Dell U2713HM - Unbeatable performance out of the box
by Chris Heinonen on October 4, 2012 12:00 AM ESTDell U2713HM Display Uniformity
Where our new ANSI testing will really pay off is on the Display Uniformity testing. It gives us far more information for how uniform the brightness and contrast levels are for a screen, as nine points is a fairly coarse measure on a screen of this size. Looking at the Dell I can see some small hints of backlight bleeding at the corners with an all-black screen, and when you look at the black levels you can see that seems to be the case.
The minimum black level at our calibrated 200 nits setting is 0.198 in the center, once again very close to that 1000:1 contrast ratio we saw before. This drops down to 0.175 and 0.182 in two corners, and rises up to 0.233 and 0.247 in other corners, indicating a bit of backlighting uniformity issues. The central area of the display (the inner nine squares in the ANSI pattern) is +/- 11% relative to the center square, but the outer edge goes all the way to +/- 25% compared to the center. Those two corners really push the level up and lead to this unevenness.
The white uniformity is better, though not ideal. With the center at 198 nits (we aim for 200 nits, but usually are just off), the middle nine squares are +/- 10% relative to it, which means a drop down to 178 nits just adjacent to the center. On the outer edge it falls to +/- 17% with the same corners causing the main issues here. With those same corners also being darker here, where they were lighter with the dark samples, I think this is more a uniformity issue than a corner bleed issue. The white uniformity here is fine but not stellar.
The contrast uniformity basically reflects what we discussed above. The center of the screen and most of the surrounding samples all have a contrast ratio of close to 1000:1, but three of the corners (all except the upper-left) have contrast ratios closer to 700 or 800:1 due to the lack of backlight uniformity. Now this is still better than some other 27” displays, but on full screen images such as gaming the difference could be noticeable. Overall the contrast ratios are still very good, with 16 of the 25 measured areas scoring at least 950:1 or greater.
The dE uniformity of the panel is a completely different matter it seems. I only measured nine spots here, as measuring 25 on this is not as easy to pull off or quite as essential I feel, but the results are very different. On the black and white uniformity tests, the center top area of the monitor always performed well, with deviations of 2% for black and 7% for white. With the color dE it is the single worst performing area of the screen, coming in with an average dE of 2.21 compared to the center where it’s 1.62. The lower left corner, which is the worst in black and white uniformity, is the best area outside of the center in dE uniformity.
So here it seems that brightness uniformity and color uniformity don’t go hand-in-hand all the time. It could be because of the different grid sizes, but that wasn’t what I saw before. More likely I just have results that don’t quite line up, or the cause of one is independent of the cause of the other. Either way, the dE uniformity isn’t perfect, but other than that one spot it remains below 2.0 for the rest of the screen and is a very good performer.
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Dug - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Thanks for doing this review. I appreciate the time and work put into it.This is exactly what I've been looking for.
ryko - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
sorry i meant we are seeing 10-20ms on models with a scaler...still not enough to be that concerned abouthaukionkannel - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
There is a lot of talk that imput lag may be due scaler. Any chance of getting allso 1440 mode imput lag in comparison. Not all monitors can do it, but it would be nice to see... or is is impossible because you can not get comparison from ctr?cheinonen - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
No 1440p CRT available means no available no-lag reference display unfortunately. I'll be done with 27" displays here soon I imagine and back to displays that can be tested for lag.Pessimism - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Since you are running several color calibrations with extremely expensive tools, why not provide the resulting ICC profiles to readers on the website? I'm certain the demand is there.cheinonen - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
I don't provide an ICC profile for a simple reason: Monitors (and projectors and TVs and everything else I review and calibrate) are manufactured with a certain tolerance on every component inside of them. If I pull 10 displays off the line and put the same settings into them, I'm almost certain to get 10 different results. I have no way of knowing if the settings from one display are going to benefit or detract from another display.I fully realize I can put up the ICC file and say "Here it is, use at your own risk", but I also know that same ICC file is going to wind up hosted somewhere, or passed to someone as an "AnandTech U2713HM Calibration File" with no explanation as to the fact that it might make your display less accurate, and then a user will either wonder why their display is worse than before, or believe that the review it came from was obviously flawed because that file didn't work for them.
Basically, there's no way to get a display more accurate aside from having your display calibrated, and sharing settings is just as likely to make a display worse as to making it better. I always mention the preset mode I used for testing, as I try to find the most accurate one, but that's the long reason behind no ICC profiles being shared.
Despoiler - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
TFT Central has a review of this monitor and they put up their calibrated ICC files for download.Guspaz - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
It's bizarre that this review does not compare against what is quite possibly the most relevant monitor to compare against, the U2711, which the U2713HM would seem to replace. Dell still sells the U2711, for that matter. Surely it's relevant to see how this model compares to the previous model, since this review gives no indication beyond cost of why somebody should choose the U2713HM over the U2711.twtech - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Dell usually runs periodic sales though, so I'm hoping I can do it for under $2k.secretmanofagent - Thursday, October 4, 2012 - link
Hey, I might have missed this mentioned in the article. Does it have the same antiglare coating that the U2412M has? I have one, and the spotty/blur that it causes on white backgrounds can be pretty annoying.