Performance - Part I
Testing methodology
A monitor review based on descriptive visual analysis will always have the underlying problem of subjectivity; assessments of panel quality will vary from user to user depending on their normative expectations. To get around this we’re deploying Datacolor’s Spyder 4 Elite professional monitor analyser to return a quantitative assessment of display quality.
These numerical results, we feel, add extra utility to our reviews allowing us to more accurately benchmark the following display characteristics:
- Colour Gamut relative to sRGB and AdobeRGB industry-standards
- Brightness levels and contrast ratios
- Colour uniformity
- Brightness uniformity
- Colour accuracy
The tests are run under two different scenarios: uncalibrated and calibrated. Uncalibrated performance equates to the ‘out-of-the-box’ settings a monitor ships with; this is the typical end-user experience as very few consumers engage in calibration of their displays before use. Calibrated performance is what results after the monitor has been put through the Spyder4Elite hardware-calibration process with the following parameters: 2.2 Gamma, 6500k colour temperature and 120 nits of brightness. These calibrated results demonstrate what the monitor is capable of when tuned correctly but the results have limited relevance to most consumers who will not calibrate their monitors.
Colour
LG promises 99 per cent of the sRGB gamut and that's precisely what is delivered, along with a respectable 79 per cent of AdobeRGB. After calibration the gamut of sRGB actually declines a little suggesting LG had already done a solid job of calibrating the panel from the factory.
Colour accuracy is very strong out of the box with an average Delta-E of 2.3. With calibration that number can be further reduced to 0.98 making it even better for professionals undertaking colour-sensitive workflows.
The uniformity of colour across the panel is strong, this is one of the most uniform panels we've ever tested. The result is somewhat surprising given that you'd think the curve might interfere with colour reproduction or accuracy.