HP 25-27" CW & XW: Almost-Glossy Overclock-able 1080p IPS

Yeah, normally you can get rid of these tints on the boxes in the lagom test by ajusting the contrast,. Rgb changing with contrast seems to be quite common nowadays, at least all 8 different monitors that I tried so far, no matter if TN, IPS or VA, showed this behaviour.

It is interesting that NCX's early HPs didnt have this greent tint issue. The AH-IPS screen from Dell and LG that I tried were from November/Dezember, the Acer that I currently have is from 2014 even, all had/have a green hue though. Panel roulette or faulty revision? I dont know, but I never thought it would be so difficult to get an at least half decent monitor these days.
 
MLegend said:
Here is the video showing the tint issue on the HP 25XW. Sorry about the crap quality. Here is the manufacturing info -
SN - 6CM6111SX8
Manuf- March 2016
Rev - DIM111



As you see in the video the monitor has a yellow tint that exists in the entire grayscale and effects colors as well as skin tones. Changing the RGB values changes the color of the tint and makes it worse. The weirdest part is when you adjust contrast. This also changes the color of the tint. Increasing this resulted in a dark blue tint on my unit. This is the 2nd 25XW i've bought hoping that this problem was only caused by a defective panel used in the first one that I received. That is not the case so i'm sending this back to amazon for a refund.

If this monitor didn't have the tint issue then it would absolutely replace my current monitor. Tinting issue aside, this monitor is very good. Excellent contrast for an ips, best overdrive i've seen in an ips, great shadow detail, almost glossy screen, delay free, and excellent sRGB coverage.
If HP fixes this issue in the future while maintaining the great performance, i'll buy it again. Until then I can't recommend this to anyone looking for an ips.
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Yep DIM111 March 2016 were the 2 HP 25xw I got. You got 2, another got 1 from these forums all March 2016 from amazon same issues and with NCX's update for the 27xw with this issue it sucks because I'd love to have seen this without the issue; clearly amazon only has the new March 2016 panels.

Until HP resolves/addresses or one can physically find older models of the 25xw or 27xw I cannot recommend it either.
What a shame I'd probably have kept it too it had the most glossy least AG screen, good overdrive wont say the best, not terrible IPS glow, and higher than average contrast (on 25xw at least). It had the best 6 bit FRC program I've seen too; even me with an eagle eye for dithering/banding due to 6 bit FRCs could not notice it except under certain circumstances.

Made a HP support thread: All HP 25xw/27xw March 2016s BIG Green Tint Issues - HP Support Forum - 5644945

Immolation1991 said:
Yeah, normally you can get rid of these tints on the boxes in the lagom test by ajusting the contrast,. Rgb changing with contrast seems to be quite common nowadays, at least all 8 different monitors that I tried so far, no matter if TN, IPS or VA, showed this behaviour.

It is interesting that NCX's early HPs didnt have this greent tint issue. The AH-IPS screen from Dell and LG that I tried were from November/Dezember, the Acer that I currently have is from 2014 even, all had/have a green hue though. Panel roulette or faulty revision? I dont know, but I never thought it would be so difficult to get an at least half decent monitor these days.
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I can't say except I have tried an older Dell 2014 IPS U2414 or whatever and it did not have a green tint issue like the HPs have. It however had the worst backlight bleed I've ever seen. Now, all monitors CAN have a tint you can usually get rid of via calibration/adjustments.

NCX did say in original review with Native color temp on the HP 25xw preset there was a slight green tint, but custom/adjustments got rid of it. So this is an issue that CAN be fixed but got fubar'd by LG in these current revision/batches where nothing can 100% get rid of it.

CONTRAST - the only monitor where it did NOT change RGB was my Benq EW2750ZL. Oddly the saturation option does this, completely changes color temp. But yeah all others Ive tried at some point contrast adjustment did but usually not as drastically as with these HPs batches.
 
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Redlemur said:
Yep DIM111 March 2016 were the 2 HP 25xw I got. You got 2, another got 1 from these forums all March 2016 from amazon same issues and with NCX's update for the 27xw with this issue it sucks because I'd love to have seen this without the issue; clearly amazon only has the new March 2016 panels.

Until HP resolves/addresses or one can physically find older models of the 25xw or 27xw I cannot recommend it either.
What a shame I'd probably have kept it too it had the most glossy least AG screen, good overdrive wont say the best, not terrible IPS glow, and higher than average contrast (on 25xw at least). It had the best 6 bit FRC program I've seen too; even me with an eagle eye for dithering/banding due to 6 bit FRCs could not notice it except under certain circumstances.

Made a HP support thread: All HP 25xw/27xw March 2016s BIG Green Tint Issues - HP Support Forum - 5644945.
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I REALLY hope they see that and actually look at all of the people that bought and returned the monitor and fix the damn thing. Going to make an account on there just so I can upvote your post. They NEED to see this.
 
MLegend said:
I REALLY hope they see that and actually look at all of the people that bought and returned the monitor and fix the damn thing. Going to make an account on there just so I can upvote your post. They NEED to see this.
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Agreed; much as I do love the VA monitor EW2750ZL; I prob would have kept the 25xw or 27xw if the color tinting wasn't there because it had the best panel (low haze glossy), higher than average contrast for IPS, not terrible glow, and quality FRC unlike most 6 bits. I looked at a Costco that sells 27xws, none pre Feb 2016 made. Sadly March is pretty recent for revisions; prob not until July/August would there be new batches that could fix the issue. More votes on thread tho maybe they just address its a known issue.
 
Are only the March panels effected by this tint issue? I have the opportunity to pick up an April 2016 25XW, but don't want to have the tint issue.
 
Malinkadink said:
Are only the March panels effected by this tint issue? I have the opportunity to pick up an April 2016 25XW, but don't want to have the tint issue.
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No idea; I was contacted by HP support who said this was discovered issue; but never said fix/etc. or that it effected all panels. But, I assume some future batch fixes it, only way to see is try it. Hopefully a place with easy returns.
 
Got a 27wx, it's just as good as NCX's review says. There's really nothing better in the 'classic' 60Hz Full-HD monitor realm, if you've only got about 200 zeni definitely get one of those good HP's.

When I first turned it on there was some quite visible backlight bleed on the bottom left. But it's gone after a couple sessions of gentle surface massaging, focusing on the edges.
The thing is not of the highest build quality as you'd expect from most monitors today no matter the price, the glossy surface apparently is only stuck to the actual display, you won't see screws or anything anywhere on the outside.
So I'm guessing since we have quite a warm summer over here the inner layers only sealed with sensitive sticky substances kind of suffered from the high temperatures during transport.

After fixing the bleeding I could notice some moderate white glow on the bottom right (doesn't it seem to you that it's often near the damn power indicator led?) though nothing embarrassing really, this IPS overall glows significantly less than your average one, it's true.
Also I have noticed a slight 'clear stain' near the bottom left, maybe some form of irregularity in the coating, but I don't notice it 99% of the time.

Anyway all's well now, sure the color controls aren't perfect, and the maximum brightness isn't the highest for those who might want a very bright display.
No speakers nor included VESA mount adapter either (and I tell you the original part isn't easy to source), but those are only minor inconveniences.

I'll post more impressions later as I test more stuff with it.

PS: dunno if the 2016 model, the 27es, overclocks perfectly to 75Hz too, or if it is locked like the new 25es ? Anyone knows ?
 
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Hey, been awhile! Wanted to make a quick inquiry. I've noticed some non-uniformity in my monitor, it looks like gray splotches a bit below the left center of the screen. A little on the upper left as well. It's definitely become a case of "once you see it" and while I can deal with it for now, I am prepared to RMA it. I went through HP directly, so I've got time. I almost RMA'd earlier in the year, but vouched to wait until I take some trips in the summer since I won't be using a monitor for a few days anyway.

But now I am seeing that the March batch from this year has tinting issues, and am apprehensive. I love the colors on this thing, and while I am annoyed by the burn-in/dirt under screen/whatever the gray smudge defect is, I don't want to screw myself out of an otherwise exceptional monitor. The one I am currently using has a manufacturer date of November 2015, so I know for a fact it doesn't suffer the same tinting issues. Should I wait until the tinting issue gets sorted out before trying an RMA and risk receiving an inferior display?
 
NCX recently wrote this. Can anyone with color tinting issues confirm if this helps?

I recently realized that the HP's color issues is caused by the the contrast being set too high. Certain shades and colors, especially the lagom.nl white saturation test suffer from blue (HP 27CW & XW) and yellow-green (HP 25er/CW/XW) tint which disappears when the contrast is dropped from 80 to 75.
 
^ Yes contrast @ 75 provides a more or less balanced picture, I'm only judging by eye though since I don't own a calibration device for accurate testing.
(my unit was manuf Feb 2016 btw)

I'd say it's not just 'green' because various contrast settings make it lean towards other colors like red or blue.
Keep in mind that I'm only talking about changing contrast over default 'neutral' settings. I would be surprised if there there weren't any means to achieve excellent results using custom settings along with the other controls.
I'll focus on that later.

PS: About the backlight bleed...it's back, looks like fixing a badly sealed lcd isn't done just by massaging. I'll investigate on a means to dfinitely fix it...when the warranty's done. Returning it until I get a BLB-free one will probably take several tries, I don't have the patience.
About the coating: I think I understand what they mean by 'low haze', in fact the monitor's IPS panel sits maybe immediately behind a slightly smoked layer. Thinking about it now, even back in the CRT days it was a means to artificially increase contrast, blackness, and get rid of unwanted clear things like too bright blacks or reflections. This also made the colors pop more and revealed details.
I don't see a better explanation, the 'clear stain' I have in a corner of the screen is revealing just that. When we were weeping over the lack of A-TW filters, that simple - not perfect but easy - solution had always been there.
I suspect most 'low-glow' IPSes I've seen in recent years are just the same.
 
Daniel_Chang said:
Just a heads up - The 27XW has been discontinued (remaining XW lineup is still intact). It's also been removed from the HP us website.

The 27XI was 2014, and the 27XW was 2015. I suspect we're about to get the 2016 successor to drop. My bet is on FreeSync support like Samsung's 27" 1080p lineup, either over HDMI, or via the inclusion of DisplayPort.
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The 2016 models are out. No FreeSync and no longer capable of overclocking to 75hz either but according to NCX the color presets are slightly more accurate.

The models are ES (black back) and ER (white back). I just ordered the HP 25es myself as it was on sale. $189 canadian vs $289 for the XW model.
 
Bestbuy has the 25es for $129.99 for anyone who is looking at these new ones.
 
MLegend said:
Yeah but they don't have the low haze treatment like the XW.
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Really? Who said the new models don't have the low haze coating ? NCX said they're the same.

OK so I just checked HP's website. 2016 models 25" and up are described as having a low haze panel while the 23" and below have the anti glare coating. Same as last year.
 
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I'm looking at the US site right now and there are only the XW and ER. No ES. There isn't even any mention of low haze anywhere for the ER. Where did NCX say they're the same. Did NCX review the new ER model? The low haze is the only reason I bought the XW in the first place but i've already went over why I returned it. If the new model doesn't have the issues the XW had but instead of having the low haze treatment it comes with regular anti glare then what's the point of releasing the new model?
 

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MLegend said:
I'm looking at the US site right now and there are only the XW and ER. No ES. There isn't even any mention of low haze anywhere for the ER. Where did NCX say they're the same. Did NCX review the new ER model? The low haze is the only reason I bought the XW in the first place but i've already went over why I returned it. If the new model doesn't have the issues the XW had but instead of having the low haze treatment it comes with regular anti glare then what's the point of releasing the new model?
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You're right that is weird. However if you go to HP Canada or Malaysia website you will see a more accurate description of the monitors. I guess the only way to get a panel with low haze is to move to either Canada or Malaysia. :D

My monitor is planned to arrive today if I am reading the tracking information correctly and I only just ordered yesterday.

As pointed out previously the tinting issue of the XW models can be resolved by using a contrast setting of 75 instead of 80. I'm curious to see if the 2016 models will have tinting issues out of the box.

I also want to test a theory. Normally it is a good idea to wait for an updated revision of a product as the device is perfected and often moved to market with bugs inorder to meet the release date such as consoles for example. However with monitors it seems they put their best panels in the first batch inorder to take advantage of positive reviews and word of mouth as bad reviews can kill a product line.

Another theory/question I have is will the new panel be better than it's predecessor or will it being even thinner be bad for Image Quality? Usually thinner monitors are more prone to backlight bleeding in my past experience.
 
Changing the contrast doesn't resolve the issue. It just changes the color of the tint. I hope the new model doesn't. That would just be pathetic. If that's true about the backlight bleed than jesus, that would just be ANOTHER thing. Hopefully not.
 
I can eliminate the tint, whatever color it is, using the Custom Colors menu.
@75 contrast on my unit the quick setting is Green 248, then I adjust Red and Blue a bit. Looks pretty great.

And backlight bleed is an issue with pretty much every IPS monitor of any name brand whatever the price, it's up to the buyer to see if he wants to return the unit (possibly several) until he gets one with the least bleeding (or completely free of it though that's rare).
It's tolerable on my unit so I've decided to keep it.
 
I wish my unit was able to do that when I had it but no matter what setting I had the contrast or picture preset set to the tint issue was still there. I closest I was able to achieve was a light faded blue/blue gray but the color temp was down in the 4000s.
 
MLegend said:
I wish my unit was able to do that when I had it but no matter what setting I had the contrast or picture preset set to the tint issue was still there. I closest I was able to achieve was a light faded blue/blue gray but the color temp was down in the 4000s.
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I can confirm that the new 2016 models have the same color tinting at contrast 80 but changing it to 75 and it's fine. Did these HP monitors always have this issue or did they change something in the panels/settings? I don't understand why they would make contrast 80 the default if that is the case. Why not just make 75 the default?

In your video you go from 80 to 100 but you never actually went down to 75. Also I notice you are comparing it to a Samsung D390HL. What is wrong with it and why do you want to upgrade. That is supposed to be a very nice gaming monitor no?

All I can say is compared to my Samsung S27C750P (VA panel) the HP 25es T.K.O.'s it in the first 5 seconds of plugging in the monitor and it's not even close. The colors, response time/ghosting/motion, shadow detail, clarity and viewing angles. All of it is just wow, it's almost like cheating. My Samsung has terrible gamma shift just from moving your head

The bad: I definitely have IPS glow in the corners and blacks are not as deep as VA panels. With the lights on it's practically tolerable but with the lights off it's pretty ridiculous. Trying to take a picture with my camera phone but don't know what I'm doing wrong. Should I adjust exposure? How do I take a picture of a solid black screen?


Richard Jones said:
I can eliminate the tint, whatever color it is, using the Custom Colors menu.
@75 contrast on my unit the quick setting is Green 248, then I adjust Red and Blue a bit. Looks pretty great.

And backlight bleed is an issue with pretty much every IPS monitor of any name brand whatever the price, it's up to the buyer to see if he wants to return the unit (possibly several) until he gets one with the least bleeding (or completely free of it though that's rare).
It's tolerable on my unit so I've decided to keep it.
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Richard,

What brightness level do you have it set to? Sharpness? Contrast? Overdrive level? For someone without a colorimeter, would the best settings be to just use neutral, contrast 75 and lower brightness?

Are you able to take a picture of your monitor with a pure black screen in the dark? Is it even worth it or just stick to using the monitor with some form of bias light? Not sure if the XW's have less ips glow and if it's worth trying to exchange mine for a better one?

I am also tempted to pick up a Benq EW2750ZL to test side by side but aside from the blacks I'm not sure the HP monitors can be beat. Hmmm decisions decisions...
 
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^ I have brightness around 60~80 depending on what I do with it, and overdrive always on. Contrast still at 75.

To be clear I don't have a colorimeter, only using a grayscale and fiddle with the settings until white looks white and greys look grey. I don't do color-critical work so for me this is good-enough.

I don't think the neutral setting is ideal, definitely with that monitor people need to stick it out and find the sweetspots in the settings by themselves, it won't happen just by pressing a single button.

IPS glow is there but again much less obvious than with most other IPSes I have seen, bias lighting will make things even better for some but personally I've been satisfied with the contrast/black performance even without it (I use 6500k led strips, they're a bit weak though).
Don't expect VA performance though, you buy an IPS for the colors, angles, and responsiveness, not for watching movies.

People shouldn't expect perfect displays at +/- $200 when it comes to colors control, the $2,000 Eizo or NEC justify their price because they advertise on that in particular. Not HP.
HP will switch parts and modify the firmware whenever they feel like and they don't have to tell the customer.
So, the HP's have their strenghts and weaknesses, and yes the weaknesses are annoying.
But on the strenghts side the quasi-glossiness, low glow, and incredible response put them on top of the 60Hz FHD IPS category, easily.
You buy one for these particular specs together - a first in that segment - not for professional use or watching movies.

It's still time to decide if you want one that can overclock to 75Hz (almost out of stock everywhere), or one of the newest with better color controls (until HP change that again lol).
I know people on the internet have way to high standards and expectations when it comes to displays, I can only say in their own category the HP's without a doubt are superior period.
The only thing you should worry about is your retailer's returns policy in case your unit has obnoxious backlight bleed.

PS: sorry can't take decent photos atm. my smartphone camera absolutely sucks at every damn job.
 
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Well the options for overdrive in the 2016 models are off, level 1, 2 and 3. Not sure which one to use.

These monitors are described as having minimal glow however this screenshot of mine doesn't look minimal does it? Mind you it doesn't look anywhere near this bad in person.

PS does bias lighting have to be behind the monitor or can I just buy a daylight light bulb and stick it i the light fixture on the ceiling?
 

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- Ugh, they went for a three-step overdrive? this is useless as there's only ever one that's balanced (typically the first step, less often the second, the third almost never).
- Your pic is a bit too over-exposed to tell, this is the problem with most cameras: they will make it look much worse than what our eyes can see.
- The light source must stand behind the monitor, or at least be directed towards the back of it.
 
Richard Jones said:
- Ugh, they went for a three-step overdrive? this is useless as there's only ever one that's balanced (typically the first step, less often the second, the third almost never).
- Your pic is a bit too over-exposed to tell, this is the problem with most cameras: they will make it look much worse than what our eyes can see.
- The light source must stand behind the monitor, or at least be directed towards the back of it.
Click to expand...

Thanks according to NCX, level 1 is the same as last years "on" setting. Level 2 provides even faster pixel response times with minimal overshoot making it even faster than some 60hz TN panels. As you said, level 3 is useless.
 
Bryson777 said:
I can confirm that the new 2016 models have the same color tinting at contrast 80 but changing it to 75 and it's fine. Did these HP monitors always have this issue or did they change something in the panels/settings? I don't understand why they would make contrast 80 the default if that is the case. Why not just make 75 the default?

In your video you go from 80 to 100 but you never actually went down to 75. Also I notice you are comparing it to a Samsung D390HL. What is wrong with it and why do you want to upgrade. That is supposed to be a very nice gaming monitor no?

All I can say is compared to my Samsung S27C750P (VA panel) the HP 25es T.K.O.'s it in the first 5 seconds of plugging in the monitor and it's not even close. The colors, response time/ghosting/motion, shadow detail, clarity and viewing angles. All of it is just wow, it's almost like cheating. My Samsung has terrible gamma shift just from moving your head

The bad: I definitely have IPS glow in the corners and blacks are not as deep as VA panels. With the lights on it's practically tolerable but with the lights off it's pretty ridiculous. Trying to take a picture with my camera phone but don't know what I'm doing wrong. Should I adjust exposure? How do I take a picture of a solid black screen?
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Yeah looking back I really wish I filmed going below 80 on the contrast. Trust me, I tried everything. I REALLY wanted to like the display. Absolutely nothing wrong with the Samsung. Just wanted a glossy ips screen with a contrast at least as good as the 390HL. The 25XW was the closest thing to that but the tinting ruined it for me. Guess i'll either have to wait till OLED gets down in price, which I know will be an eternity from now, or wait till something else comes out.
 
With this 27xw monitor, I'm noticing pretty conspicuous ghosting effects along edges.

Am I using a bad modeline?

Modeline 148.50 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1088 1125 +HSync +VSync
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Or is my VGA cable, physical panel, or GPU (Intel Integrated Graphics 3000) somehow deficient? Any suggestions are appreciated.
 

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That's not ghosting, it's font anti-aliasing. However, there can be issues when using VGA. Switch to a digital input if you can. If your motherboard supports DVI, use a cheap DVI-to-HDMI adapter to connect to the monitor. But if it's just font anti-aliasing, nothing you can do about that.

Also, the monitor is 1920x1080. Just want to confirm, you're running at 1920x1080, right?
 
Daniel_Chang said:
That's not ghosting, it's font anti-aliasing. However, there can be issues when using VGA. Switch to a digital input if you can. If your motherboard supports DVI, use a cheap DVI-to-HDMI adapter to connect to the monitor. But if it's just font anti-aliasing, nothing you can do about that.

Also, the monitor is 1920x1080. Just want to confirm, you're running at 1920x1080, right?
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Sorry that image is a little too zoomed in, so it's hard to tell what I meant to focus on. If you look closely at the black boundary line between the two boxes, it appears to repeat itself faintly as you scan horizontally across the screen. This happens with any hard edge, and I'm pretty sure it isn't bad software anti-aliasing because it looks the same from both Windows 10 and my Linux box.

Unfortunately I don't have any digital feeds to test with. I am running at 1920x1080, though.
 
sswoley said:
Sorry that image is a little too zoomed in, so it's hard to tell what I meant to focus on. If you look closely at the black boundary line between the two boxes, it appears to repeat itself faintly as you scan horizontally across the screen. This happens with any hard edge, and I'm pretty sure it isn't bad software anti-aliasing because it looks the same from both Windows 10 and my Linux box.
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Was the photo taken as the text was being scrolled (photo of motion), or was that static?
 
You know there's a whole chapter in the user guide about how to adjust the analog input, there are even testing patterns available on the disc.
If 'auto' isn't working well enough you can adjust clock and phase manually.

PS: they even provide color matching files lol.
 
MLegend said:
Yeah looking back I really wish I filmed going below 80 on the contrast. Trust me, I tried everything. I REALLY wanted to like the display. Absolutely nothing wrong with the Samsung. Just wanted a glossy ips screen with a contrast at least as good as the 390HL. The 25XW was the closest thing to that but the tinting ruined it for me. Guess i'll either have to wait till OLED gets down in price, which I know will be an eternity from now, or wait till something else comes out.
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There are other glossy monitors out there. I believe a couple were suggested in this thread. Will you be checking any of them out?

Curious Samsung pls panels are said to have more ips glow than ips panels. Would you say your 390HL has more or less glow than the XWs you tried?

Three weeks later and I sometimes still catch myself being amazed by how beautiful this monitor is. The motion, clarity of text, shadow detail, colors and vibrancy although sometimes a bit too much. The low haze is glossy without being reflective like a mirror. Kind of like the semi glossy coating on my Samsung tv.

Anyone know of any other professional reviews out there of these monitors other than NCXs?
 
The first XW I received had less ips glow by a small amount. My 390HL has a very small amount of glow so I consider myself very lucky. The 2nd XW I received had a lot of glow. Much more than the 390HL.
 
Yup, panel lottery and quality control issues, things don't change in the LCD world. :p

I consider myself lucky to have grabbed a 27xw before it went out of stock where I live.

My unit (feb 2016) is not perfect (a bit of BLB and a 'clear stain' on the coating, plus the flimsy color control settings) yet after some weeks with it I must say the strenghts of this monitor still outweight these particular flaws/weaknesses.

Too bad it's probably gone in this form (low glow overclockable) but no doubt HP will produce more updated and revised versions beyond the er/er in the future, hopefully as good as the original 25xw, 27cw and 27xw.
 
TheBestVideoGamer said:
Out of all the hp monitors which IPS's have the highest contrast?
I know 25xw is 1400-1500:1 how about the others?
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They will average to about 1,000:1. They're all based on the same or similar panels. Panel lottery will determine what you get. The one that NCX tested was a lottery winner.
 
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