Conclusion
Game and movie grades are not easy to establish. On the one hand, objectively, we find the low reaction time unfortunate, which doesn't match the announced response time and the strong twinkling in video sequences. On the other hand, subjectively, playing and watching movies on a 26" monitor ends up by being very comfortable despite the fact that we sometimes are disturbed by blurs and imperfect renderings. We have to make concessions even if we know that other monitors are much faster.
The final grade might seem quite high compared to these two drawbacks, so we have to come back to the users targeted to understand this choice. This is a LCD for image professionals first of all. Once calibrated (an indispensable step for this monitor and the price doesn’t mean that colors are accurate from the start), the LCD2690WUXi ends up with superb colors, much richer than average. It shows color scales that are invisible in other monitors and has almost total viewing angles at a price rather close to other 24" monitors.
This doesn't mean that prices are identical. Dell regularly makes interesting sales for the 2407WFP and its price oscillates between approximately 1100€ to 810€. The gap between this monitor and the Dell is sometimes twice the amount and this is really excessive for someone who doesn't need such a wide gamut. Especially since the Dell is the fastest.
What about the other 26 and 27 inches?
Acer will release another 26" in January; the AL2623W. Usually, Acer's products are much more affordable than NEC's. This will be confirmed once more as the AL2623W will be priced around 1250€. It is interesting to note that it is already possible to
pre-order it in Germany for less than 1100€. Nec's color rendering is often more accurate than Acer's and the Acer probably won't use wide-gamut tubes like the Nec LCD2690WUXi.
Two 27"s are also expected in January, one by Dell and the other by Samsung. There is a modification of technology as these two monitors will feature PVA panels with contrast ratios of 3000:1. We already tested similar (but smaller) panels and the response time of 6ms will probably be better for games than the 26" IPS panel tested here. The pitch changes to 0.303 mm – this time it is bigger than 15" monitors (take a look at the graph on first page to compare). Last but not least, the price remains a mystery these monitors.
