Color quality
The quality of colors is measured with the LaCie BlueEye Pro colorimeter, which in fact, is a Gretag colorimeter coupled to the software suite developed by LaCie.
Just to remind you, we work with a value called DeltaE. It represents a measurement between the color requested and the one really displayed on the monitor. The higher the result obtained, the less true colors are. The value is also counter-balanced for human eye color sensitivity.
Delta E > 3 the desired color is noticeably different from the one on the screen.
2 < Delta E < 3 color quality is satisfactory, but a graphic designer probably wouldn’t be content
1< Delta E <2 colors are accurate.
Delta E < 1, the result is perfect.
Each time, 18 patches of color are studied and 16 results are reported in a graph.
Three monitors stand out, the ViewSonic VG2230wm, Samsung SyncMaster 226BW and Dell E228WFP. This is interesting and as we will see later on these three screens were indeed given more attention than the others.
Above an average of 4, color quality becomes a problem with noticeable variations between original ones and images displayed by screens. However, we should put this into perspective with results from a year ago when uncalibrated monitors easily had an average dE of 6 and even above. 4.5 was considered quite good and color improvements have been undeniable.
These measurements are for images directly in front of you. You will see later on that TN panels have problems when looked at from the side, above, and most of all, below.
More explicit than the figures, here is a practical illustration of the gaps measured. We remind you that average dE is based on the measurements of 18 patches. For these 18 basic colors, 5 are shades of grey, which we show you below. Take into consideration that because this is an average dE for 18 values, some monitors might be better in greys than other colors, or vice versa. This is the case of the Dell E228WFP whose grey scale may be a bit surprising. This is a very good monitor for the reproduction of colors, but it really accentuates reds in its greys.
TN 5 ms : Acer AL2216WD
TN 5 ms : Dell E228WFP
TN 5 ms : Fujitsu-Siemens L22W-3
TN 5 ms : Iiyama E2200WS
TN 5 ms : Lenovo D221
TN 5 ms : Mirai DML-522W100
TN 2 ms : Samsung SyncMaster 226BW
TN 5 ms : ViewSonic VG2230wm
TN 5 ms : ViewSonic VX2235wm
