LCD: 24" IPS - HP LP2475w, Planar PX2611W, NEC LCD2490WUXi-BK

I tried this monitor in Team Fortress 2 and STALKER Clear Sky for a few minutes today and it is amazing! I found that after switching from 6500K color temperature to the cooler and more subdued 9300K temperature the games looked awesome. With the warmer color temperature the colors looked a little strong and punchy in TF2 on 2Fort map, but after changing to my preferred 9300K from CRT settings the game looks awesome without any saturation or overcolor problems.

Some people mentioned that TF2 looks "cartoony" with the saturated colors and I agree with them on 6500K temperature but at 9300K the colors are perfect. Also, STALKER Clear Sky looks awesome with the high detail textures.

I played both games at 1280x1024 with pretty good settings on my GTX 260 video card.

There was no ghosting or any other issues in the game, except that the larger screen exposed the slowness of my CPU (AMD Opteron 175 2.5 GHz Dual-Core with DDR 225MHz on Socket 939.) I need a new Intel Core i7 to bring this system up to bar.

Overall this monitor is awesome in games and for the first time I was able to see details in the games that I never noticed before on my 19" CRT at the same resolution. The textures are just awesome in STALKER and I never noticed that before!

I'll do a better review tomorrow. Got to go to the gym now.
 
Got to go to the gym now.
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New monitor, and going to the gym rather than play? that's impressive.

Seriously, thanks for the info. Hearing from a gamer that the monitor isn't actually hell for games as others have said is pushing me towards getting one.
 
i will spend tomorrow playing games on this thing to try it out for real. i want to see half life 2 with the HDR mode and some more TF2 and Left 4 Dead to run it through.

I really enjoyed Stalker though today. I really missed out on both of those games awesomeness playing on my CRT. This LCD really brings out the textures and detail. Also I played a few minutes at night during that game and i could see more details and better clarity with this monitor than on my CRT. The blacks on this one are great and I can clearly the the diffenece between even the smallest gray gradients in the game and also in DisplayMate testing. Nvidia test screen also looks better.
 
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Left4Dead is outstanding on the LP2475w, in my experience. No noticeable input lag, no ghosting. The black levels and shadow detail are amazing. In fact, the shadows become more realistic, darker and more suffocating. Not because of black crush, but because black is actually black (or damn close to it). It actually makes the game more difficult, but WAY more immersive.

The LP2475w is an amazing gaming monitor. That's just my opinion, of course, but I love it. I'm not sure how anyone could think differently. The display has it's issues, but gaming is not one of them.
 
JakFrost said:
i will spend tomorrow playing games on this thing to try it out for real. i want to see half life 2 with the HDR mode and some more TF2 and Left 4 Dead to run it through.

I really enjoyed Stalker though today. I really missed out on both of those games awesomeness playing on my CRT. This LCD really brings out the textures and detail. Also I played a few minutes at night during that game and i could see more details and better clarity with this monitor than on my CRT. The blacks on this one are great and I can clearly the the diffenece between even the smallest gray gradients in the game and also in DisplayMate testing. Nvidia test screen also looks better.
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What about "IPS-glow" when playing dark games like L4D does You notice it or..??
 
perra said:
What about "IPS-glow" when playing dark games like L4D does You notice it or..??
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Yes, there is the off-center glow or the "sphere of shadow" on this monitor and it is very much like the video shown below. However, you have to be really angling the camera at way over 45-degree angle with the screen at full black to see the glow and that is just unrealistic from a normal usage perspective, unless you like playing your games through your peripheral vision while sitting side-ways to your monitor on the next table over.

This off-center glow is the same as the and input lag issue for people. They stress these issues because someone pointed them out and they obsess about them because some review web sites want some recognition for pointing them out but they fail to realize that these issues have no impact on the real-world performance of this monitor or on the user's enjoyment of it. Unless people were explicitly told to look at these issues they would never notice them from their own usage. It's an absurd compulsion to focus on non-issues for some people, nitpicking the non-important things, it's like a mental sickness. So stop obsessing about these things.

If these issues were a real problem I would have noticed them right away while playing STALKER with the Oblivion Lost mod where more than half the game happens in almost pure black since there are many things to do at night.

From my short experience yesterday the game looked stunning while playing at night and I actually saw more detail at night and on the individual textures than I ever did with three different top of the line 19" CRTs, including a Sony GDM model.
 
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perra said:
What about "IPS-glow" when playing dark games like L4D does You notice it or..??
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I only notice it in the lower left hand corner of the screen, for whatever reason. I can almost completely remove it if I'm careful about the angle of the display (tipping it up slightly helps quite a bit) and my viewing distance (farther the better).
 
Thanks for this thread Jak. Do you have access to play a Blue Ray movie on it by chance? I'm looking for an alternative to my 26" Bravia and I'm after picture quality more than anything else. I'm thinking about the NEC as well but without being able to see one, I'm leery of dropping that kind of money on sight unseen.
 
The "sphere of shadow" is not the same as "IPS-glow". The "SoS" occurs on VA tech panels due to the screen bieng darker when viewed head-on, so that the outer portions of the screen have more detail on dark images, it's like having a cateract on both eyes right in the center of your vision. "IPS-g" is just the haze over the panel, it does not cause gamma shift and is only seen when viewed from an angle. All LCDs have this glow to a degree, ecxept the ones with special polarizers.
 
diableri said:
Thanks for this thread Jak. Do you have access to play a Blue Ray movie on it by chance?
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I have a few terabytes of HD content but the hard disks are at my friend's house right now and i won't get them until next weekend or later since he is away travelling.

I will get some movies this week and i will test video quality on the monitor. from what i can tell from games they should look great also.
 
JakFrost said:
I have a few terabytes of HD content but the hard disks are at my friend's house right now and i won't get them until next weekend or later since he is away travelling.

I will get some movies this week and i will test video quality on the monitor. from what i can tell from games they should look great also.
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Thanks a bunch. The only place I can see this thing is Best Buy and they flat refused to let me plug my HTPC in and take a look at BD playback.
 
diableri said:
Thanks a bunch. The only place I can see this thing is Best Buy and they flat refused to let me plug my HTPC in and take a look at BD playback.
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Does BBY by you carry the HP LP2475w? I don't see it online. I would much rather buy from a B&M.
 
freakyhair said:
Does BBY by you carry the HP LP2475w? I don't see it online. I would much rather buy from a B&M.
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I didn't check the model numbers but there was a non-TN panel (according to the Geek Squad guy I asked) HP with cam and speakers at my local store. It's picture was noticeably better than the other monitors right next to it with much better color. After they told me I couldn't plug my HTPC into power and pop the HDMI in, I lost interest.
 
LCD: 24" IPS - HP LP2475w, Planar PX2611W, NEC LCD2490WUXi-BK

STALKER - At Night

Today I had some more time and I played a little STALKER with the SuperMod Pack before it crashed yet again, the game was awesome playing at night as usual and no problem attacking mutants in the darkness on this monitor.

Battlefield 2 - Don't Try This At Home

My friend and I were old time Battlefield 2 players so we decided to fire-up this old bird. I got my CH Products Joystick, Throttle, and Pedals programmed and we hopped in to a few choppers and jets to play. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how much we suck now without any practice for so long so we were eating TV missiles from the other team all day long. The jet flying wasn't much better either as old schoolers thought us a few things about flying. The game looks absolutely awesome though and the graphics are still very good. The monitor handled the game very well and the colors were just as we remembered them. With the monitor set at 9300K with brightness at 15 and contrast at 80 we felt that we were at home playing this game on our old Sony GDM 19" CRTs. Just perfect!

Left 4 Dead - Twitch Shooter

I also had a chance to play a little Left 4 Dead and completed a chapter in this game without a problem. On this monitor the action seems clearer and more gory than on my old CRT. I was whacking zombies on my system at 1920x1200 resolution with medium/high settings. Awesome experience and I'm going to do some more tomorrow. No issues what so ever seeing boomers waddle in the dark tunnels, hunters skulking around behind overturned cards, or smokers spewing their toxic ash everywhere. Clarity and visibility in the dark is just fine on this monitor.

ezQuake 1 - Super Fast Paced Action

I reinstalled Quake 1 with the ezQuake engine and jumped in on a server to get some fasted paced frag action going. Man, ezQuake on this GTX 260 at 1600x1200 resolution at 300-600 FPS is just awesome! I jumped on two servers and battled it out one-on-one with an old timer who handed me my own ass on a platter. I'm damn rusty after like 8-years of no Quake. My friend also got a few good games in against this guy who schooled us both. Then we jumped on a free-for-all server and got it on with a bunch of old time fraggers like us and had a ball of it on a bunch of classic maps like DM4 camping the teleporters, doing circle-jumps to the stairs, hogging up all the red armor, running for the rocket launcher, and going for a few swims in the lava. Awesome time and memories.

The monitor of course handled this game superbly at full speed with absolutely no input lag or ghosting or streaking. The visual experience was absolutely gorgeous and these old maps couldn't have looked better than they did now.

If you're one of those people that are thinking of buying a much more expensive monitor like the Planar PX2611W or the DoubleSight DS-265W because you read that these monitors have 9ms less input lag and you're going to pay $300 USD more for that monitor from a much worse company with less digital input choices, poorer quality construction, shorter warranty, and lower quality electronics, not to mention no scaling ability for the DS-265 and color issues for the Planar PX2611W then you are making a huge mistake.

If this monitor can keep up with my friend and I doing fasted paced Quake 1 deathmatch action at 500 FPS engine speed going toe-to-toe with some old school fraggers without us even noticing a nanosecond of input lag then this monitor for sure can keep up with all of you slow pokes AWD bunny hopping countersuckers.

After today's fast paced action in this game I can safely say that input lag is just a bullshit spec being touted out by review sites that like to nit pick the unimportant issues just so that they can get their word in. Forget this input lag spec and focus on more important things like the quality of the still and moving image, color reproduction, clarify and uniformity of the panel, wide angle viewability, along with all the other important performance factors and of course the price.

Scaling - Awesome Job HP!

The monitor does a great job at scaling non-native 1920 x 1200 resolutions to make them look great. My BIOS boot-up screen even looks great with proportional font being smoothed out and nicely stretched to fit the entire 16:9 ration screen without any of the fat text bulging effect. The games that I played today like Battlefield 2 at 1280x1024, STALKER at 1280x1024, ezQuake at 1600x1200, and Left4Dead at 1920x1200 all looked awesome and you couldn't tell what the actual resolution of the game was. The scaling of the other resolutions to fit a 16:9 screen was absolutely perfect and I could not tell the difference between the games. With 2x Anti-Aliasing enabled the jagged lines were softened up and I started wishing for a more powerful CPU so I could go to 4x or 8x AA because previously I couldn't tell the difference about AA settings on my 19" CRT. Awesome job HP on the scaling functions of this monitor, everything looks great on it.

Wide Gamut - Not An Issue at 9300K Temperature, Get Over It Folks

This monitor is rated at wide gamut at 102% NTSC color gamut reproduction. With the default color temperatures settings at 6500K you immediately notice the oversaturated and painful to see green, red, and magenta (purple) colors. Even with the TFT Central color custom profile adjustments reading web pages becomes very tiring and hurting on my eyes within minutes. I litterally start feeling flushed in the face and I feel warmth from the blood rushing to my eyes and cheeks. It is a very strange and freaky experience the first time I used this monitor since I've only felt this way once at work when they tried to switch my old LCD for a new model. I didn't realize what it was back then but I did now once I noticed how red everything started looking.

I found the color settings on this monitor and set it to my preferred 9300K temperature and like a splash of cold water on my face the eye soreness disappeared and my face started feeling normal again. I then started switching the monitor between 6500K, sRGB, Custom Color, and 9300K on a few different screens and I noticed that the default 6500K made my eyes sore very quickly, the sRGB and Custom Color took a little while, but 9300K was perfect. I looked at various color swatch test screens in DisplayMate and in all color temperature settings other than 9300K the three colors that I mentioned before looked oversatured and almost radioactive to look at. The swatches became painful to watch, especially the SMTPE standard test screen. Setting it to 9300K fixed the oversaturation and at the same time brought down the intensity of those colors to the same levels as the other primaries, yellow, cyan, white, and blue. The blue color on this monitor is a little dimmer than the other colors but it is only like that very slightly. That is probably a good side effect knowing how tiring blue color is to look at and also since the eye has issues with strong blue colors and ultraviolets (magenta like).

Now I'm wondering if those "pink tint" complaints from folks couldn't have been resolved with a color temperature change to 9300K? Just like the "fuzzy text" issue and "red shadows" that people complained about could be easily fixed by disabling ClearType in Windows.

Future Upgrade - A-TW Polarizer

One thing that I did notice is that this monitor looks absolutely great looking at it straight up and also while sitting next to or behind my friend who is playing a game. The image looks very good from all angles on this monitor and it is perfectly clear and bright up to about 45-degrees or further each way from center. After 45-degrees or more you start to notice a little white glow to the monitor as you move towards 90-degrees but the picture is still very viewable and watchable. This monitor comes with an IPS panel but it does not include the A-TW Polarizer on it. From a few pictures of the NEC 2490 monitor with this polarizer I see that the white glow does not appear on that panel after you move away from the center at a wide angel. That is a cool feature I think but the current high price being asked for the NEC 2490 at $1,000 USD is not worth the extra money versus $500 USD for the HP 2475 without this small feature. The vast majority of the time you will be using the monitor head-on with people using it to watch you play or even as a television and this monitor does very well. Who uses a monitor or watches television at more than 45-degree angle anyway? You'd have to sit sideways to really notice this small thing.

I think that the next model after the HP 2475 in this price range this or next year should hopefully include the A-TW Polarizer and then this monitor would be as perfect as the NEC while hopefully still remaining at half the price.

I'm very happy with my monitor, it is perfect for me and I will be keeping it for sure. It was a very good decision on my part and I am very happy that I bought it. I can now use my computer at the huge 1920 x 1200 resolution and play all of my games also.
 
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@JakFrost...superb and detailed overview dude, great job! Happy to read you are having good experiences with that monitor. Also very interested to read how you dealt with the wide gamut issue...I experienced it big time with the PX2611W I bought, trouble is, because the d-pad button also broke after about 30 seconds of use, I had no way to play around with the color temperature like you were able to. This has me wondering if I over-reacted a little about the wide-gamut...maybe i'll get a replacement Planar after all and hopefully will be able to set it up and be happy like you were able to...food for thought, thanks again for the in-depth reviews!
 
Great review JakFrost!

Google to see if there are color calibrated profiles available for your monitor. If not, you can get an Eye-One on Amazon and do the calibration yourself. This is how I tamed my Samsung 226cw wide gamut.
 
rosss said:
Great review JakFrost!

Google to see if there are color calibrated profiles available for your monitor. If not, you can get an Eye-One on Amazon and do the calibration yourself. This is how I tamed my Samsung 226cw wide gamut.
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Rosss - does the Eye One calibrator come with the necessary software as well as the colorimeter?
 
I bought the X-Rite EODIS2 Eye-One Display 2 for $175 on Amazon because it had the best features for an acceptable price. The more expensive versions have the better software for analysis, but they use the same hardware as in this version. The cheaper versions had cheaper hardware or gimicky whatnots and poor reviews.

If you're just using the included software wizard to do auto calibration and generate a profile... it works great. It fixed my Samsung color issues. But if you wanted to do more analysis to be able to tell what exact specs are going on, you need to pay more to get the high end software or find a torrent if you're lucky.

But given the price and the frequency of use (maybe once a year?) I would recommend that you buy a calibrator used, or find a calibration profile online that someone has already generated for your monitor model.

NOTE: this only matters for people that want acccurate color. If you just watch movies and play games on your display, then calibration is probably not worth it unless you can get a free profile. Of course if you're a professional photographer or artist, then you can write off the cost, so get the expensive version, hehehe!
 
Frankly, I bought this monitor for $500 USD because I wanted the best monitor and also to save money. I really do not envision myself spending another $100-300 for a color calibrator when I mostly use the computer for office work, games, and maybe a little multimedia. I copied the color profile settings from TFT Central and set them up as my Custom Color selection then I put up my DisplayMate color swatch and gray gradient tests and switched between 9300K, 6500K, sRGB and Custom Color.

The Custom Color settings looked the best by far with very nicely defined colors and good hues to all the primaries and gradients. The sRGB profile was pretty close to the Custom Color settings but it was a little darker, and 6500K was very close to sRGB but also darker than Custom Color. However, all of those colors except for 9300K punched out the green, red, and magenta bands way past the intensities of the other yellow, cyan, blue primaries. They were just unbalanced. The only semblance of balance that I was able to achieve between the color gradient bands for the primaries was at 9300K temperature, my preferred setting anyway.

I understand that at this color temperature I'm not get color correct output on the monitor since everything is bluer but for my usage requirements this is perfectly fine since I've been used to 9300K for the last 10-years.

If you're one of the users who's used to 6500K color temperature then you'll probably be just fine with the color corrected Custom Color profile settings but be aware that the green, red, and magenta primaries will be punchy to look at.
 
rosss said:
Of course if you're a professional photographer or artist, then you can write off the cost, so get the expensive version, hehehe!
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I'm not professional, but I own my own business and do my own graphic work (ads, posters, fliers, photo retouching, etc) and so can write off both the monitor and the calibrator. =) It should be noted that third party profiles are great, but not always ideal. Unit to unit, color accuracy varies. Different revisions and firmware numbers can also throw a wrench into the mix. That said, a third party profile from TFT Central or where ever is certainly better than nothing! And hey, it's free. :p
 
I've been using this monitor for a few days now for office work and it is great. I can now work on two full page sized windows side by side and that is like having two monitors. the clarity of the monitor is great and this morning i noticed that i could read the text in the dilbert cartoon because it was so sharp and clear while my browser had the bookmark side pane opened and that is something that i could not do at the same cartoon size on my old CRT.

I have been watching some short videos on it and it works just as good as my old CRT. I evwn atched a few minutes of the really dark Godfather Part 2 on it and it looked good with clarity in the dark the the movie is shot in.

After I changed the color temperature when I got it it have been fully comfortable with no eye strain or other visual problems. the monitor is pleasure to use during the night and day with an open window shade.

Overall my satisfaction has been very good with it. maybe i will get some time behind a few games next week so i will write that up also.
 
I've been using this monitor for a few weeks now and wanted to write an update to this thread after the initial buyer's goggle effect wore off.

Saturation and Colors

I completely love the 9300K color setting on this monitor and it looks great to me just like my old CRT monitors before that. I've been using this monitor for tons of different things like watching movies, TV, pictures, internet, office work, and gaming and I have experience no problems at all with anything related to saturation of colors to anything else for that matter.

Television and Movies

I just purchased the AVerMedia M780 ATSC capture card and set it up to watch TV. I've watched a little bit of TV on this monitor and it works very well. There is no streaking, ghosting, fading, or any other visual artifacts that I can see when watching fast motion on this monitor. The channels that broadcast shows in HD 720P resolution like the NBC News look gorgeous and stunning but the other programs that broadcast in SD 480i looks like pixelated crap, but that is of course not the fault of the monitor but of the signal. I'm sure playing a game on 640x480 with crappy textures like Wolfenstein or Doom 1 would look just as horrible on 24" at 1920x1200 native. Movies all look great by the way also.

White Shadows in Bottom Corners in Dark Games

I noticed that if I'm playing STALKER Clear Sky and I'm doing a lot of night stalking work with the screen being mostly dark then I go get something to drink and come back to the monitor and sit down, I can notice little white shadow glow from the bottom corners of the monitor. However, after a second when I start playing the game I stop noticing that glow. My guess is that this is just a normal side-effect of LCD monitors and since this model doesn't have a A-TW Polarizer this effect is a little more noticeable.

Overall though, I can't see or notice the glow at all during normal monitor usage unless I specifically stare the corners and look. I noticed that I had the monitor angled too low for me and once I adjusted the monitor to tilt it up so that the center of the screen is directly in front of my eyes that the white glow is significantly diminished and practically disappears.

But considering that paying for a monitor with a polarizer costs $300-500 USD more I think that's a little non-issue that I can live with.

Anti-Glare Coating

The anti-glare coating is absolutely great. I can use Outlook and Firefox with my side window shades completely open during sunny summer days without having to close them. Before with my glossy screen on my CRT monitor I would be pawing for the string to close the shades almost immediately. I really like this anti-glare coating a lot.

STALKER Clear Sky at Night

I've been trying to find time to play this game a little more with the Total Faction War mod and I've gotten a full night with the game last week. I played most of the time during the night and also at night in the game. There were parts in the game when there was no moonlight and also I was out with my squad in Cordon going from the bandit's car garage towards the bridge fighting through the forest where it was almost absolutely and completely pitch black except for some bondfires, helmet lights, stars, and tracers giving ambient lighting. There were parts where I didn't know where anything was and was only shooting at the enemy's helmen lights or into the same place that there tracers were coming from. Moving slowly with my squad from rock to tree stump looking at the enemy squads taking cover and shooting back at as as they were waiting for reinforcment squads coming from behind them over the hillsides, only visible to us as bobbing helmet lights.

The experience was absolutely wonderful and I got to relive some great moments in this game fighting alongside my squad. The monitor really did a wonderful just with the clarify of the display showing every bit of detail in almost absolutely dark areas and also providing very good definition and difference between these dark levels.

I still remember doing similar missions like this on my CRT monitors a few months ago and I have to say that the experience with the LCD was much better and just as dark. The CRT would white-wash the grays with too much contrast and brightness making them look milky white but the LCD kept them very nice and solid black/gray. The LCD was a bit darker than the CRT but the difference was minimal and it did not really affect my ability to see enemy squads at night, even after some of them showed up with helmet lights. Just as before I really had to focus and really look deeply into the darkness to see those stalkers hiding behind stumps, rocks, or bushes.

Overall, I'm very happy with the dark level performance of this monitor.

The day time performance is superb also since everything looks so nice and clear. Much sharper and clearer than on my CRT and I can see a lot more detail in the textures of all the objects in the game from much further out.
 
Finally pulled the trigger on a HP LP2475W, thanks in no small part to threads such as this. Was tempted in the end by the Planar PX2611W, but I think I reached a conclusion similar to JakFrost's. Assuming the NEC is out due to price and it comes down to Planar vs. HP, it's HP ftw:

Planar seems to be charging mostly for the size, and the larger pixel pitch is actually a disadvantage for close viewing IMO. Once you get past out-of-the-box adjustments, the Planar has inferior image quality according to relatively scientific reviews:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2193631,00.asp
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_lp2475w.htm

Finally, every other advantage except input lag (lower price, connectivity, company reputation, overall subjective impression of quality, etc.) also seems to go to the HP. The greater input lag does not appear to negatively impact gaming according to everything I've read.

So if anyone else happens to be in the exact some boat here in late 2009, here's another vote for choosing the HP over the Planar. :cool:
 
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I'm in a similar boat...my 10 year old 'perfect' Sony 21" GDM-F520 CRT seems to be dying and after avoiding LCD's for years because I felt they were inferior to the best CRT's I am finally forced to make the move...

I've narrowed my choices down to 3: 1) HP LP2475W 2) Planar PX2611W and 3) Dell U2410

it's a tough call as they all have certain strengths and weaknesses...I'm still not 100 certain what to do...any advice?
 
polonyc2 said:
I'm in a similar boat...my 10 year old 'perfect' Sony 21" GDM-F520 CRT seems to be dying and after avoiding LCD's for years because I felt they were inferior to the best CRT's I am finally forced to make the move...

I've narrowed my choices down to 3: 1) HP LP2475W 2) Planar PX2611W and 3) Dell U2410

it's a tough call as they all have certain strengths and weaknesses...I'm still not 100 certain what to do...any advice?
Click to expand...

Drop the coin on a new LED monitor.
 
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@ JakFrost: thank you man, you've done a great job with the posts and review! I was thinking about 2475w myself as well, however the guys on this forum (whom I know are a bit picky and demand only the best - which is legitimate, but the bad review(er)s seem to be more vocal than good and seem to be emphasizing the bad and taking the good for granted) - so they got me re-thinking my decision.

I will be using the monitor for office work and FPS gaming (not a "hardcore" gamer) and occassional photo editing (currently have a Samsung 204B LCD and 8800 GTS, which will soon be replaced by something faster). I have scoured the Internet for reviews; it was quite interesting to see how all the reviews were giving a great opinions about it and the guys on the forum had quite different experience. Granted, these reviewers could be biased and here on the forums everyone can speak his mind with no qualms, but anyway - for me it also boiled down to Dell's U2410 and HP, with HP being my first choice.

Thanks again for the great post, looking forward to your next experience with the 2475w!

Cheers
 
I received the second monitor yesterday and I set it up. Here is the information of both monitors, old first, new second.

Model: HP LP2475w, HP LP2475w

Hardware: GIG122, GIG173
Firmware: GIG052, GIG077

Unknown: S-L1106, S-L0924
Panel: LPL LM240WU4, LGD LM240WU4

Country: Made in China, Made in China
Produced: December 2008, December 2009

Retailer: ProVantage
Price: $ 508.18 USD, $ 508.99 USD
Shipping: $ 20.45 USD, $ 20.45 USD

Backlight Hours: 2070, 1

Differences

I haven't looked thoroughly but the only differences are the hardware and firmware versions. The new firmware version 77 has an extra "Source Detection" = "Always Active" or "Low Power" under the "Video Input Control" setting.

Desk Setup


Click for Full-Size

Service Menu

 
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Old Monitor vs New Monitor

The old monitor already has 2,071 backlight hours on it or roughly 270-days of usage at an average 7.7-hours per day since I bought it roughly 9-months ago on 2009-05-04.

Obsolete Software and Missing Features

I tried to use the famous DisplayMate software to show the test patterns on my computer to do the testing but since this old software uses a 16-bit executable and I'm running 64-bit OS I can't execute it. I also tried using the nVidia's Display Wizard but it seems that it is no longer available in the current 185 drivers. So I'm using the test pictures from the site below to do my LCD testing.

Monitor Settings Same

I set the settings on both monitors to the exact same values to do an even comparison.

Brightness: 15
Contrast: 80
Color: 9300K

I am quite aware that the 9300K color temperature value is not the normal 6500K value, but I find that the monitor strains my eyes at the warmer and more yellow 6500K where as the cooler and blue 9300K is much better for me. As I mentioned before I used 9300K on all my CRTs for the past 15-years so I prefer the bluer and cooler look even if it isn't exactly calibration correct.

Just to be clear also, I set my monitors to my preferred preferences and I do not have access to any external color calibration equipment so just be aware that color accuracy and reproduction are subjective to my preferences not to actual correct values. Maybe one of these day's I'll shell out a few bucks for a color calibration tester but until then I'll just use the settings that I prefer.

Lagom LCD Test

Lagom LCD monitor test pages

This is a fairly good set of test images that I'll be using this week to test the monitors and I'll post the results.
 
JakFrost,

Thanks for your efforts in reviewing and comparing the 2475w's.

I'm mostly interested if there has indeed been an improvement in the input-lag of the newer-revision 2475w, so if you can test that: yes please! ;)

Regards, Patrick.
 
PatrickV2 said:
I'm mostly interested if there has indeed been an improvement in the input-lag of the newer-revision 2475w, so if you can test that: yes please! ;)
Click to expand...

Input Lag Test

I did as you requested, and the result is the same input lag for for both monitors.

(Old monitor on left, new monitor on right.)

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I used the stopwatch application from the post below. It only counts to 1/100 of a second instead of 1/1000 but it gives the same results in both cases. Compare it to the later tests that I'm about to post.

HardForum - Post your LCD's Input Lag
 
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lost78 said:
Is anyone using this monitor in an eyefinity setup?
Click to expand...

If you check the pictures of my desk, it doesn't even have space to put a third monitor on it for ATI's EyeFinity setup. I'd have to have two desks to do that kind of a setup! :D
 
Here are some pictures from the Lagom LCD Test page.

They are taken on my old and inaddequate Canon PowerShow SD1000 camera with a too small and not so good CCD chip that produces a lot of noise and grain at low light and my complete inexperience with photography. In the future I'll see if I can borrow one of my friend's Canon Digital SLR cameras and then I'll take better pictures.

(Old monitor on left, new monitor on right.)

ImageShack

Click on thumbnails to go to page, then click on the Zoom (+) button to get a full-size picture, and click inside the picture to show actual size.



Flickr

Click on thumbnail for larger size.



Test Results

The pictures don't really show the actual results of the tests since the camera does not capture the colors correctly so be aware of this before you judge this monitors based on these poor quality pictures.

The first Contrast test shows a well balanced and equally well saturated colors and shows clear distinction between each color box at 9300K color temperature, but at the default 6500K or sRGB color temperatures the blue, green and red colors are too bright, almost popping, and overly saturated compared to the cyan, magenta, and yellow color bands. This is probably due to the wide color gamut that this monitor has. The Sharpness test shows a clear and sharp pattern of dots and lines without any distortion, moire effect, or blurring at all. With Brightness at 15 and Contrast at 80 the Black Level and White Level tests show clearly visible difference between the blackest level 1 and lightest level 255 and the levels directly preceding them. The Gamma tests all show absolutely perfect gamma at around the 2.2 value. The Gradient test also shows no banding at all with a smooth gradient ramp in both directions. The Response Time test shows the exact same results for both monitors, side by side in clone video mode, meaning that there is no improvement or change in input lag time between the 1-year old December 2008 version and the new December 2009 version of the monitor.

I no longer have a CRT monitor available to compare this LCD's input lag time but there are a number of articles that have already done so so just reference them and know that the monitor you buy now will most likely be the same.

Color Temperature Differences

There are differences between the two monitors in the color temperature display since the older monitor shows a warmer and more yellow picture while the new monitor shows a cooler and bluer picture, even when both at set at 6500K or 9300K settings. The difference is very pronounced and cannot be corrected by lowering the brightness on the new monitor to 0 or increasing it on the old monitor to 100.

The old monitor has 2071 blacklight hours and the blacklight is a bit older so that would likely explain the difference in picture. I believe that hardware color calibration would be necessary to get both monitors to display the same colors. I might try to borrow a calibrator from someone at work if they have it.

Problem Results

The Inversion (Pixel-Walk) test pattern 2a and 4a show very clear flickering on the old monitor but show no flickering at all on the new monitor. This might be due to the longer usage of the backlight on the old monitor or maybe a design change in the new monitor, I just don't know.

Conclusion

I do have to put the caveat that while I do strive to buy the near-best parts for my computer after doing tons of research and then demand top performance from them when I push them to the limit I am not a nit-picky person and so I do live with any small flaws that my equipment might have. I am using this monitor with a simple change to the 9300K color temperature and lowering of brightness to 15 because these simple changes give me a very nice and pleasant looking picture and show correct values in the Lagom LCD tests. Since I do not have a color calibrator myself and am unwilling to shell out a couple hundred dollars for a piece of equipment that will be only used three times I have not calibrated the monitors yet, but if I find someone with a calibrator then I might calibrate both of them if I can borrow it for a day.

Overall I am very satisfied with the performance of the old monitor for the last 7-months that I have been using it and it has worked great for me in all matter of usage including office work, development, photo editing, multimedia playing and editing, and hardcore first person shooter type gaming. I am so satisfied with it that I bought a second monitor to have more screen space for work.

I believe that if you purchase this monitor you will be very satisfied with it and I will fully recommend it to anyone that wants a high quality IPS based 24-inch LCD monitor.
 
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I have more poor quality pictures of each test result for each monitor separately that I'll post tomorrow.
 
I've been considering buying this HP monitor so thanks for all hard work in testing and posting the results for us here.
 
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