NEC 23" IPS EA231WMi

Zombie, did you use clone mode or a video splitter to measure input lag? I believe input lag is actually slightly less that what clone mode can lead someone to believe, though I'm not 100% sure on this.

Either way, 15ms is very nice for this monitor.
 
Based on the results, I'm pretty sure this monitor has less than 5 ms lag. I can actually see the 81 just barely starting to show in the second picture.

Keep in mind, when using one timer, the results will often show one more frame than there actually is because the LCD needs a few ms to transition to the new number. If the CRT has just refreshed the number like in the first picture, that's barely enough time for the LCD to start showing the new number. That's assuming clone mode isn't introducing any bias, which can only be resolved with a splitter.

What I really want to know is if this monitor can do 75 Hz properly, but doing that at 1080p requires creating a custom resolution and playing with the timings to get it to fit within DVI bandwidth.

One of the preset modes is 1280x1024 75 Hz. Can someone try that resolution and see if the mouse movement remains smooth or if it becomes juddery?

If it's still smooth at that resolution, chances are it can be coaxed into doing 75 Hz at the native resolution with the right timings. I'd love a 1080p IPS monitor that can do 75 Hz.
 
Armatoste said:
Zombie, did you use clone mode or a video splitter to measure input lag? I believe input lag is actually slightly less that what clone mode can lead someone to believe, though I'm not 100% sure on this.
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Clone mode, unfortunately I don't have a splitter.

ToastyX said:
Based on the results, I'm pretty sure this monitor has less than 5 ms lag. I can actually see the 81 just barely starting to show in the second picture.
...
One of the preset modes is 1280x1024 75 Hz. Can someone try that resolution and see if the mouse movement remains smooth or if it becomes juddery?
Click to expand...

It is certainly possible that lag was less than what these pictures show. Out of roughly 12 pictures, about seven showed either 15 or 16 ms, and two showed 0 ms (the others caught the CRT between refreshes and showed nothing). But at least with no examples higher than 16 ms, I'd say that's a safe worst case scenario.

I'll try the 1280x1024 @ 75 when I get home, if no one else responds by then.
 
Ankle said:
I just took the plunge and ordered one for $420 CAD (before tax/shipping) at ncix. I was excited when I saw it listed as in stock. Then I checked out... and back ordered with no ETA. :(
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If you can, cancel the order. Re-order with a pricematch of this place: http://www.directcanada.com/product...EA231WMI-BK&manufacture=NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS

Or, order from them directly (they are actually a sister company of NCIX).

You can search for the lowest price on this site: www.pricebat.ca
 
In the USA, Sparco is cheapest vendor with 1 total unit left. Provantage the next cheapest and has 20+ units in stock. Sparco supposedly has more due at the TN facility but they have not come in.

Newegg + BH still don't have inventory. So if I really want to buy, and I may next week, Ill prolly wind up using Sparco or Provantage as I assume they will remain cheapest for these monitors unless a coupon or promo opens up from another vendor which is doubtful.

Could have gotten it already and had it in my hands but I am waiting to see if another round of price drops occur and if more inventory will come in. First batches may also be inferior to the new inventory coming in as the new batches are rumored on here to have switched production facilities. Someone said they returned one and the factory was switched from China to Germany on the replacement.

So unclear yet if this holds water. Disappointed that B+H has no inventory for me to view at this time since I thought they would have gotten it already.

Will anything happen next week? Stay tuned but it could just be similar to what we have now. Doesn't seem like they are mass producing these at this time and they seem to be keeping inventories under tight controls.

I expect Sparco to sell the last unit but hopefully they then get in the 10 more due in at the TN facility.

So if anyone here goes to sparco.com to buy, well that 1 unit is gone. Enjoy it and tell us how it is. :) :) If its available. Everyone fighting for the cheapest $360 unit left. Oh no!
 
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adamj023 said:
Newegg + BH still don't have inventory. So if I really want to buy, and I may next week, Ill prolly wind up using Sparco or Provantage as I assume they will remain cheapest for these monitors unless a coupon or promo opens up from another vendor which is doubtful.
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This coming from a guy who thought $330 was a bum deal :p I had to back out of my Dell order because the tax man left me a nice little tab for $250 that weekend (thanks for valuing my car at more than what I bought it for a year ago, Uncle Sam).

All is not lost, however; it seems like Dell has 20% coupons almost every other month. You can also find Dell gift cards on ebay for ~$50 off. I'm thinking about buying a gift card and sitting on it until another 15 or 20% off coupon comes around. $409 - 20% = $327 - $50 = $277 + tax, or $297 + tax for 15% off. Both are pretty good deals. Does anyone here have much experience with those ebay'd gift cards? Any caveats I should know about, besides the standard ebay scams, that would break this deal like not being able to pay for some products with those cards or coupons not working with them?

Good to hear from you guys lucky enough to have snagged one already that these are up to NEC's standards in terms of quality. The initial feedback seems good so far around the web in general. Really looking forward to feasting my eyes on this thing, whenever that may be.
 
That 20% deal from Dell for the NEC was good for the earliest batches. Unfortunately since that time, B+H is no longer an authorized dealer and newegg has yet to update its inventory and due various reasons I don't know what the rockbottom price will come in at on this monitor. The last one at Sparco has sold as I knew it would. Now people will start buying up those remaining units at Provantage. NEC may be wanting to keep supply low on these but I can't say right now. Provantage did drop its price however.

Sayonara
 
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dmxlite said:
If you can, cancel the order. Re-order with a pricematch of this place: http://www.directcanada.com/product...EA231WMI-BK&manufacture=NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS

Or, order from them directly (they are actually a sister company of NCIX).

You can search for the lowest price on this site: www.pricebat.ca
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Thanks for the links but it shipped out at 5pm today. Always in the evening before a weekend with NCIX. Now for the awful waiting game.

Edit: Just noticed ncix bumped the price from 419 to 449 a day after I ordered. That almost makes me feel better after missing the price match to save $13.
 
alsheron said:
UPDATE:
Also, I think that its the right hand side being yellowy green that is the defective side rather than the left side being slightly pink/bluer..... Whites look more natural on the left....
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I recieved my unit from PCBUYIT on friday and it too has color uniformity issues. On mine, the left side colors are cooler/bluer and on the right warmer and more red. I'm going to give them a call on monday to get a replacement as this just isnt good enough...
 
ly-chee said:
I recieved my unit from PCBUYIT on friday and it too has color uniformity issues. On mine, the left side colors are cooler/bluer and on the right warmer and more red. I'm going to give them a call on monday to get a replacement as this just isnt good enough...
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The great monitor crap shoot. Sometimes I think we'd be better off by maxing out the credit card an order five. Pick the best of the lot and send the other four back.
 
larryinlc said:
The great monitor crap shoot. Sometimes I think we'd be better off by maxing out the credit card an order five. Pick the best of the lot and send the other four back.
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I agree, but if ly-chee also had pretty much the same issues i'm having then it seems units in batches are prone to having similar problems. To use the Credit Card LCD Hack you'd need to order the same monitor from different vendors. A massive pain, but it just might work!

I have yet to hear from NEC regarding my replacement from them. It's coming from Germany so that should be a good thing.
 
Gee,

It's about 50/50 now, for good versus bad units. Yikes!

Is your unit marked as from China or Germany?

My long ago placed order from B & H Photo still hasn't shipped to me yet.

I guess I'm wondering if there really are two different batches of these units, some of them coming from China and some from Germany, with the one from Germany being the good ones...

Anyway, B & H Photo has the Samsung F2380 in stock, too, which I'm kind of thinking of as an escape route unit.

Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone
 
My panel has Chinese writing on the nameplate, so I assume it came from there. Still, it's perfect in every way. I got a good one it seems.

Larry
 
OK,

So it's not a regional batch issue, but still a kind of a gamble. Thanks. I was thinking maybe the later filled orders, like mine, might have a better chance of being good ones.

I guess I'll just wait for the dice to land, so to speak.

Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone
 
After playing for an afternoon, I really like this panel. The bleeding worked itself out and it is not so bad at all anymore. No dead pixels and I'm happy with everything.

I took some pics from my old Dell 2209WA and swapped monitors out with the NEC on the same PC. Sorry about the quality, it was hard to get good conditions as you'll see the window directly behind the monitor, which really made handling lighting difficult. Hopefully these pics help someone if they are deciding.

Overall the quality is about the same as the Dell. I think the Dell might be blacker than the NEC, but its not very noticeable unless you look for it. My only other observation when doing a direct compare was that the NEC's coating is slightly (SLIGHTLY) more reflective, and less grainy than the Dell. The NEC is still very much a matte screen.

Here are some pics. If you download them they will be full size. http://www.flickr.com/photos/43675551@N03/sets/ The backgrounds were standard Win 7 color backgrounds. On the NEC it was in SRGB with 65 brightness / 50 contrast. On the Dell can't recall, but brightness was around 50 with no other major settings changed from factory. Gamma was pushed up a bit via the video card drivers (nvidia).

After I did my compare pics, I then installed my new Intel SSD G2 and an ATI 5850. I'm in heaven!

Running on DisplayPort now and my only gripe is that it appears that ATI hasn't bothered to make drivers for DisplayPort sound. I can see the Playback sound device for their HDMI output, but there is no sound for their DisplayPort. Hopefully they fix this and it can hardly be blamed on NEC, but something to consider since the NEC lacks an HDMI if you were looking for an all in one a/v single cable solution. I'm fine with it for now as it would have been a nice additional sound playback option to my regular speaker setup. If anyone has any ideas or experience w/this any input greatly appreciated.

I'm interested to see where mine was mfg'd. Where is everyone looking to see where it was made? Thanks.
 
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Was hoping more vendors got stock in. Guess its still too new. Will check back in the coming weeks and see if a: NEC 23" is still the best one and who has the cheapest deal.

Not in rush to buy monitor. Will buy in coming weeks.

Anyone else planning a 23" IPS monitor? Or is the NEC pretty much the one I will be getting when more supplies and lower prices come in?
 
After realizing how well IPS LCDs (2209WA & U2410) sold on Dell, they decide to short change NEC and claim their monitors are tops by labelling the NEC EA231WMI-BK as a TN.

2969l0.png
 
Just a typo. People get product information wrong all the time on websites and its not intentional.

I'll wait a little more to see what happens on these.
 
Could owners post pics of an all black background in a dark rooom please, to display any bleeding issues. You can use UDPixel and it can display a complete black screen.
 
sippm said:
After playing for an afternoon, I really like this panel. The bleeding worked itself out and it is not so bad at all anymore. No dead pixels and I'm happy with everything.

I took some pics from my old Dell 2209WA and swapped monitors out with the NEC on the same PC. Sorry about the quality, it was hard to get good conditions as you'll see the window directly behind the monitor, which really made handling lighting difficult. Hopefully these pics help someone if they are deciding.

Overall the quality is about the same as the Dell. I think the Dell might be blacker than the NEC, but its not very noticeable unless you look for it. My only other observation when doing a direct compare was that the NEC's coating is slightly (SLIGHTLY) more reflective, and less grainy than the Dell. The NEC is still very much a matte screen.

Here are some pics. If you download them they will be full size. http://www.flickr.com/photos/43675551@N03/sets/ The backgrounds were standard Win 7 color backgrounds. On the NEC it was in SRGB with 65 brightness / 50 contrast. On the Dell can't recall, but brightness was around 50 with no other major settings changed from factory. Gamma was pushed up a bit via the video card drivers (nvidia).

After I did my compare pics, I then installed my new Intel SSD G2 and an ATI 5850. I'm in heaven!

Running on DisplayPort now and my only gripe is that it appears that ATI hasn't bothered to make drivers for DisplayPort sound. I can see the Playback sound device for their HDMI output, but there is no sound for their DisplayPort. Hopefully they fix this and it can hardly be blamed on NEC, but something to consider since the NEC lacks an HDMI if you were looking for an all in one a/v single cable solution. I'm fine with it for now as it would have been a nice additional sound playback option to my regular speaker setup. If anyone has any ideas or experience w/this any input greatly appreciated.

I'm interested to see where mine was mfg'd. Where is everyone looking to see where it was made? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I considered not mentioning it but from your pics I can see that the white screen exhibits the same very slight uniformity difference from left to right in that the right is more "yellowy" and the left more "pinky/purple". It's also clear that the left has a bit of backlight bleed also. Now the thing is, as I'm waiting for NEC to call me back re a replacement, I'm actually starting to get used to mine. Something I realised is that going from one monitor to another can sometimes make small things seem more obvious than they would otherwise be over time. Now, I'm "getting used to it" but I have to say, I'm still getting mine swapped out as on grey backgrounds and white backgrounds it really is quite noticeable.
 
That comment does not bother me at all. I agree the white is like that a bit, I don't notice it too much. I am fussy with PQ, and have certain needs, but not a photographer and I can't discern some details like others. I think its a blessing! The posts/pics aren't very good as I simply didn't have the tools / lighting to take good ones.

I also had a batch of pics that show pure black (screensaver set to blank) but I could not get the exposures to reflect what I saw. The Dell is clearly superior in terms of controlling bleed and the NEC still does have some (notably, a bit more clouding overall and specific bleed from lower right corner). This may just be a matter of luck or who-knows-what. That's just something I've learned to live with in LCDs, but the Dell did do a much better job on it.

Ultimately I think the PQ of the Dell & NEC are overall similar and choice probably will come down to preferred resolution and a few other intangibles.

Sometimes I wonder why after all the advances in plasma tech and no more burn in, we don't have plasma monitors. Surely the chance of burnin now cant be any worse than it used to be with CRTs.
 
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I've had this monitor for a couple of days, from pcbuyit.co.uk.
I too notice this left right colour imbalance but after careful checking it seems to be a viewing angle issue rather than a panel uniformity issue.
I noticed it straight away because I have a black and white photo as my desktop background.
It's subtle, looking at a normal full colour photo it's not noticeable at all.
If I fill the screen with a solid block of grey, the left side is a slightly cool grey and the right side a slightly warm grey. This can have an effect on blocks of soft pastel colours stretching the width of the screen.
If I move my head to the left and past the end of the screen so that I view the left side with the equivalent angle to how I would view the right side when sitting straight on, then the cool grey on the left becomes warm.
Conversely, moving my head to the right changes the warm grey on the right side of the screen to a cooler shade.
This would explain why any testing by NEC would not reveal a fault.
If they use a calorimeter on different parts of the screen the viewing angle anomaly wouldn't be relevant.

If I thought this was a fault I would send it back but I think it's just another shortcoming inherent in LCD panels.
My TN panel monitor, iiyama prolite E2208hds, as well as my laptop, doesn't have this left/right issue but has far more severe top to bottom viewing angle problems, I'm constantly having to bob my head around the screen like a cockatoo to see what is going on.
I certainly don't feel the need to do this with the NEC.
My Sony tv ( kdl40w4000, I think a p-va panel) has exactly the same left right issue as the NEC, whether viewing a black and white movie or using it as my pc's monitor.

Like I said, it's subtle, only noticeable with certain pale colours or greys stretching most of the width of the screen. If I'm working on a colour critical part of an image I tend to zoom in and bring it center screen anyway, so it doesn't really bother me.
It's the kind of thing that one person may become obsessed about whilst another will wonder what the fuss is about.

If I send it back I'll be back to square one, bobbing my head around my TN panel or go for another brand which may have a it's own can of worms.
 
I noticed the color shifting you describe and mentioned it in my first post as well. I'm not sure if its the panel, or if its the coating (I feel that it is shifting a bit also due to reflections as I move). At any rate, I kind of expected it since the horizontal width is much wider than what I'm used to. It is a far cry better than any TN (I tried a few), too, and it doesn't bug me much day-to-day.
 
Gee,

Those last two posts are interesting, and contribute to giving me a little ease about this unit, which will hopefully arrive to me soon, via B & H Photo.

Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone
 
You should feel at ease. We are nitting about one of the best 23" 1080p panels available to consumers on the marketplace, and a top panel as compared to any resolution/size otherwise available. Provided that you don't get a defective unit, which can always happen, you will not likely be disappointed =)

chrisliv said:
Gee,

Those last two posts are interesting, and contribute to giving me a little ease about this unit, which will hopefully arrive to me soon, via B & H Photo.

Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone
Click to expand...
 
Yeah,

I am at ease about it being a potentially good unit, by choice.

And with some of the firsthand input you've provided, I'm pretty sure that won't be disappointed.

But I do hope B & H Photo will have some stock soon, to fill my several weeks old pre-order.

Peace to you,
C. Livingstone
 
B+H is good if you are local to the store.

If not then Provantage is cheaper and have stock and you would have gotten your unit already. Sparco doesn't have cheaper priced units in stock with free shipping right now. Have to wait awhile for more units to come in from various vendors and see who has the lowest pricing.

However B+H was removed as an NEC authorized vendor I presume and it seems like they will only be special ordering the NEC and won't have stock in the store from what I gather as of now. It is possible that order could be opened for awhile and either cancelled on you or shipped. But you could have spent less and had it shipped already to you.
 
how is this monitor? how does it perform for gaming?? is there alot of blur or ghosting?
 
Viewsonic has a 23" IPS but it lacks displayport and I don't know if their quality control is as good as NEC. I'm going to wait for reviews before I pick up one of these. Still wondering if the 1920x1080p is worth giving up the 120 pixels or if I should spend more for a U2410. But U2410 is said to have grainy screen and wide gamut issues?
 
Yeah,

I'm a pretty patient person, who would rather pay a little more from an out-of-state source to deny the State some extortion money/sales tax.

Oftentimes shipping is free or is less than sales tax, anyway. I mean, like I posted, the B & H price was $369, plus shipping, with a total of $400.40, and no extortion money hostile, lazy politicians or bureaucrats. I mean, revenue to the State is like drugs to a junkie.

So, the final price I'm paying is comparable to others. And I don't mind the wait that much.

Peace to you,
C. Livingstone
 
Wow. This monitor isn't wide gamut? And how does it stand next to U2410, which has 120 more pixels?
 
I can't compare to the Dell 24" monitor, but compared to their 2209WA it is less grainy. Way back when I originally bought the first batch of 2209WAs, graininess on the Dell was my only complaint.

I think the choice of 1080 vs 1200 is a personal choice and people will have to make their own decision as to which is most important to them.

I plugged in the line-in speakers just for kicks and yes, they are terrible. No surprise there. I'm still leaving them in though so I have two playback choices between the monitor speakers and my main external sound system. I can see potential uses for the second sound device perhaps in voice chats or something like that where I don't care about fidelity and not have to worry about sharing that channel with game sounds or music. Plus there are headset outs right on the monitor, so in a jiff I can plug in my earbuds if I need to keep the room totally quiet.
 
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I found this forum last week when I was looking for information on this monitor. I decided to buy one a few days later and it arrived last Thursday. I think I've been lucky with mine and it all seems to be pretty good. I'm pretty sure there are no stuck/dead pixels, or at least I certainly haven't noticed any. I'm not noticing any problems with uniformity of the screen - it looks good to me. The only thing is a very slight amount of light bleeding through on the lower right corner. It's very minimal though and I don't even notice it when watching DVDs in a darkened room, unless I look directly at it. It certainly doesn't draw my eyes to it.

I'm certainly no expert on LCD screens though. I've used quite a few in the past but this is the first one I've owned. The only problem I'm having is that it seems very bright to me, and when I watch or edit films in a darkened room the blacks are nowhere near as dark as I'm used to. I have come straight from a CRT monitor though, which had exceptionally dark blacks. I have this monitor set to 0.0% brightness as well, so I can't think of anything else I can do to darken it. Since this is my first LCD I have nothing to compare to. I'm just wondering how others who already have one of these monitors think it compares to other LCD monitors in terms of black levels. Are there other monitors that have darker blacks or is this pretty standard for LCD. If i thought I could get one with darker blacks I'd be very tempted to send this monitor back, but if this is as good as it gets then I'll be happy to keep it. I have another 5 days to decide.

In all other respects I've found this to be an excellent monitor. The colours look fantastic, contrast is good and viewing angles are very good. I haven't noticed any problems with input lag or response times either.
 
morris said:
...
I'm certainly no expert on LCD screens though. I've used quite a few in the past but this is the first one I've owned. The only problem I'm having is that it seems very bright to me, and when I watch or edit films in a darkened room the blacks are nowhere near as dark as I'm used to. I have come straight from a CRT monitor though, which had exceptionally dark blacks. I have this monitor set to 0.0% brightness as well, so I can't think of anything else I can do to darken it. Since this is my first LCD I have nothing to compare to. I'm just wondering how others who already have one of these monitors think it compares to other LCD monitors in terms of black levels. Are there other monitors that have darker blacks or is this pretty standard for LCD. If i thought I could get one with darker blacks I'd be very tempted to send this monitor back, but if this is as good as it gets then I'll be happy to keep it. I have another 5 days to decide.
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You may want to verify that Eco mode and/or auto brightness are off if you're finding the brightness to be too high at 0%. I don't find the brightness to be excessive at all, even at around 20% in a dark room. Calibrated, I got 0.2cd/m^2, so it basically looks like it's off when displaying a black screen.
 
ZombiePanic said:
You may want to verify that Eco mode and/or auto brightness are off if you're finding the brightness to be too high at 0%. I don't find the brightness to be excessive at all, even at around 20% in a dark room. Calibrated, I got 0.2cd/m^2, so it basically looks like it's off when displaying a black screen.
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That doesn't look like black to someone coming from a CRT. How bright is your white. On a CRT that is often under 80cd/m2.

My 2490 is calibrated at 0.17cd/m2 black and 114 cd/m2 white. This is at zero brightness.

In the dark I find that too bright and black doesn't look black.

IMO LCDs aren't really made for use in the dark, they work better with ambient lighting.
 
vick1000 said:
Could owners post pics of an all black background in a dark rooom please, to display any bleeding issues. You can use UDPixel and it can display a complete black screen.
Click to expand...

Here is my best effort. I took two sets of pics with the screen set to black (using Win7 "Blank" screensaver). You can gauge the room brightness by both the city lights outside of my window (37th floor) and the logitech illuminated keyboard. I also took a picture with the OSD up but the signal itself set to black (Win7 "Blank" screensaver).

Brightness set to 65. http://www.flickr.com/photos/43675551@N03/sets/72157622489815337/

Brightness set to 0. http://www.flickr.com/photos/43675551@N03/sets/72157622614321330/

I think the exposure amplifies the 65 brightness setting, it is not quite that bright. But you can see the backlighting for sure.

You can download the full picture (I think) and also flikr should show the capture/EXIF settings for the pics.

My only other thought is that upon taking further pictures of this, the screen definately has a reflective quality to it that can make the colors to not appear uniform. I'm not sure why or how that works, but the net net is that when looking for horizontal uniformity, I think you have to take any pic seen with a grain of salt since you don't know the angles and other factors involved.

Edit -- for whatever reason, Flickr does not keep the full size pic (1080) for d/l, but the "Large" version should be good enough.
 
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