NEC 23" IPS EA231WMi

Ok, Im gonna have to give the monitor my seal of approval. Just got my HDMI to DVI cable and blu-ray looks great. So here is my quick review/contribution to this thread:

First, read this thread to get an overall feel for the monitor and its quirks (what few there are).

Upgraded to this monitor from my trusty Samsung 192n.

cimg1831h.jpg


PROS:
1. No dead pixels. I hate these little buggers!
2. Picture is crisp and beautiful. Text is crisp and blu-rays look great. DVD...well, look like DVD's.
3. The stand and housing are PERFECT. No reflective, shiny business going on here. A very sturdy and manly build.
4. Brightness adjustability is good. I dont have a problem when reading books or emails. I like to keep my monitor DARK most of the time (5%).
5. Audible noise is VERY minimal (this is a BIG deal for me!). You have to put your ear up against the display to here sound (and its VERY, VERY faint). The only other time sound can be heard, is when you power down the monitor AND leave your PC/MAC on. This produces a high pitched noise that will probably bother only the most neurotic of individuals (like me, so I just keep the monitor in sleep mode or have the screen saver on).
6. Comes with a DVI cable.
7. Sturdy packaging for no worries shipping.


CONS:
1. Color uniformity. I'm not sure if this would be an issue had I not read through this thread. My monitor is definitely not as bad as others, but just knowing that it has a little bit of an issue bugs me. But not enough to return the monitor and "play the lottery". Its only visible (and just) when the background is a uniform color from left to right.
2. Backlight bleed. Not to bad with this monitor, but it is there. Unfortunately, this is a problem with all LCD monitors (some to a greater extent than others). My monitor does have a little bit of blue tint to the backlight bleed in the upper right-hand corner, but just barely. I doesn't distract while watching movies, but I still look for it cause I'm weird.
3. Crapy speakers. I wasn't at all concerned with the speakers when buying this monitor and I only add it here as a "CON" to be thorough.
4. No HDMI to DVI cable included. I don't think anyone else includes this cable either.
5. Produces some heat, but nothing like a plasma.
6. Have to download the users manual. Personally, I like this (but some will not, so a con it is).

As you can see, the majority of my CONS are negligible, but I just want to be thorough.

So basically, the monitor is not perfect. But what is, besides Natalie Portman, Kate Beckinsale, Bar Refaeli, and Jessica Biel?

For $340.00 to my door, its pretty frickin nice. If you read books, wright papers, surf the web, and watch a lot of movies, this is the monitor for you.

STA STAMP! APPROVED!
 
Last edited:
I agree with the stand. My 2490 has the same type and fell in love with it, and this one uses the same method, SWEET! The speakers, yeah crappy, but aren't they all, however I feel on here they are so crappy that can't bear to listen through them. maybe crappy isn't the word, just very weak.

QUESTION:
Does the NEC soundbar produce a decent sound ? )just somehting for simple videos and music!
 
SO with the calibrated, like spyder, you can easily get both monitor to be the same in color? or as close as possible even if one is a 2490 and the other 231?
 
The non-pro Spyder comes with pretty poor calibration software (at least for my old Spyder). It will not calibrate two monitors to look the same 'automatically'. However you can calibrate them individually to be as accurate as possible or take some measurements and fix them.

The Pro version has software that will provide you with adjustments (and profiles) to get both monitors to match semi-automatically.

There is third party free software (like HCFR) that takes measurements and helps you adjust things, but it requires some patience and willingness to learn about colors and calibration to get it right.
 
When calibrating can you have 2 different versions? say that I like my monitors color for everyday use and such, but I go to do photo work I want it another way. IS it easy to just witch form everyday use to photography use? (once you calibrate your liking to each)
 
duder1234 said:
Did the stuck pixel just suddenly appear, or is this the first time you did a thorough/face on screen:D search since receiving the monitor?
Click to expand...

I swear it just suddenly appeared. I'll be running some type of app/utility all night to try and reverse it.
 
Hi, everyone -

Please pardon my neophytic question, but is it possible to rent a calibration device? I live on Social Security disability income, so my income is extremely limited; I can't justify buying an item I'll hardly need to use. Nonetheless, I want my monitor to look as good as possible: it will literally be the only screen in my home, and I'll be using it for a range of tasks.

Many thanks,
Brian
 
bcarr1122 said:
Hi, everyone -

Please pardon my neophytic question, but is it possible to rent a calibration device? I live on Social Security disability income, so my income is extremely limited; I can't justify buying an item I'll hardly need to use. Nonetheless, I want my monitor to look as good as possible: it will literally be the only screen in my home, and I'll be using it for a range of tasks.

Many thanks,
Brian
Click to expand...

I don't know about renting, but you could try using a premade color profile. Of course it may be off a little bit, but it would probably be better than having no profile at all. Try a profile from tftcentral:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm
 
Maxryan said:
Anyway I got carried away lol I am not talking about input lag here, EA231WMi has a pretty low input lag. I was talking about respones time which is like the time it takes from a pixel to change its colour (i.e from white to black). If a monitor have high respones time (some would say 14ms is high) you will start to see a shadow, faded, blur image when things move fast on the screen. You can see an example here: http://www.behardware.com/articles/629-6/24-inches-the-dell-2407wfp-vs-the-samsung-244t.html
Click to expand...
Read TFTCentral review's gaming paragraph: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/content/nec_ea231wmi.htm#gaming

"Compared with the heavily overdriven 6ms G2G H-IPS panels of the LP2475W and U2410, the EA231WMi does fall a little behind. It's not a bad performer, but not quite as fast as other models in this size range"

This comes up in that review too, but I have to underline that the quoted 14 ms response time is ISO standard (black-to-white), not G2G (grey-to-gray) and these times are not directly comparable. Also, the 14 ms is probably pretty honest figure.
 
I owned a 2209wa before and returned it. I'd try a ea231wmi but 23 inch widescreen is a little too small imo. What's the best option for 24-27 inch under $400?

Are samsungs still the best TN's or are there CMO's better? I've heard Acer actually has good panels now but I find that hard to believe.
 
ebolamonkey001 said:
I owned a 2209wa before and returned it. I'd try a ea231wmi but 23 inch widescreen is a little too small imo. What's the best option for 24-27 inch under $400?

Are samsungs still the best TN's or are there CMO's better? I've heard Acer actually has good panels now but I find that hard to believe.
Click to expand...

Don't do it i was in the same spot as you.....and returned the big 27" TN for this NEC and i'm never going back

23" is plenty big
 
Is this monitor offered in silver in the US yet? All US resellers I've seen so far only offer the black model :( Black matches all my other accessories but I'd prefer the silver :(
 
I like the 23" in size, so far. Like my 24" 2490 better though. But as I said I'm traidng stocks, so for charting and text it's fine I use the 2490 as my main middle one and 231 on the side and might do it for the other side too. I spent the extra for the 2490 2 years ago for photography work and lov eit. then Igot into trading and love it too. never any strain on my eyes, NEVER. so I can't complain. I am waiting for the new 24" to come out 2/1/2010. I asked the nec tech guy if he could buy the 2490 vs the new one he said " the 2490 is an excellent monitor but if you have to repair it it may be difficult due to it having the plarizer and they stopped making that. "
 
professor said:
I like the 23" in size, so far. Like my 24" 2490 better though. But as I said I'm traidng stocks, so for charting and text it's fine I use the 2490 as my main middle one and 231 on the side
Click to expand...

For just general desktop use and web browsing without doing any games or picture editing, big screens with high DPI are far superior imo. I loved browsing web pages on a 32" samsung but the input lag, black crush, and all the other VA penalties make it suck for everything else.

The ideal monitor size for me is 26-27inch in 1080p. The problem is, most of the bigger screens have terrible black level. I'd buy a 26inch TN 1080p TN panel if the black level and contrast was the same as an XL2370 or something like that. Do any exist?
 
Yeah,

I think one of the guys here in North America posted some pics of his silver/white EA231WMi model. It's in this thread somewhere. He had the same Klipsch GMX 5.1 sound system as I do, which goes well with the silver/white model.

So, maybe he'll notice your question, or maybe you can send a private message asking where he bought from.

Peace to you,
C. Livingstone
 
Pics of the silver/white version can be found in this thread at post #609 (page 31 for me, varies for you depending on your forum settings). Member: "shadowlord"

I registered to say that, and to thank everyone here for their contributions. I've learned a lot the past day or two while browsing this discussion.

I intend to buy this monitor. I'll be coming from the NEC 20WMGX2, which I've had for 3-4 years now. I realize I've been spoiled rotten by this monitor, but I knew that when I was willing to pay $600 for a FREAKING 20". lol... so when shopping around for a size upgrade, it was painful. I really wanted to avoid a TN, but I also knew I couldn't afford the 24" NEC that is $900+.

This EA231WMi seems like a great comprimise to me, assuming it can handle gaming. It has a worse response time than my 20" but hopefully it's not a deal-breaker.
 
Last edited:
Hey guys, got a question.

What kind of device/cable should I use if I want to connect both my mac mini and blu-ray player to the single DVI input? Basically, I want both my computer and my blu-ray player connect via DVI, so I don't have to VGA my computer or keep plugging and unplugging the two DVI's (computer and blu-ray from the monitor input). I already have the HDMI to DVI cable for the blu-ray.

Thanks!
 
duder1234 said:
Hey guys, got a question.

What kind of device/cable should I use if I want to connect both my mac mini and blu-ray player to the single DVI input? Basically, I want both my computer and my blu-ray player connect via DVI, so I don't have to VGA my computer or keep plugging and unplugging the two DVI's (computer and blu-ray from the monitor input). I already have the HDMI to DVI cable for the blu-ray.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Few options...

1. Get a DVI extension cable and plug in the other device when you want to use it, manually, each time. Lame? Yes, but it is the cheapest option.

2. Get a manual HDMI switcher like this: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10110&cs_id=1011001&p_id=2786&seq=1&format=2 and convert all your DVI stuff to HDMI ports with some cheap adapters (this should work, but I'm not 100% sure)

3. Get a more expensive powered DVI switcher like this: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10110&cs_id=1011004&p_id=4069&seq=1&format=2

If your Mac Mini has a mini-DisplayPort output you're in luck as all you'd need is a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter and then use that with the NECs DisplayPort input and your Bluray player goes to the DVI input.

One thing to note, forget about trying to take your DVI signals and converting them to DisplayPort... it's far too expensive to do right now.

Meanwhile said:
Use the DisplayPort for the other device. So you need DVI-to-DisplayPort adapter (or if you Mac Mini has Mini DisplayPort, then Mini DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort).
Click to expand...
You can't go from a DVI source up to a DisplayPort with a cable that monoprice sells (this: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024608&p_id=6014&seq=1&format=2), it won't work. You need a powered converter box to do this, and the only ones I've found are $100+ easily.
 
When I saw your post I deleted mine... I had a hunch I did not actually know what I was talking about. Was stupid to post in the first place. :rolleyes:
 
Haha, don't worry about it. I've got this same dilemma right now (PC and PS3) and I had ordered the NEC thinking that DisplayPort was easily compatible with HDMI/DVI connections, but I quickly learned that it wasn't so simple. I could solve my problem easily by just getting a cheap Radeon 5xxx card with DisplayPort, but I run an OSX install on my PC and so far getting any kind of card with a DisplayPort to work in a Hackintosh is largely impossible right now until Apple updates the Mac Pros to support the newer cards.

Right now I'm just switching the cables manually, but I'll probably get an extension and do it that way so I'm not swiveling the monitor all the time. Thinking about that unpowered HDMI switcher though... going to read more on that.
 
ebolamonkey001 said:
I owned a 2209wa before and returned it. I'd try a ea231wmi but 23 inch widescreen is a little too small imo. What's the best option for 24-27 inch under $400?
Click to expand...
You may want to consider another IPS monitor, the 24" Dell U2410 ($600 retail, ~$450 with appropriate discounts). I almost bought one before discovering that the original version suffered from severe dithering and color tint problems. Dell just released the "A01 revision," and users are reporting that it resolves all such issues.

The U2410 would have been ideal for me, especially with its 16:10 (1920x1200) resolution. Sorry, Dell, you're too little, too late--my NEC arrives on Monday.

Regards,
Brian
 
Last edited:
Hey again guys, another quick question.

Anyone have this monitor connected to a mac and know a good "free" program for calibrating it rather than the macs standard calibrator? I've also tried SuperCal, but have gotten some really dark results.

Thanks!
 
My monitor arrived from Provantage today in good condition and I'm typing this post on it now. My mini-review is not up to the standards of some of the great [H] contributors in this forum, but I have to write something out of gratitude for all of the great information that people share here.

My initial impression of the EA231WMI monitor is very positive so far. Text is crisp, the colors are natural, and the test images at the Lagom site seemed to display correctly. I don't see any dead pixels, which is a big relief. I toyed with the idea of getting an Eye One Display LT calibrator, but the colors and contrast just seem "right" out of the box. If I still get a calibrator, it will be for my Samsung B650 TV, but that's another story.

I also don't notice any back light bleed, back light uniformity, or color uniformity issues. I say I don't notice because they might be there ever so slightly (particularly back light uniformity issues), but they are not perceptible to my untrained and probably not too picky eye. I used MS Paint to check how uniform red, black, white, and light gray backgrounds look across the whole screen. I didn't see any kind of color shifting or tinting while inspecting the white and gray backgrounds, so I'll stop checking now - I don't want to jinx myself.

I agree with other earlier posts that the Eco mode and Auto Brightness features should be turned off immediately. With them on, the screen looked dull and murky. After turning them off and adjusting the brightness to 50%, everything looked great using the Standard mode. The settings menu seems easy to work in, though I have not tried to adjust the colors or more advanced settings.

Coming from the 19" PVA Samsung 193P, I have had to adjust to a slightly smaller dot pitch. This is not too big of a change, since I use a 24" display at work with a similar dot pitch as the NEC. I have not done a side by side comparison of the two monitors, but I already enjoy the EA231WMI's superior viewing angles.

I see a bit of the IPS "glow" in the lower corners when viewing a pure black background with the lights turned off. It's not very distracting and I'm sure I noticed it more because I was specifically looking for it. The glow goes away if I sit back a little more, but that's not the optimal distance for me using this monitor. I don't think that it will be an issue for me, especially since I won't be watching movies on it.

My biggest gripe is the 16:9 aspect ratio, which I knew I was getting when I made my decision to order this monitor. At my office I do most of my work on a 24" PVA monitor with a traditional 16:10 aspect ratio, and it took me an hour or so to stop noticing the "missing" vertical pixels on this monitor. If I was going to work at home extensively (or if I was a single guy without any kids) I would have almost certainly paid more to have a full 16:10 monitor, but the EA231WMI seems like a fair compromise to me. I can live with a bit less vertical work space considering the quality of this standard gamut IPS monitor and the great price for it of $320 delivered.

I spent a year agonizing over the HP LP2475W and then the Dell U2410, waiting to see if the flaky firmware issues would be resolved, waiting to see if the widely reported color uniformity issues would be resolved, wondering if the wide color gamut would bother me, etc. etc. etc. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $200 more on the U2410 or LP2475W lotteries. Right after I placed my order for the EA231WMI, I saw the press release for the HP ZR24w 24" standard gamut IPS monitor at CES, and I wondered if I should have canceled my order and waited a while longer. But, I'd probably end up waiting another year, when I could be using this great monitor now. I think I made the right choice.
 
samven582 said:
where is the best place to buy this monitor?
Click to expand...
Sparco.com. Their listed price isn't the cheapest, but they do have a price-matching policy, and shipping is free! I got mine for $300 shipped, $5 less than buy.com, the cheapest competitor. (I'm relieved--Buy.com has a bad reputation.)

Regards,
Brian
 
bcarr1122 said:
Sparco.com. Their listed price isn't the cheapest, but they do have a price-matching policy, and shipping is free! I got mine for $300 shipped, $5 less than buy.com, the cheapest competitor. (I'm relieved--Buy.com has a bad reputation.)

Regards,
Brian
Click to expand...

what is there policy on dead/stuck pixel?
 
samven582 said:
what is there policy on dead/stuck pixel?
Click to expand...
Hi, samven582 -

If they have one, it surely isn't mentioned on their site. When I spoke with a customer service representative, he said that exchanges would certainly be honored, but cautioned that returns would be subject to a restocking fee. He mentioned no other details.

You'll find customer ratings of sparco.com on ResellerRatings.com and bizrate.com.

Regards,
Brian
 
bcarr1122 said:
Sparco.com. Their listed price isn't the cheapest, but they do have a price-matching policy, and shipping is free! I got mine for $300 shipped, $5 less than buy.com, the cheapest competitor. (I'm relieved--Buy.com has a bad reputation.)

Regards,
Brian
Click to expand...

$327, as of today (Jan. 17). Free shipping is still nice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top