PWS
7 de marzo de 2024
Excellent HDR Monitor at a Mid-Range Cost
As of this review I've had no problems, will revise later if anything crops up.If you're in the market for an HDR monitor, and you're worried about OLED burn-in issues or price, this is an excellent middle-ground. I managed to purchase this monitor at $459 with a $120 coupon, which put it into the $360 range after tax. At that price it is an absolute steal, especially compared to the Cooler Master GP27Q, of which this monitor is a variant (KTC are the panel makers for the Cooler Master Mini-LED monitors). When purchasing this monitor, you should consider immediately upgrading the firmware, as it allows the use of HDR, local dimming, and VRR to work together.Reading over other reviews, it's clear that some of the users who have purchased this monitor don't understand the caveats of Mini-LED. You should never run local dimming and HDR when doing normal tasks in SDR, it will wash out the color and the blooming will be terrible. The monitor has a setting of "AUTO" for both local dimming and HDR, and you should assign them to that. You should then activate HDR whenever you're planning to watch HDR content or play games (win + alt + B in Windows), as it will automatically turn on both settings.For HDR this monitor is exceptional, the blooming is only noticeable under strict circumstances, and the brightness and saturation are great. While it is not as precise as my TCL QM8's backlight system, the implementation is quite good. The motion clarity is also really good in gaming, especially for a VA panel (specifically HVA for this monitor). I've played plenty of FPS games, and when you set the overdrive to advanced, which is the recommended setting in almost every scenario, there is little-to-no ghosting or black smear. Keep in mind this is still a 165hz panel, and if you're interested solely in FPS games I'd recommend something with a higher refresh rate. Setting overdrive beyond advanced will cause inverse ghosting, though this is common in most LCD monitors with aggressive overdrive settings. For SDR you'll need to do some calibration to your liking, as the colors are overly saturated out of the box, and you cannot adjust colors in HDR. My personal settings were to leave the Professional Mode in Native, and all of the initial "display" settings untouched. Under "Color Temperature" I set it to User, and then configured it for Red 48, Green 48, and Blue 47. Your colors may need to be adjusted differently, no panel is the same. The SRGB and DCI-P3 settings are also reasonably accurate, but keep in mind that with the gamma shifts of a VA panel this isn't a good monitor for color critical work.Interestingly, while this monitor will default to 144hz when HDR and local dimming are set to Auto, you can set custom resolutions that will force the monitor to still run at 165hz. While the difference is practically unnoticeable, I would understand why someone would want to do this for maximum performance. Setting a custom resolution will also allow you to force the monitor to run at 10-bit instead of 8-bit. This monitor is, like most "HDR" monitors, an 8-bit panel that will employ FRC to reach 10-bit color depth. The difference is negligible, but the manufacturer lists the panel as 8-bit for this reason. You can also run MPRT on this monitor, but the option is only available if you turn off HDR and local dimming. This includes switching them off of Auto, as MPRT will remain locked out otherwise.Other notable additions to this monitor are the 90w USB-C charging and video input, and 2 USB 3.1 pass through ports. When configuring this, note that the monitor sets the USB ports to off under KVM on initial setup. I'd recommend "Auto" setting if you are running something like a keyboard through the monitor, as the "USB UP" setting will not make the keyboard sleep when you turn off your computer. I don't need the KVM switch, so I cannot comment on use of that feature. You can configure hot settings for the joystick, but some of the most important features can't be bound to this function, which is an oversight in my opinion. Being able to turn off HDR to enable MPRT quickly would be nice (you can bind local dimming at least), but it's not a big deal for my use cases. I'd also like to point out that the build quality is pretty decent, though not as nice as the Gigabyte Aorus monitor it's replacing. The stand is heavy, and serviceable, but not particularly noteworthy, it does all the tilting and turning you'd need though.As for downsides, I'd argue that not including HDMI 2.1 is a little unfortunate. This monitor can simulate 4K and then downscale to 2K, which would be nice if you were interested in using this with a console. The viewing angles, due to it being a VA panel, aren't amazing, but still appreciably better than a TN panel, and you don't get the IPS glow. I have once noticed the flicker from local dimming, but it was localized to the Vignetting setting in the Witcher 3. Turning the setting off fixed the problem, but I don't understand why it would've caused an issue to begin with as it was causing the corners of the screen to be light rather than dark. There is a bit of black crushing, so you'll probably need to adjust your games to help alleviate overly dark or bright areas. I also don't understand why the blue light filter only adjusts in increments of 25, so be aware you may want to use your OS settings or videocard drivers instead. I also, for whatever reason, did not have the 3.1 adapter cable in my box, though I already had one from my previous monitor. There seems to be a common complaint of missing cables, so consider having alternatives on-hand. Frankly, all of these issues are minor to me, as the overall presentation is impeccable for the cost.It's worth noting that if you're not like me, and don't need the extra inputs/outputs, the AOC Q27G3XMN at $250-$280 is an excellent alternative to this monitor. It has a slightly worse build quality, less dimming zones, which doesn't matter as the implementation is good, and the OSD software is worse, but the presentation is just as good, if not better, than the M27T20, and its refresh rate is faster at 180hz. In fact, the VA panel it uses is possibly the fastest one currently available in terms of GTG performance, and the black smear is even lower than the M27T20's. Further, the AOC has a 3 year warranty to the KTC's 1 year. I also have to admit that I will miss having desktop software to control the monitor, which is something my Gigabyte monitor uses. That aspect of the user experience makes the implementation here feel not nearly as premium, but again setting things to Auto helps alleviate most of the headaches.The bottom line is, at the price I purchased this monitor, I think any shortcomings are easy to overlook. I'd strongly recommend doing the research on understanding how this monitor should be used before purchase, so that your expectations align with the experience.Ver másVer menos
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