Well as you guys may or may not remember, I ordered a HP LP2475 a few days back. Due to some complications in delivery, it took longer than anticipated to arrive, so I had to buy a "temporary" monitor whilst waiting for it. I picked the best 24" monitor John Lewis (only shop open at the time) stocked.
The HP W2448HC.
http://www.9final.com/computer...0083/hp_w2448hc_01.jpg
Looked elegant enough and at £320 it should have! However, as soon as I plugged it in I knew I was going to be less than impressed by the performance. Going from a Dell 2407WFP, it was hard to stomach the W244. Viewing angles were atrocious. And I do mean atrocious. A few inches of movement either way and colours went obtuse, over-cooked or undercooked. I couldn't even slouch in my leather chair properly without losing a few shades of a colour. On top of that, my god the glare! The screen reflected everything! When a black image was on screen, I could watch TV off the reflection (my TV sits behind my PC) without any troubles at all! It was horrendous. Worst case of reflective screen I've ever witnessed. Why do manufacturers have reflective screens? It's bad enough here, but imagine it if you'd spent £650 on the new Apple LED monitors? My word I couldn't stomach it.
Colours out of the box were ridiculous. Everything had an obtuse warmth and yellow tinge to it. Even after calibration with my Pantone Huey Pro, things looked bleak. Major red push (difficult to tell the different shades of red in my project apart), and when I checked this site and did these tests.
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php
I was cooking colours to the left and right of the bars. Colours were bleeding together and I was losing at least 4 bars on each. Black level wise I could see only 10-255.
I was not a happy bunny. And sat there thinking, would the HP LP2475 really be that much better when it was only £100 more? (£420.) Is there that much of a difference between TN and S-IPS panels?
----
Well, it arrived this morning, and I've been working on it since.
WOW. What a difference. Design wise, it's so much more aggressive, industrial and professional. Essentially a coarse block of rugged thick matt plastic housing. Stand was less elegant, but functional. It swivelled and moved much better. Only downside to the design is that the cable hiding compartments are fidgety.
http://www.msc-internet.fr/images/ecran-01.jpg
Colours out of the box were still well ahead of the previous monitors calibrated settings. Either way, after some quick adjustments and calibration, what a difference. On the test images (linked above), I can now see every single tab of every single colour with the exception of tab one for blue. I can see every single black shade box, bar the first. Immediately with all my work I was able to see the subtleties and range of colours better. The screen has a brilliant anti-reflective lacquer, and on top of that the viewing angles are tremendous. Essentially allowing me to move around with complete freedom with little to no picture variation.
All this....for an extra £100? I mean really....
In the same day HP annoyed the hell out of me, and impressed me to no end. One of their monitors being a shoddy excuse for a top end consumer product, and the other being astonishing value for money and a brilliant entry point in the pro-sumer/professional category.
---
Verdicts...(Out of 10)
HP W2448HC (£320)
Design: 6 (Let down by reflective screen)
Performance: 5 (Horrible viewing angles and relatively poor colour accuracy. Fairly decent gradients and edge detail though)
Features: 8 (Great connectivity and a web cam)
Value: 5 (For what you get it's a relative rip-off)
Overall: 5 (Nice looking and feature rich, but rather lacklustre performance for the price)
HP LP2475 (£420)
Design: 9 (Robust, professional and functional. No frills no fuss.)
Performance: 9 (For the money, exceptional. Better than my old Dell and than my flat mates Apple Cinema display. Accurate colours, deep black levels, viewing angles and motion)
Features: 8 (Tonnes of connectivity, included software, numerous cables including two HDMI one's. The lot.)
Value: 9 (It seems expensive given how cheap monitors can be these days. But for the money you're getting a lot. Especially if you're particularly anal about colour accuracy and IQ)
Overall: 9 (If you take picture quality serious, or do any sort of design/creative work on your system, this monitor gets my highest recommendation)
.
The HP W2448HC.
http://www.9final.com/computer...0083/hp_w2448hc_01.jpg
Looked elegant enough and at £320 it should have! However, as soon as I plugged it in I knew I was going to be less than impressed by the performance. Going from a Dell 2407WFP, it was hard to stomach the W244. Viewing angles were atrocious. And I do mean atrocious. A few inches of movement either way and colours went obtuse, over-cooked or undercooked. I couldn't even slouch in my leather chair properly without losing a few shades of a colour. On top of that, my god the glare! The screen reflected everything! When a black image was on screen, I could watch TV off the reflection (my TV sits behind my PC) without any troubles at all! It was horrendous. Worst case of reflective screen I've ever witnessed. Why do manufacturers have reflective screens? It's bad enough here, but imagine it if you'd spent £650 on the new Apple LED monitors? My word I couldn't stomach it.
Colours out of the box were ridiculous. Everything had an obtuse warmth and yellow tinge to it. Even after calibration with my Pantone Huey Pro, things looked bleak. Major red push (difficult to tell the different shades of red in my project apart), and when I checked this site and did these tests.
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php
I was cooking colours to the left and right of the bars. Colours were bleeding together and I was losing at least 4 bars on each. Black level wise I could see only 10-255.
I was not a happy bunny. And sat there thinking, would the HP LP2475 really be that much better when it was only £100 more? (£420.) Is there that much of a difference between TN and S-IPS panels?
----
Well, it arrived this morning, and I've been working on it since.
WOW. What a difference. Design wise, it's so much more aggressive, industrial and professional. Essentially a coarse block of rugged thick matt plastic housing. Stand was less elegant, but functional. It swivelled and moved much better. Only downside to the design is that the cable hiding compartments are fidgety.
http://www.msc-internet.fr/images/ecran-01.jpg
Colours out of the box were still well ahead of the previous monitors calibrated settings. Either way, after some quick adjustments and calibration, what a difference. On the test images (linked above), I can now see every single tab of every single colour with the exception of tab one for blue. I can see every single black shade box, bar the first. Immediately with all my work I was able to see the subtleties and range of colours better. The screen has a brilliant anti-reflective lacquer, and on top of that the viewing angles are tremendous. Essentially allowing me to move around with complete freedom with little to no picture variation.
All this....for an extra £100? I mean really....
In the same day HP annoyed the hell out of me, and impressed me to no end. One of their monitors being a shoddy excuse for a top end consumer product, and the other being astonishing value for money and a brilliant entry point in the pro-sumer/professional category.
---
Verdicts...(Out of 10)
HP W2448HC (£320)
Design: 6 (Let down by reflective screen)
Performance: 5 (Horrible viewing angles and relatively poor colour accuracy. Fairly decent gradients and edge detail though)
Features: 8 (Great connectivity and a web cam)
Value: 5 (For what you get it's a relative rip-off)
Overall: 5 (Nice looking and feature rich, but rather lacklustre performance for the price)
HP LP2475 (£420)
Design: 9 (Robust, professional and functional. No frills no fuss.)
Performance: 9 (For the money, exceptional. Better than my old Dell and than my flat mates Apple Cinema display. Accurate colours, deep black levels, viewing angles and motion)
Features: 8 (Tonnes of connectivity, included software, numerous cables including two HDMI one's. The lot.)
Value: 9 (It seems expensive given how cheap monitors can be these days. But for the money you're getting a lot. Especially if you're particularly anal about colour accuracy and IQ)
Overall: 9 (If you take picture quality serious, or do any sort of design/creative work on your system, this monitor gets my highest recommendation)
.
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