Highdynamicrangeis alltheragebutwhich displays are worth your
timeandmoney?EdwardChesterputssix of the latest to the test
HDR monitors
LABS TEST
Howwe test
H
DR is the latest buzzword in monitor technology, with it
designed to bring greater realism to our screens thanks
to a higher maximum brightness, greater contrast and
a wider range of colours. As we explore in our HDR buyers guide
(p88), though, things aren’t as simple as just seeing HDR on the box
and away you go.
There are different standards with different hardware
approaches that result in wildly varying resultant image quality.
The exact whys and wherefores we explain in said guide (it’s worth
reading first), so for now we’ll jump right into our testing.
To test the monitors, we first ran through our usual checklist of
tests. We looked at the design, build and other physical features
that each offers, including things such as ergonomics and
connectivity. We then assess image quality using a combination
of subjective tests – for things such as viewing angles and gaming
performance – as well as objective testing for image quality using
a colorimeter (X-Rite iDisplay Pro), checking for things such as
colour balance, gamma and native contrast.
Next, we enabled HDR to see what difference this made to
the overall viewing experience. We subjectively observed the
difference as well as testing for what we feel is the most crucial
aspect of HDR: the uptick in contrast. We used the DisplayHDR
Test app to show a maximum brightness spot in the centre of the
screen and black all the way around it, then used our colorimeter
to measure the white spot and the black areas.
We aren’t able to test DCI-P3 colour space coverage in HDR
mode, as our test software doesn’t support HDR, but for those
monitors that offer a separate high gamut (that is, HDR) colour mode
we turned this on and measured the display’s colour performance.
This we then took as representative of the colour coverage when
HDR is enabled. The two Asus displays lack a manual high-colour
gamut option, so we weren’t able to test this.Contents
Acer Predator CG437K / p55
AOC AG273QX / p56
Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ / p57
Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ / p58
BenQ EX2780Q / p59
MSI Optix MAG321CURV / p60LABS TEST / HDR MONITORS