HP z27x Review
by Chris Heinonen on December 2, 2014 4:00 PM ESTWith the backlight set to maximum, you only get 269 cd/m2 of brightness from the HP z27x. Many displays can go much brighter, but the z27x is meant to be used in more of a professional, production environment. Bright overhead lighting or direct sunlight are not going to be as much of a problem here, so you don’t need 350-400 cd/m2 to try to overcome those issues. It won’t work as well for such environments but you shouldn’t be using a $1,500 monitor in those situations either. At minimum brightness we get 47 cd/m2 of brightness. This is low enough for any real world use without going down to the unusable levels that some displays do.
Black levels are consistent with other professional level IPS panels. They are not as dark as an IPS panel can be, as the recent Retina iMac would demonstrate, but other performance aspects are more important than absolute black. The z27x would be improved by a better black level, but most of its target users should be fine with what it achieves.
The resulting contrast ratios here are around 815:1, or average for an IPS panel. There is no backlight control or anything else to enhance these beyond what they are. Under 1,000:1 is beginning to be not so great for an IPS panel, though almost all professional panels from NEC or others also fall into this range. It might seem strange that a professional display would value black levels less than a consumer one, but having an even gamma curve with visible shadow details is more important and contrast ratio can be sacrificed to achieve that,
The HP z27x data so far goes along with what I expect from a professional level display. Consumers that plan to watch movies and play games on their display might be happier with a display with improved contrast ratios. Professionals after different performance measures should be happy with the z27x numbers.
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ant6n - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
@Chris: when seeing this article in rss, it's not clear that this is a monitor review (the word 'display' comes up nearly last).chowyuncat - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Could you put Apple's 27" Cinema or Thunderbolt display's input lag in your monitor reviews?cheinonen - Sunday, December 7, 2014 - link
I don't have one so I can't do that, and they don't have HDMI ports so I can't measure it the same way either.marsupilami - Friday, December 5, 2014 - link
Am I the only one who thinks this article lacks an introduction?Good review otherwise although I agree with kyuu regarding the uniformity issue, unless the monitor was purchased by AT I don't see how requesting another sample would've made a difference. And even then you can publish both sets of numbers and let the readers draw their own conclusions. As it is we have no clue whether the results are due to a damaged sample or simply poor performance.
SanX - Sunday, December 7, 2014 - link
Who needs QHD? Who needs 27"? Are gamut pros happy that they dont have yet 4K minimum 30"- 40" monitors?mtbakerstu - Saturday, May 9, 2015 - link
Chris, thank you for what I thought was a very good review. My question is not just to you, but to the community that has participated in this forum as well. Is there any new consensus on the uniformity issue that Chris raised? It does seem an achilles heel, if the issue is not specific to the z27x unit that Chris evaluated. Since last comments posted, has anyone purchased (or know anyone that has purchased) a z27x to confirm or disclaim what Chris communicated as a serious issue for the model? There aren't many options that cover the full range of color gamma options at this price point, so I am inclined to buy one, but felt I should first check into the community. As an alternative, I am considering the z24x, but perhaps uniformity is an issue with this model as well. Thanks in advance for the any additional feedback from the community here.kflorian - Sunday, July 12, 2015 - link
Anybody have an accurate weight for this WITHOUT the base?