Does anyone have the NEC EA244WMi yet?

U53r

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Messages
128
Hey Guys,

So as some of you probably know I'm still hunting for a monitor, was really unsatisfied with the Samsung S24A850DW because of its terrible light leaks and poor contrast/blacks.

Been eying the new NEC EA244WMi but would really like to know more about it and dont have the luxry of waiting for a site to do a review.

If anyone owns one, how well are the light leaks controlled? Does it get decent contrast and blacks? Are the colors up to par for an IPS display? How is the monitor for gaming, does it get good input lag?

Well I managed to find one review that just popped up, its not a great review as far as reviews go but it does satisfy some of my questions, looks like a solid monitor

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/pc-peripheral/3425961/nec-multisync-ea244wmi-review/?olo=rss
 
Last edited:
That review seems to be a copy of the review from MacWorld.co.uk that was mentioned in the other NEC EA244WMI thread we have going on here.

I'm likely to bite the bullet on this monitor this weekend based on that review, but I wish I had some more information to go on...someone has to be the guinea pig/early adapter I guess.

I had a nice 19" 4:3 NEC monitor that I used for about 5 years on a secondary computer until my 2 year old broke the power button and now it won't turn on/off. Someday I might try to see if it's fixable, but my otherwise good experience with that monitor will probably lead me to give the EA244WMI a shot...
 
I got this monitor 2 days ago.

It has light AG coating, good input response latency (at least for me for FPS games) as well as no observable visual ghosting (for me). Objectively, the monitor is well calibrated - you can see the full gamut of gray from 1 to 254 (tested on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/). Colors seem accurate. With full white and full black screens, the white and black are evenly distributed across the screen. There is maybe a very slight yellowish tint in the lower part of the screen but that is not a big deal. There is no visible back-light bleeding from the edges on a fully black screen. I have one hot pixel - shows as red on a white background and black on black background (i.e. not visible on black) - in general it is hardly discernible.

Overall this is a nice monitor.

If you have any questions I would answer as much as I can.
 
Great! Do you happen to know anything about its PWM flicker speed relative to other similar monitors? I only recently became aware of this whole phenomenon from another thread. And now I'm slightly concerned because I don't know if I might be one of those people who is sensitive to that flicker. I have not bought any monitors since before the LED-based ones came out so AFAIK I've never tested such a screen on my eyes.
 
I ordered this monitor from B&H Photo for $362 I'll have it within a week. I don't know much about monitor quality but I'll post my opinion about how it compares to the monitors I have used.
 
How would you describe the black levels on it? Generally about the same as most IPS monitors? How noticeable is the IPS glow?

And when you say the screen is a light AG coating, would you describe it as being standard matte, or more like semiglossy -- with a bit of reflection, but not like a full glossy screen?
 
PWM Flicker (or lack thereof)

I haven't noticed any flickering. I am using the screen at 40% - 50% brightness, which would suggest that I am using the monitor within a lower range of brightness that supposedly worsens the PWM situation, but I don't notice flickering.

Black levels

When the full screen is totally black in a totally dark room, the black glow is definitely visible but I would say it is similar to majority of other IPS monitors. The good thing is that the glow is evenly distributed (i.e. no edge and corner leaking which would have been annoying). The black levels during normal use in a normally lit room (even in a dark room) appear really deep though which is due to the good contrast ratio (1000:1 by spec) of this monitor.

Display coating

I use this monitor along with an HP laptop with a matte IPS screen. The coating on both of them is similar (i.e. same smoothness when looked against light). I also have a Dell 2007fp IPS monitor, and the coating there is significantly rougher. The Dell's screen feels as if covered with transparent glittering sand, while this monitor's panel has a very smooth matte finish.
 
Last edited:
Would love to know how the coating compares to Dell u2412.

There is no floor display at B&H. :-(
 
Hm...I'd like to see a review on TFT, might be interested in this over a U2412M in a multi-monitor setup if it's comparable and the AG is lighter
 
I am interested in this monitor as well. I was closely watching for a sale on the U2412m, but the comments I have seen to date on the AG coating of the NEC have piqued my interest.

I think the u2413 looks great as well with its specs and suposed lighter AD coating, but that is a different price category all together. This NEC may be a great alternative to the 2412.
 
Really want to see a review on this. I emailed TFT central and they responded saying it was one they were interested in reviewing but gave no clue as to when that may happen.
 
I got this monitor now. I do notice some back light bleeding in the lower right and left corners in dark scenes (which lessens the farther away from the monitor you are, but I'm fairly close, little more than arms length usually) turning down the brightness helps, which I have to do anyway since the brightness hurts my eyes after a while. However when you have the level set right the contrast and picture quality is excellent, blacks are quite visible and in addition the black level can be adjusted separately in the menu. Response times seem fast and the matte-ness is very smooth, I don't see grain or sparkles.
 
Yea I bought one too but I'm regretting it, the color's dont have the pop of a nice IPS display they're kinda dull and thats at 85% brightness, any lower and I find they get really dull and everything just looks dull, the light bleed and ips glow is really bad and it completely ruins dark scenes in videos and games.

I find text isnt very sharp either and thats after playing with cleartype. Its missing a panel rotation stop so you just have to guess at where it's level so it never really is unless you put a level on it.

The panel is not properly set along the top bezel and if you touch it it cracks and pushes away from the bezel.

Worst part is I fear I'm stuck with the damn thing.
 
Last edited:
v413 and Emton,

What do you think about reading text on this screen? Any better or worse than comparable screens? The majority of my usage will be for doing work, reading e-books, browsing, etc.

Also what do you think about the rotation? How is switching between landscape and portrait mode?
 
DaRuSulaman, its not a very good monitor, the colors are weak for an IPS display and lack pop and vibrance, I've had two of these now and in both cases the panel was not set properly along the top bezel, it moves freely and creeks and cracks if you touch it even gently.

The rotation does not have a stop so there is no way to get it perfectly level unless you actually take a level to it.

The IPS glow and balcklight bleeed is quite bad and makes the monitor only really usable for office applications and web surfing.
 
Last edited:
One other observation, the quality of the panels used in these seems to vary a bit, the original one I got is quite a bit better then the replacement I received (I kept the original), the replacement had duller colors and a lower contrast ratio, it also was not able to reproduce certain light shades of violet/purple which the original one can (they just show up as white), perhaps due to the lower contrast ratio. The replacement also had a slightly different color back light, it was almost on the green side, which made whites a lot less appealing.

So I guess if you get lucky and get a 'good' one of these then its an ok monitor if you can live with the light bleed and high ips glow, input lag seems quite good and I dont notice any ghosting or input delay while gaming.
 
@DaRuSsIaMaN

About reading text
I think this monitor is doing an OK job. The lack of sparkling from the coating is helping. The monitor doesn't have a sharpness setting to help you tweak the picture in this respect but that is not a big deal, I usually try to not use sharpness settings anyway. And now I little digression: the only problem I find about reading texts with this screen is not something specific about this screen but the low resolution. I am getting used to a 27" mac screen with higher res along with a 15" 1080p laptop screen and 24" 1920 x 1200 simply is too rough for text. And especially if you happen to get used to the new mac laptop high res screens you wont want to go back - text is sooo smooth.

Colors
I am perfectly happy with the colors of my screen. This is not a wide gamut LCD display which is actually a good thing. I had such a TN monitor and it was a pain to make it show correct colors that don't seem artificially saturated. This LCD is not glossy. This naturally dulls a little bit the vividness of the colors (compared to glossy screen) but they are still good to me - natural and well saturated (not artificially looking).

Rotation
As mentioned before, this screen doesn't have a stop when you rotate sideways so you have to manually adjust the perfect horizontal/vertical position. I am fine with this, it is well adjustable.

Based on what I read, and based on its price, this display seems to probably not use A grade panels, hence the variation of quality from panel to panel. I guess they use the A grade panels for their professional line of monitors.
 
The rotation may be easily adjustable but you know your screen is never really level unless you take a level to it which is really annoying.

Honestly, I had a nearly 3 year old TN monitor that got just as good colors as this one but without the light bleed or the glow and cost me $250, in no way are these IPS displays a good value.
 
TFT Central just informed me that they have no immediate plans to review this monitor. =\
 
but they did update their twitter feed i see from their home page

Lots of people asking us about the NEC EA244WMi. No immediate plans to review but we will try and get one in the near future :)
 
It's disappointing to hear the feedback so far. I'm actually looking into it's little brother, the EA224WMi, but I'm assuming they'll both feature a similar build quality. I've been trying to decide between the EA224WMi and the Dell U2212HM, as all the talk about the Dell's anti-glare coating has scared me (and I haven't been able to see one in person). In addition, the ambient light sensors and audio pass-through features of the NEC are very attractive. Not worth it if the panel and it's build quality suck, though.
 
Have you considered the Eizo EV2336, it has a soft glare, no PWM, ambient light sensor...
 
Have you considered the Eizo EV2336, it has a soft glare, no PWM, ambient light sensor...

Wow, I'm not sure how I missed that! Specs-wise, it looks perfect. I can only find it at one (questionable) reseller here in the US, though, and for almost 2x the price of the Dell. :(
 
Ripping this straight from the Eye strain monitor thread:

Edit: Now that you mention US distributors, I seem to have found one US distributor (if I'm looking at their contact info right) called pcconnection. Though they appear to be out of stock on the item at present (I've just emailed their support to ask about when it might be restocked). $365 doesn't seem like a bad price for it...

And $365 is a decent price for an Eizo -- cheapest I've seen that model go for, in fact. I checked macconnection just now (same company) and they have it listed for sale, but on order. I expect it can be purchased, but they need to get them directly from Eizo to fulfill the order.

Hope that helps.
 
EV2436 has hard coating, same than U2412....

Oh really? By hard coating you mean the aggressive anti-glare coating everyone is talking about?

That seems strange. Aren't they basically the same model but just different size? So shouldn't they have the same features?
 
Oh really? By hard coating you mean the aggressive anti-glare coating everyone is talking about?

That seems strange. Aren't they basically the same model but just different size? So shouldn't they have the same features?

I believe the 24" Eizo has an e-IPS panel (as in Dell U2412) and the 23" model has a PLS panel, so they are actually fairly different.
 
Back
Top