NEC MultiSync LCD2690WUXi vs Dell 2709w?

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shishdim

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Hello everyone!

I am new at this forum and this question might seem silly to many of you, so I apologize in advance for bothering you with my ignorant questions :)

To put it simple, does it make sense to buy NEC LCD2690 without calibrating software?

I am on the fence between Dell 2709w ($740) and NEC 2690 ($1050). The NEC is getting raving review, but almost everyone mentions how well it works after calibration. The problem is that calibrating software seems to be at least $200 extra, so the actual price for NEC becomes $1250... I am not sure I can justify this much of a difference in the price ($500!)

I am not a pro photographer or graphic designer. I am definitely an avid amateur photographer and videographer and would not mind enjoying my pictures and videos at their fullest on a good screen. Also I want to have a high quality monitor for many hours of office work (MS Word, Excel, reading stuff online etc).

I think I can afford a $1000 monitor, but not significantly more than that. I am going to use it with my MacBook Pro and I will be upgrading from an older 23 inch Apple Cinema HD display - the one on two legs and a really wide frame (or how do you call it?).

I would really appreciate your advice!

Thanks,
Dmitry
 
Any and all LCD monitors are better after being calibrated. If you don't wanna fork up money for the SpectraView version of the 2690WUXi you can always try manually calibrating the monitor using the following website:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

It will not be precise as hardware calibration, but since you are using the monitor for a professional purpose, it should be good enough. To calibrate the colors, the best advice for doing manually is to have a high quality printout of a picture with some details and colors, then manually tweaking the RGB settings manually until the image on the screen matches the actual print.

Where do you see the 2690WUXi for $1050?
 
For office work and surfing both are somewhat equal with the exception for brightness regulation that is important. 2690 offers high end solutions for this problem.
As soon as you mention your desire to have the fullest of your photo and video, 2690 is on top with no questions. PVA technology (Dell) is below H-IPS (2690) in photo quality due to angle view colorshift on PVA (an intrinsic flaw of PVA/MVA technology). Another unique feature of 2490/2690 family is A-TW polarizer (inside the panel) that makes 2690 viewing angles much better that 2709.
In the future you can add NEC's calibration kit if you want.
Make sure you by the updated model 2690WUXi2 Another thing - A-TW polarizer is still not confirmed for the updated model.

All that is about the monitors themselves.
No idea about MacBook possible issues.
I can be wrong but I never consider a laptop a sufficient companion for a serious monitor. But 2690 may turn out to be an exception: 2490/2690 are more self-sufficient monitors than any other. They have industry most sophisticated set of controls and rewritable memory for the key calibration parameters (calibratable LUT). Calibration process is all automatic.

Another option.
The new update for 23" Apple Cinema has been released specifically for Mac laptops - 24" glossy screen (~$900). Have a look.
Although there may be no comparison with 2690, that is something to thing about.
 
Actually, that new 24" screen by Apple provoked me to start looking for an update for my faithful ACD M8536. If only it was not glossy I would go for it without agonizing about other options...

Thanks for mentioning about that updated model of 2690, but it comes at the price - I can buy an older 2690 for $1,050 including shipping, and as I look around for 2690WUXi2, the cheapest goes for approximately $1,200. Now the question is: does the difference of $150 is justified by that update in the model? What exactly does it do differently?
 
shishdim said:
Now the question is: does the difference of $150 is justified by that update in the model? What exactly does it do differently?
Click to expand...

We may expect slightly deeper black, higher CR, wider color gamut, updated SV II support with sRGB mode now touched to some extent.

Why don't you consider 2490 (#1 of NECs)? Is 24" too small?
 
I noticed that on Amazon the price difference between 2690 and 2490 was only $50 ($1,100 vs. $1,050) and I thought I would not mind getting extra 1.5" just for $50!
 
I've seen some really good comments about LCD2490WUXI and someone was saying he would even prefer 2490 to 2690. I just thought more inches for such a small premium would be nice. Now as I see a refurbished LCD2490WUXI on ebay for $676 I am about to change my mind!
 
2490 is completely free of wide gamut issues, while with 2690 you have to work on that.
That's the main difference between them, not extra 1.4"
 
To be honest, I don't really know what wide gamut is and what kind of issues one can have with it :)
 
WG issue - oversaturated, not natural looking colors in all applications other than so-called "color aware" like Photoshop.
Compared to regular WG monitors, 2690 has an excuse in the form of more or less successful sRGB mode, powerful controls and hardware calibration potential. But it remains a WG monitor.

Left: 2490
Right: WG (look at colors only)
8223sp7.jpg
 
2490 definitely gives more natural colors as I can tell! And I suppose I don't have to work on 2490 as much as on 2690 in terms of calibration to have a decent picture?
 
Mighty fine! Seems like I have settled my mind on 2490! :) Probably will be posting some first-impression comments here in a week or two.

Albovin, thank you so much!
 
I will point out that many of us NEC 90 series owners have noticed that with colorcomp on, very little calibration correction is needed. If you don't by SVII, make sure to use colorcomp and you'll be most of the way there.
 
Color Comp stands for Color Compensation which more or less attempts to ensure color consistancy for the entire monitor; basically improving color accuracy. It is in the OSD menu it's probably under the first tab; not sure since I am at work.

The NEC WUXi sereis has some pretty advanced OSD options. I forgot how to access it since it has been awhile. I think you need to press and hold the On/Off button and Input button for a couple of seconds. If I remember correctly, the monitor will turn off so turn on the monitor again and go into the OSD where you will see more advanced options. I wouldn't play around with it unless you know what you are doing.
 
You turn off the monitor, then hold down the "input" button and hold it down while turning the monitor on, letting go when a display appears. This will enable the advanced OSD and give access to all the extra settings.

Same process for LCD2690 and LC2490.

To the OP, the 2490 is the right choice, unless you absolutely need the wide gamut feature. I would say very few people need it. I know I don't :)

I also have a Dell 2709W sitting next to an LCD2690WUXI, and in comparison, while the Dell is very good, I'd still give the nod to the LCD2X90WUXI series for a number of reasons. Best of luck and many years of enjoyment!

JaguarSKX said:
Color Comp stands for Color Compensation which more or less attempts to ensure color consistancy for the entire monitor; basically improving color accuracy. It is in the OSD menu it's probably under the first tab; not sure since I am at work.

The NEC WUXi sereis has some pretty advanced OSD options. I forgot how to access it since it has been awhile. I think you need to press and hold the On/Off button and Input button for a couple of seconds. If I remember correctly, the monitor will turn off so turn on the monitor again and go into the OSD where you will see more advanced options. I wouldn't play around with it unless you know what you are doing.
Click to expand...
 
Wow, guys - you are the most helpful online crowd I ever encountered! :)

I hope the monitor comes with a manual and I will make sure to read it before I mess with this baby!
 
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