NEC PA322UHD Review
From ColorWiki
With the PA322, NEC enters the world of 4K displays with the quality that not only satisfy the professional photographer, the 4K capability brings the same wide color gamut, uniformity and longevity to the videographer also. This is a big monitor, with a big color gamut, and all the features you need for professional color work.
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Links:
NEC website: http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop-monitors/pa322uhd-bk
CHROMiX: https://www.chromix.com/ColorGear/Shop/productdetail.cxsa?toolid=50278
Contents |
Color gamut
The 322 has a wide color gamut, capable of reproducing all the colors of the AdobeRGB working space. The NEC literature claims 99.2% coverage of the AdobeRGB gamut and my rough visual estimate would confirm that. It almost fully encompasses AdobeRGB, and the small section of the orange gamut that pokes out does not matter much. A rough estimate of the gamut volume of this display is about 1,280,000 cubic Lab values (Using ColorThink Pro.)
Uniformity
The uniformity across the screen was very good. The average dE between various locations on the screen was about .77. The worst uniformity issue I found on my demo unit was between the upper left corner and the lower right corner. There, the very worst single color difference was a very light gray at 2.91 dE (2000). If that's the worst it gets, then it's still really very uniform. Numbers like this means that the display has very even color across the screen. Most differences are less than the human eye can detect and the worst is barely seen by the human eye. The NEC uniformity is corrected for at the factory using a technology they call ColorComp, and Digital Uniformity Correction. What is unknown is the question of how well the uniformity holds up over time. NEC has a four-year warrantee.
For more specifics on the uniformity of this model, see the uniformity illustration at the end of this article.
Evenness
Visually the screen on the demo unit we tested looks uniform, except for 2 tiny areas. There are some very slight irregularities in the smoothness of the display: One small dot in the upper left corner, and another near the bottom of the screen, center, a collection of dots. You have to learn to expect a few dead pixels on any display, even something as nice as this. But these don’t seem to be dead pixels since they are out of focus and only show up with the lighter colors. These are also small enough to not cause problems for most users, but I point them out just the same. These are most likely irregularities in the demo unit we were looking at. I would not expect this to be visible in other units.
Brightness
At maximum brightness the display was able to hit 324 cd/m2. I ran it at 60 cd/m2 without seeing any problems with shadow detail, banding, etc.
Angle of view
The official specs from NEC list viewing angles of 178ø, vertical and horizontal. The larger a screen gets, the more important this viewing angle gets to be in your normal use of a monitor. This screen is so big that as you sit and look at different corners of the display, you're actually looking at the corners at widely different viewing angles. Keeping your perception consistent at all sections of the screen is critical. This is a feature that sets these professional-level monitors apart from the department store variety.
Internal Processing
14-bit Internal processing.
Black Level
Much importance is place on an LCD monitor's ability to reproduce blacks and near blacks well. This is one of the main complaints about LCD displays from those who are used to a CRT. Blocking a backlight with liquid crystals is quite effective, but it's not as good as not having that light blasting away to begin with. When looking at black measurement numbers, the lower the number, the darker and therefore the better.
- At 120 cd/m2, the black point is .21
- At 60 cd/m2, the black point is .13
These numbers are quite good for black level. By comparison, the typical LCD display runs around .30.
Banding / grayscale
Even at low luminance levels, (60 cd/m2) I could not detect any colored banding on a gray scale gradient. The gray looks very neutral.
Other
- I was surprise to feel heat coming from the display on my face when I get within a foot of the front of the display. This is a big display and while it is backlit by cold cathode florescent tubes, still there is something that is working hard to push out all that color!
- I found the brand-new NEC i1 puck to have very active suction cups. The SpectraView software takes pains to warn you not to press the suction cups against the screen surface. This is good advice since they stick very easily.
- There is a switchable, built-in USB hub which essentially allows you to control two computers with only one keyboard and mouse. Several displays out there allow you to switch between video input signals, but this options allows you to also switch keyboard and mouse (if they are USB controlled.)
- For more information on NEC's calibration software options, see our review on the NEC PA271W.
Official Specifications
- Panel Technology - IPS
- Viewable Image Size - 29.8 inches
- Aspect Ratio - 16:10
- Native Resolution - 2560 x 1600
- Pixel Pitch - 0.25 Pixels Per Inch 101
- Backlight Type - CCFL
- Brightness - (typical) - 350
- Contrast Ratio (typical)- 1000:1
- Viewing Angle (typical) - 178° Vert., 178° Hor. (89U/89D/89L/89R) @ CR>10
- ResponseTime (typical) - 7
- Lookup Table - 14-bit (3D)
- Displayable Colors - 1.07 billion out of 4.3 trillion
Color Gamut
- Adobe RGB Coverage/Size - 98.2% / 106.7%
- NTSC Coverage/Size - 93.3% / 102%
- sRGB Coverage/Size - 100% / 144%
Uniformity map
December 2011
Patrick Herold
CHROMiX Technician