HP ZR2440w

John2000

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
90
Hi,

Finally TFT Central has now made the review of the HP ZR2440w monitor public:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_zr2440w.htm

Since, we now have a public high quality review of this monitor available, what's your opinion on it? And how do you think it compares to the direct competitor, the Dell U2412M?

PS. I know various specific aspects of the HP ZR2440w has been discussed in several other threads. But since we now have a first public high quality official review of the monitor, can we please keep this the single general thread for the HP ZR2440w, with only the monitor model in the title (HP ZR2440w) as is common practice for such threads.
 
Having paid for the review a week ago, what disturbed me the most about the ZR2440w was the potential color tinting/banding in gradients. It is mentioned briefly in the review as not being a real issue, but then I found this review and photo.

This google translated review shows the issue:
http://translate.google.com/transla...luxx.de/community/f111/hp-zr2440w-850609.html

Here is the specific picture:
hp_zr2440w_review_banding.jpg

I'd like to see a higher resolution photo of the monitor to prove this out.

ZR2440w:

Pro:
  • HDMI input provides another digital input, losing VGA not an issue
  • 1:1 scaling
Con:
  • Potential banding in gradients
  • Input lag at 20ms vs 9 for U2412M
  • Cost approximately $100 more right now (Amazon) than the Dell U2412M
Current cost differences aside, it probably is a pretty worthy competitor to the Dell and if I could see the banding issue in person, perhaps it is a non-issue. I'd prefer the HP for the HDMI input too.
 
How were you able to view the review? It still has the pay screen up for me, even though it is now 12/23...
 
Make sure you refresh the page. Probably still accessing the page from your cache
 
Do anyone know if it is flicker free. It seems like a nice monitor but I am worried about eye strain.
 
Does anyone know if HP is flexible with their website prices? In Australia, HP is asking for $700 which is outrageous considering the Dell U2412M is like half the price.
 
How does the 2440 compare to the ZR24w. I see the 1:1 scaling and the swap of VGA to HDMI but anything else? Thanks.
 
Yep, that was my issue. Thanks!

I'm also curious, as the poster above me, about the flickering of this screen.

This is the same type of panel in the U2412M (I have 2) so I'm sure it is PWM controlled and subject to the strobe effect. I personally do not notice it unless I quickly pan my eyes back and forth.

How does the 2440 compare to the ZR24w. I see the 1:1 scaling and the swap of VGA to HDMI but anything else? Thanks.

  • + Lower brightness levels achievable on the ZR440w
  • + Higher contrast ratio (I briefly had the ZR24w side by side with the Dell U2412M and the contrast level on the ZR24w was not nearly as good)
  • + Lower power consumption being LED vs CFL
  • + Potentially longer life of LED without CFL backlight dimming over time

Personally, I would not consider the two year old ZR24w at this point in time. If you do some research, you'll find a lot of posts regarding power related issues (which mine was one of them).
 
I just got one of these and I also have a U2311H to compare it with, here are my impressions...

The U2311H beats it hands down, even though Dell decided to obsolete this IMO very good model in favor of LED backlighting (a step back in my opinion when it comes to how well the image looks on it).

Angles are pretty good, but I have the impression that the U2311H has a slight advantage. Not enough to really make a difference, though.

The colors are OK (even the reds look reasonable enough to me - I read some complaints about the U2412M about pinkish reds in the past, this one appears OK), but unfortunately mine has a slight yellowish tint in the middle of the screen on white backgrounds (or maybe the brightness is not uniform, thus making the white point look different across the screen? I can't really say since I don't have any professional calibration tools and not much experience with LCD monitors). Maybe people less pretentious than I could live with that, but I think I'll just return the monitor, because this is not its only fault. I also have some barely perceptible warmer color tinting (not yellowish, but more pink-violet) on the right side of my U2311H, but I got used to it. Apparently, these kinds of issues are something common, which is a shame.

The gamma "eyeball" test in lagom.nl reveals a pitifully low value of only around 1.6-1.8, so the image does appear somewhat washed out compared to the U2311H (I didn't bother to look at the gamma on that one, but it looked pleasing to my eyes; no obvious bleach or 'harsh' colors)

I also have around 10 stuck pixels, they appear as tiny green or blue "stars" on a dark background. They look like colored tiny specks of dust. On a cheaper display maybe I would've lived with them, but at this price point - I don't think so.

The contrast appears fine, though the Dell U2311H still seems to be somewhat better subjectively, but it's not a big difference. With lights off, some backlight bleeding is revealed, especially in the lower-left corners, even at low brightness levels.

About PWM flicker: I bought this model because prad.de gave it its maximum rating and mentioned that the frequency is high enough to not be a problem except for the most sensitive people. I did the "hand waving" test at brightness below 70 or 80 and I could see the multiple edges that are due to the strobe effect. In the end, I found that I could handle a brightness of 90 or even 100 (my room is quite brightly lit and the monitor is near the window), so PWM is not a problem for me. Overall the monitor seems to be reasonably easy on the eyes (in terms of eye strain, at least) at these brightness levels, with strong ambient lighting of course. I don't know about lower brightness settings and I don't really intend to subject my eyes to too much PWM flicker.

The reviews say that input lag is 20 ms. I couldn't really feel it negatively in games, then again I'm more of a casual gamer. The overdrive is well implemented, no streaks or blurring that I could see.

Some noticeable abrupt color changes on gradients, something that the TFTCentral review mentions. This is probably thanks to the 6-bit depth, although the U2311H is also 6-bit and seems to be handling gradients much better. I couldn't see any green color tint on gradients, nor could I notice these kinds of issues in normal, everyday usage.

This monitor is quite a disappointment for me, I was expecting something as good as my U2311H based on the prad.de rating of "sehr gut" (very good).

What do you guys think? Should I just replace it with another one of the same model, or should I go maybe for a Dell U2312HM or maybe U2412M, PA238Q? I am weary of low gamma issues, uniformity issues, low contrast, and an Eizo Foris at a reasonable price in my country is out of the question. Any advice for a possible replacement? I would of course prefer 16:10, but image quality trumps everything else.
 
Last edited:
What do you guys think? Should I just replace it with another one of the same model, or should I go maybe for a Dell U2312HM or maybe U2412M, PA238Q?

Some Dell U2412M monitors also have a yellow tint on parts of the screen, see:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1615513&page=88

Seems to be a panel lottery, like with a lot of monitors today unfortunately. Maybe you were unlucky and got one with some issues. Perhaps you should return it and ask for a new one and hope that it doesn't have the problems you describe?
 
. . . . What do you guys think? Should I just replace it with another one of the same model, or should I go maybe for a Dell U2312HM or maybe U2412M, PA238Q? I am weary of low gamma issues, uniformity issues, low contrast, and an Eizo Foris at a reasonable price in my country is out of the question. Any advice for a possible replacement? I would of course prefer 16:10, but image quality trumps everything else.
The gradient and stuck pixels would be cause for at least an exchange. The display panel white point uniformity is pretty common with IPS from what I've read and experienced. You may get lucky and receive one that has a minor amount in the right spot, or none at all. Order 2x and send back the worst one. That seems to be the only way of improving odds on these LG IPS panels.
 
it's so hard deciding between the HP ZR2440w and the Dell U2412M given the few reviews. Especially with the HP one, it seems like it can be a single unit defect or high infant defects since it's a fairly new product
 
I'd be interested with a few more reviews comparing this with the older ZR24W - which I currently have. As I use my monitor for everything I would like to be able to plug in a blu-ray player to the monitor which I'm presuming can be done with the HDMI port. Unlike my current ZR24W which wasn't having anything of the blu-ray player even though it claimed to be HDCP compliant and I added the blu-ray via the DVi input.
 
Currently using both the ZR24w and ZR2440w side by side. Besides not being able to get the color temperatures to match, they both seem fine. The bezel on the latter does seem to be thicker though, which is a huge annoyance.
 
Seems to be a panel lottery, like with a lot of monitors today unfortunately. Maybe you were unlucky and got one with some issues. Perhaps you should return it and ask for a new one and hope that it doesn't have the problems you describe?

Well, with the ZR2440W it certainly isn't a panel lottery, that's for sure. I'll tell you why:
I bought this monitor for 300 € directly from HP. Coming from a crappy Samsung monitor with TN panel I was excited when it arrived, seeing how uniform all the colors stay when you move your head up/down/left/right. Sadly, my joy was lessened when I discovered two defect pixels right in the middle of the screen coupled with major white IPS glow coming from the lower right corner of the screen. The pixels were showing red/green glowy stuff on a black picture, but they could show colors and white perfectly fine.

Since I had ordered it directly from HP, getting a replacement was no problem. A guy came to my house and replaced it directly with a new panel. This new one had no broken pixels but the IPS glow was identical (again from the lower right corner).
Called HP again, got the monitor replaced again. This time it was even worse: there were 3-4 dead pixels right next to each other which resulted in a big black patch when showing a colored picture (the broken pixels on the first panel worked fine in every condition except black).

So today I got the 4th replacement panel. No surprise here, it's the exact same story as with the other 3 panels. IPS glow in the lower right corner, but at least no broken pixels. I decided to give up.. the chance that the 5th replacement panel would be any different is near zero.
Seriously, it would be a miracle if any ZR2440W out there had no IPS glow in the lower right corner.

As you can see, it clearly isn't a panel lottery because it is 100% sure that you get IPS glow in the lower right corner if you decide to buy a ZR2440W. You can be dead certain about that, don't worry.
If you have bad luck you'll get a couple broken/stuck/dead pixels. Getting it RMA'd should be no problem though. HP's replacement service is really convenient, at least they didn't screw up on the customer service.

I knew I would maybe have to replace the monitor a couple times, I knew it before I bought it. That's why I bought directly from HP so that RMAs are quick and without hassle.
But I thought the IPS glow would be bad on some monitors and less noticeable on others. I didn't think it would be the exact same on every single monitor.

Just to be clear about this: I love everything else about this monitor, it's just the IPS glow which bugs me. Sorry for the bump, but I think people should consider this when buying this monitor.
 
Are you sure that isn't backlight bleed, not glow, in the corner? I thought pretty much every IPS (besides those with a polarizer) had IPS glow? The U2412 I previously owned had glow in the corners too.

Not that it necessarily matters, if every single replacement you get has the same exact problem. I'm just wondering why one corner glows more than the others. I believe if it changes 'glow' based on viewing angle, it's glow -- if it's there all the time, it's bleed?
 
I just got one from Newegg a couple of days ago. I can't notice any sort of backlight bleed, IPS glow, or anything. I think my love of the display could have made me blind to any of its potential flaws. I could never go back to TN. Even 120hz isn't worth the quality downgrade.
 
Are you sure that isn't backlight bleed, not glow, in the corner? [...] I'm just wondering why one corner glows more than the others. I believe if it changes 'glow' based on viewing angle, it's glow -- if it's there all the time, it's bleed?

The glow disappears completely when I step back from the monitor and it becomes worse when I move my head closer to the display. It has to be IPS glow.

I just got one from Newegg a couple of days ago. I can't notice any sort of backlight bleed, IPS glow, or anything.

Well, then I guess my experience only applies to monitors manufactured in Netherlands (I think that's where they make them here, I order from Germany). Maybe the HP factories in USA are more modern or something, but I guarantee you if you order a monitor here, it will have that IPS glow in the right corner which I described.
 
Last edited:
I don't think it is specific to the 2440w - the lower right corner seems like kind of a "thing" with IPS in general... or maybe LED? The Auria I got from Microcenter has some glow there, my HP zr2740w does as well, though slightly less noticeable. I've seen it mentioned elsewhere also. Not real clear on the difference between IPS glow and backlight bleed, but there is something going on there.
 
HI guys. I have a big dillema. I bought Dell 2412M (rev A05) and HP zr2440w to compare them. (i wanted to have the possibility to change refresh to multiples of 24). But as far as color go. Dell seems to have nicer colours. Im wondering if this can be fixed through calibration and if hp can achieve the image quality of dell, or if the hp monitor itself will be that bad for colors. For me it seems that DELL has more colour depth and it's a little warmer.



Also if you want me to help you to choose between those two monitors Im glad to help you with pictures and other stuff.

P.S. I would really enjoy a fast response, because the deadline for returning the HP is tomorrow :(
 
Last edited:
Touch call, look at features and input options. Which one has something that you think is more useful the other doesn't have? Is scaling important? If so that might eliminate the Dell.
 
The only BIG advantage of HP over DELL is the ability to playback 24p without judder. But if HP colors cant be adjusted im not willing to loose the nicer colors of DELL. I'm struggling with HP to get rid of the cool white point. But i can't manage to do it. I tried a lot of ICC profiles. Now i'm wondering if it's possible to get a nice colour through calibration.
 
The question you need to ask yourself is "If the Dell wasn't right beside it, could I live with the HP happily?"

If 24hz playback and good colors are important, you need a proper calibration of the HP. Old profiles will probably do more harm than good, as they were created on different firmware (as you've said), and different batches of panels.

With profiling and calibration with a colorimeter and according software package, you can likely achieve much better color on the HP.
 
Yes indeed. I've calibrated my HP tonight. And the panel is wonderfull. For whoever wants an ICC profile for a July 2012 panel ( Rev LIM111 and FW Ver LIMM01 ) 6500K / 200cd/m2 (i use the monitor mostly in a bright environment) | brightness 46 contrast 80 (you can lower brightness till 30 where you get a warmer image like 6300K)

Thank you all for the help !

HP ZR2440w IPS Monitor Spyder3 rar


P.S. For me 6500K is same as custom 255 255 255. You can set it by pressing menu, source and power on. After that the led blinks blue/yellow. Press menu, +, OK and you get into factory menu where you can change defaults for temp presets, see exact manufacture date and set burn in.
 
Last edited:
I am in the hunt for a 24" 16:10 for home use, games, internet.
I used my SM215TW for 6 years and it is still very good but want to upgrade size with no loss of color quality and game play.
U2412M, ZR2440W, PA248Q, EV2436, S24A850DW
which one is the winner?
 
My apologies for being a Necromancer, but I had a question pertaining to the ZR2440w and spawning another thread seemed silly.

We have a bunch of these at work hooked up to HP laptops. When we replaced the HP Laptops with Lenovo T440S's with docks, we started having problems. About 75% of the monitors work wonderfully, but.... the remainder are problem children.

The laptop can see the monitor, no issue. (DVI / Displayport / HDMI) but the monitor won't display anything at all. It'll claim that we need to change the signal to 1920*1200 @ 60hz, which is exactly what the laptop is set to do. Then the monitor goes to sleep.

Our only working solution has been replacing the monitors with new spares of the same model, or pulling out the old 1280*1024 monitors from storage.

Has anyone else run into this issue? It's weird that the monitors would all work wonderfully for years, and then fail within days of being hooked up to a new laptop.
 
Back
Top