performance for Skyrim. Or you could always just... lower a setting here and there and see how it looks. Lowering the resolution generally harms your image quality more than it helps your framerate (at least when compared to stuff like High settings vs Ultra, or lowering the Anti-Aliasing level).

You should also use a frame-limiter to max you at 60 FPS in these games, since this can make the game look smoother.
 
Oh the changing resolutions part was for testing purposes, to stress the monitor see what happens.

Similar switches on the Dell still make the picture jump around but is overall much smoother and quicker.
As for the video card, from what I know, a 7850 is on-par with my 5870 in performance, if not weaker.

Still the "stuttering".. or how should I describe it.."skipping" I experienced in Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur when the games were working at 45-60fps (Skyrim) or 70-80fps (Amalur), was very unusual. I don't believe I have ever experienced that before when gaming at anything over 30 fps.

An example would be my character spinning in place when surrounded by some hills with tall tress on them. The trees would not roll around smoothly, but would skip as in 24fps movies when the camera is panning fast. Something hat I thought should not happen at 45-70fps. Happens in Kingdoms of Amalur which shows as running at 70-75-80 with V-sync disabled, or even when v-sync is enabled. Actually seeing this when V-Sync was enabled is what prompted me to try disabling so I get more fps from the card to monitor.

At the lower resolution, that does not happen, which led me to believe it was somehow insufficient video card power problem.

Could input lag do this? would it make sense for the monitor to have input lag at native resolution that is so bad it can cause such experience?

Anyone know good tests for ghosting?

I will try lowering setting until I get a constant 60 fps and see if it disappears. I'm hoping all it is is the video card not being powerful enough, but 45 (or 70) fps should have looked smooth to begin with... weird.
 
It could be VRAM issues with an older 1GB card. Do you have a lot of mods for Skyrim?
 
Oh yes, around 20. But then Amalur does not and is having the same problem even though it is running at higher fps than Skyrim.
Low VRAM could be though, 1GB is on the low side for 2560x1440.

Just did some more tests. Reducing graphic quality improves the stuttering some. No stuttering when playing at 1920x1080 window mode.

The games colors do seems a bit washed-out tho, moving the game window from the Auria to the Dell shows the Auria having a white fog overlay. Probably due to it not being able to display black as dark as the Dell.

Ah compromises.. to get it all perfect looks like I might have to get me one of the 27-30" Dell Ultrasharps again.. even though they don't have a glossy screen.. and that will make me get a new video card too. haha

So to get it all pimped out I would have to spend close to 2000 bucks. That hurts.
 
Locuus, just to let you know (in case you weren't aware), you're comparing the 2407 FPW which is a S-PVA panel to an IPS screen. IPS is known to not have as deep of blacks as VA tech, and is also known to have IPS Glow.

The trade off is, usually a better response time to that of VA panels, and both panels should be able to be calibrated for color critical applications.

I came from a Samsung 2333T (VA Panel) to this, as well. I also noticed the blacks are better than this monitor, but otherwise colors are just as good between the two.

You stated you noticed back-light bleed, have you looked at the bleed straight on to make certain it's not just the IPS glow (the bleed should disappear when looking at it straight on if it's just glow). I don't have any backlight bleed on mine, but there is glow.

I apologize if you're already aware of this, just reading your other posts, you didn't talk about the panel tech at all. So I wasn't certain if you were aware that the comparison you're making between the 2 monitors isn't completely apples to apples. :)

EDIT: I'm also running this monitor with a 5870 and haven't noticed the stuttering you're talking about. Just average framerates are lower for me than my previous monitor because of the bump in resolution.
 
Ah Thanks for this, I was not aware of the difference in panels. For some reason I thought the Dell was IPS as well.
The lightness does disappear if I put mu face perpendicular to it. It's most noticeable in the bottom 2 corners when I face the center top half the screen and look down towards the corners.

It's hard to explain what I call stuttering.. an example with Amalur since it is more pronounced there - when I run and start turning in circles at 1920x1080 the character's back is stable and clear. At 2560x1440 doing the same thing results int he back of my char showing something that I can only explain as ghosting, but I doubt that is the problem. Basically each shoulder has 2 more edges to the sides.. like if you draw 3 characters 1 millimeter apart... like something looks when it's vibrating.

Again this is not there at lower resolutions and gets a bit better when i turn down everything I can in the gfx quality settings.

Now that could be some problem with this particular game, resolution and gfx card.. no idea.
It irritates my eyes looking at it, it's like I can't focus right. It'll probably give me a headache if I play for several hours.

What game do you play that you can say looks smooth/stable/great? Maybe I can try it and compare notes.


edit: I did some more testing and direct comparisons, and you are right - the colors are just as good. on the Auria. I dropped the brightness some more from what the calibration tool set it to, and I actually like the picture even more. Blacks got a bit darker too. Compared a lot of images and the colors are pretty deep and picture is smooth. Cannot see any banding when looking at regular things.

I shoudl have said this earlier, but thanks for your help guys! I do appreciate your time.
 
Ah Thanks for this, I was not aware of the difference in panels. For some reason I thought the Dell was IPS as well.
The lightness does disappear if I put mu face perpendicular to it. It's most noticeable in the bottom 2 corners when I face the center top half the screen and look down towards the corners.

It's hard to explain what I call stuttering.. an example with Amalur since it is more pronounced there - when I run and start turning in circles at 1920x1080 the character's back is stable and clear. At 2560x1440 doing the same thing results int he back of my char showing something that I can only explain as ghosting, but I doubt that is the problem. Basically each shoulder has 2 more edges to the sides.. like if you draw 3 characters 1 millimeter apart... like something looks when it's vibrating.

Again this is not there at lower resolutions and gets a bit better when i turn down everything I can in the gfx quality settings.

Now that could be some problem with this particular game, resolution and gfx card.. no idea.
It irritates my eyes looking at it, it's like I can't focus right. It'll probably give me a headache if I play for several hours.

What game do you play that you can say looks smooth/stable/great? Maybe I can try it and compare notes.


edit: I did some more testing and direct comparisons, and you are right - the colors are just as good. on the Auria. I dropped the brightness some more from what the calibration tool set it to, and I actually like the picture even more. Blacks got a bit darker too. Compared a lot of images and the colors are pretty deep and picture is smooth. Cannot see any banding when looking at regular things.

I shoudl have said this earlier, but thanks for your help guys! I do appreciate your time.

Well, the games I'm playing right now are Source games (Half Life 2 & Left 4 Dead 2) they're always above 100FPS if I leave v-sync off so those games are buttery smooth. I also am playing through Fallout: New Vegas again. I'll keep an eye out in that game as that and Skyrim both use the Gamebryo engine. So far, I haven't noticed anything unusual with Fallout yet though.

I remember when I switched to this monitor at the beginning of June having some frames per second issues with quite a few games. It wasn't stuttering, but just very low in comparison to what they should be. Left 4 Dead was getting 40FPS max.

I had uninstalled catalyst drivers and reinstalled the newest ones, but still didn't fix the issue. Not until I uninstalled the Cats and also ran driver sweeper to clean out all the registry entries for the old drivers, as well. Only then did everything return to normal.

It's a stretch, but you may want to give that a try to see if that clears up your issue. :)
 
Alright!!!
I am happy to report that the latest beta drivers 12.7 beta have fixed the problem with stuttering. I get more fps in the games and the weird stuttering is gone! Woot!

As a bonus, my wife told me that the mother in law wanted to make each of us a present, and mine will be.. $400 for the monitor I just got. Haha.

How about that?! Can't argue with a free monitor :)
 
are these panels A- like the korean monitors on ebay?

i'd imagine so considering the price point but these are backed by a 1 year american warranty at least so no hassle of shipping back to korea should something go wrong.
 
What are the dimensions of the monitor. I am interested in the height from the desktop. I've had problems with the ACD being to high.
Thanks
 
Ordered this from MC. Their Santa Clara store closed recently so had to spend another 17 bucks for shipping. Hope I get a decent panel :)

Anyone connected a Mac via Displayport
 
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