Monoprice IPS-Glass Panel Pro 27" LCD Monitor
by Chris Heinonen on October 22, 2013 2:40 AM ESTUnlike the cheaper Monoprice display, the brightness control for the IPS-Glass Panel Pro actually controls the backlight correctly. Set to the maximum level it produces 348 cd/m^2 of brightness. Monoprice rates it for 440 cd/m^2 but hitting that level requires maxing out the contrast setting which introduces color shifts and white clipping.
Unfortunately the minimum setting for the brightness control does not take the Monoprice as low as we would like to see it. The minimum white level is only 163 cd/m^2, well over the 80 cd/m^2 we will try to calibrate to later. This might be by design as a really low light level would cause the glare of glossy screen to be much worse. If you work in a dark or dim environment you might find this light level to be too high for your regular use. I found myself using the display with the backlight at minimum the whole time as I prefer a level closer to 140-150 cd/m^2 in my moderately lit room.
The black levels on the Monoprice are much better than I expected them to be. IPS is typically not as highly regarded for deep blacks but the Monoprice does a great job. At the maximum setting the black level is 0.3524 cd/m^2 and at the minimum it falls to 0.1647 cd/m^2. For an IPS display these are both quite good numbers.
For the first time I had a display produce the exact same contrast level at maximum and minimum backlight settings. That is more of a fluke than anything, but the actual number is the impressive part. The Monoprice comes very close to the 1000:1 that I look for with a 989:1 ratio. This is effectively the same, and means the Monoprice works very well for dynamic content like games and movies. This might change if you calibrate, but it is capable of really good results.
The one thing I would like to have seen from the Monoprice here is a lower minimum backlight setting. Perhaps they have adjusted the backlight to provide better contrast ratios at the expense of minimum light levels, in which case most people would find this acceptable. Overall these numbers are very good and I’m happy to see them.
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az060693 - Tuesday, November 3, 2015 - link
Insanely late comment on an old review, but the part about the HDMI port being unable to support 1440p@60fps is false. It runs fine off my GTX 960 via HDMI; I later switched over to displayport to use the HDMI port for my Xbox, but it ran fine for months on HDMI.Interestingly, because of the above 1080p resolution, Nvidia didn't automatically default to HDTV colorspace settings like it does for 1080p and lower resolution monitors.