HP z27x Review
by Chris Heinonen on December 2, 2014 4:00 PM ESTSurprisingly the HP z27x does not fare well on our uniformity testing. With most professional displays, having good uniformity is important because of their target market. This makes the performance that we see from the HP z27x all the stranger.
White Uniformity sees a lot of light drop-off at the edges of the screen. A very good display will only drop down 10% to 180 cd/m2 or so but the HP falls all the way to 153 cd/m2 in one zone. This fall-off of almost 25% is much higher than would be expected, and is something you can see when you have a uniform field up on the screen.
Black Uniformity is similar, with those same zones on the display having a lot of light fall-off leading to darker blacks. Having darker blacks is always good, but these are dark because of uneven backlighting which is not something we want to see of course.
The contrast uniformity shows that these backlighting issues are pretty consistent. There is some variation in the contrast ratio, but the minimum level is 900:1 and it goes up to 1,047:1 in one zone. This is better than we measured with the APL patterns (uniformity uses full-field) and everywhere on the display has a good contrast ratio. The contrast uniformity measures very well on the HP z27x.
The biggest issue is the color uniformity. This is probably tied back into the white uniformity, as the luminance level being incorrect will cause the colors to be incorrect. One zone, the very dim one, has an average dE2000 of almost 6.0 compared to the center. This poor backlighting causes the colors to all appear off compared to what is in the center. The panel itself might be uniform but if the backlight is not, what you see on the screen will not match up.
Overall the uniformity measurements of the HP z27x surprise me. I expected much better results from the monitor because of its target market. The panel might calibrate to be very accurate, but what you see in the center of the screen is not going to match up to what you see on the edges of it.
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Wwhat - Sunday, December 7, 2014 - link
It's probably enforced by the damn HDMI consortium. But that's why it's nice to have displayport on monitors eh. Graphics cards use those and computer monitors like this one do.teddyboyd - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
There are a number of higher rated monitors, I recommend seeing http://www.topreport.org/monitors/ among others.dgingeri - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
I have the predecessor for this monitor, the ZR2740w, and I hate it. I had to have it replaced twice under warranty in three years. The support for it was difficult to reach and difficult to convince I deserved to get a new one because the old ones wouldn't power up at all. (Apparently, they thought I couldn't attach the cable properly, even though I'd worked in IT for over 15 years.) I am simply not getting another HP monitor again because of my experiences. I recommend the same to others.Dell makes much better monitors at has better support. Right now, they have the 27" UHD P2715Q for only $700, including a 3 year advanced replacement warranty. That sounds like a much better deal than this to me.
cheinonen - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
The ZR2740w, and the Dell, are consumer targeted while the z27x (which isn't a predecessor to the ZR2740w, it's more related to the LP2480zx) is aimed at professionals. Neither the Dell not the ZR2740w have the expanded gamuts or calibration options, they're a different market.fumanstan1 - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
I actually had a different experience with their support for the ZR2740w. Mine started failing where it wouldn't power up either, but they sent a technician out to my apartment to replace the monitor completely and basically came with a brand new warranty without any questions or problems at all. I came away impressed with their support.YazX_ - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
Dell or HP is same rebraded crap originally manufactured in china, you could get same one as these for 300-400$, but the HP logo costs around 1k$.Things extra in this monitor:
LAN: Not important, well external USB 3.0 NIC is for 25$.
USB Hub: not important, costs around 10$.
save your money and get Qnix/X-Star, same quality for fraction of the price, also Qnix comes with Samsung PLS which is better than LG IPS.
Samus - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
You're forgetting the HP logo comes with an excellent on-site warranty, and Qnix tech support doesn't even speak English (they're Korean)wolrah - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I think you missed the point on the ethernet port. It's not exposed to the PC, it's a configuration interface for the display itself. Still probably unimportant to you as it is to most, but certainly not equivalent to a random USB NIC.ijozic - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
What are you on about? The z27x is a wide gamut monitor, while the ones you mention are not. Furthermore, IPS screens generally seem to have better color accuracy than PLS ones.Samus - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
I had a ZR2740w, it isn't a "successor" to this monitor. The ZR2740 was never a "Dreamcolor" display. As cheinonen said, it's a cheap consumer monitor. I hated it too. I could never get it close to calibrated. But it was a cheap, name-brand 2560x1440 display, and decent for gaming (other than FPS's)