NEC 3090WQXi Official Thread with Reviews, Videos and Pics...

And the previous thread has been attacked by a self-righteous self-appointed moderator-wannabe not willing to hear the other side of the story.

Lets not forget about all the other defects in this monitor again:

Text quality:
While the text is sharp due to the H-IPS monitor, the strong AG coating causes the text to appear somewhat grainy. This "graininess" is far stronger than that of other S-IPS panels as well as S-PVA. While reports of raising dpi settings helps improve text clarity, it reduces the advantage of having large screen real estate.

Image Glow:
When using the monitor with a lower brightness setting while sitting at a normal viewing distance (40-70cm away from panel, as recommended by the NEC manual), the corners loose shadow detail (blacks are crushed) and appear brighter than other areas

Backlight Bleeding
The panel suffers from moderate amounts of backlight bleeding. Confirmed on my panel and numerous other reports in the previous thread.

Brightness Control
Due to panel blocking method of reducing brightness, the contrast ratio at normal/traditional brightness levels is reduced do to very low levels (200-300). Who needs 200cd/m2+ brightness outside of public display monitors & outdoor workstations.

Noise
The monitor emits a high pitched squeal in standby mode, and even louder when switching to standby mode.

sRGB
Uncalibratable sRGB mode with the exception of using i1 Display 2 colorometer with the internal calibration feature. Those with other (better) colorometers/spectrometers are out of luck. Reds are observed to have a deep dried-blood like color - almost brown.

Poor mode-switching
Only a single calibrated mode is provided and no "easy" way is available to switch between modes (e.g. having a "office work", "multimedia" & "photo work" mode is not possible using the OSD).

Heat
The NEC 3090 releases an huge amount of heat (you won't go cold in the winter unless you keep the window open). Extra burden on your AC.

Bottom Line:
Good performance for color critical work in a *bright* environment. In a lower-lit environment, the flaws become quite obvious.
 
And the monitor suffers from colorshift-like behaviour, far more severe than on other IPS panels. White tones turn blue-grey, corners loose black detail, overall image looses brightness. Space reserved for demonstration at a later date.
 
Albovin, would you care to make a disclosure and/or conflict-of-interest statement? You keep defending this monitor to the point of insanity. Do you work for NEC, LG or any of their subsidiaries and/or associated parties or have you been contracted out by any party to defend and/or review the monitor? I am sure many readers would like to know this, including myself.
 
Here are some semi-descent photos of the glow & loss of corner details of the NEC 3090 monitor. They still don't fully illustrate the effect, something that needs to be seen in person.

All photos were captured using custom white balance against a white page on the monitor. Manual exposure mode was used, with the same settings for the three pics focusing on just the 3090 monitor. Please excuse the lens barrel distortion.

This pic should represent normal usage conditions taken about a third way from the top looking downward at a small angle:
corner%20glow%20%26%20black%20crush%20-%20upper%20center%20monitor%20-%20small.jpg


Taking a pic at the approximate center of the monitor with lens perpendicular to screen results in a bit less glow & detail loss, but it is still there:
corner%20glow%20%26%20black%20crush%20-%20center%20monitor%20-%20small.jpg


Centering the camera at the bottom right corner yields this startling image:
corner%20glow%20%26%20black%20crush%20-%20just%20corner%20-%20small.jpg

Where is all that grass detail in the above pics ?!

Now comparing the NEC 3090 monitor against my much older 20" S-IPS, shows a stark contrast in the dark tone image quality at the somewhat extreme viewing angle. Notice the difference between the two side-by-side corners. I should even point out that the 20"-er is at a disadvantage as the viewing angle is far steeper, yet it performs significantly better than the NEC 30" monitor.
corner%20glow%20%26%20black%20crush%20-%20main%20and%20side%20monitor%20-%20small.jpg


I will point out that if you do look at the monitor in a brightly lit environment, the glow is not going to be as visible as in a darkened room - kinda like backlight bleeding; however, corner black crush is still definitely observable but not as severe given that the brightness is turned up much higher resulting in a bigger contrast ratio.
 
Well I got my 3090 2 days back and I don't regret my decision. I asked the etailor to check it out of it had any issues like backlight bleed and dead pixels and thank God it didnt have any of those. I checked for the Striping....it didn't have those either...well not from what I could tell and really tried to look for them. All in all I got an excellent monitor. It does have excessive heat by the way so I suggest not sitting close to it and having at least some sort of AC if living in hot areas.

Instead of starting a whole new thread for my unboxing pics I thought it would be better to group them all in this thread instead so people didn't have to go looking around for it.

Here goes:

nec3090mf0.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
uhm, not making fun of you, but isn't that a $10 walmart returned desk/table you have holding up your $1500 monitor? :eek:)

Just got my NEC today, greatpicture, Overabundant/safe nice packaging in the box. I think it's the best monitor packing I have ever seen!
 
Congratulations and a great choice. You lucky dog.
Top of my list to.
Only waiting to see what HP comes up with as a replacement for the LP3065 (which was third).
It shouldn't take too long though, otherwise I'll have one of these myself.

BTW, is that your dress in the first picture ?:p
 
Brashen, tell us what you think from an artist point of view.
How is it with photoshop?
 
pawstar said:
Brightness was calibrated to 95cd/m2 with a gamma=2.2
Click to expand...

Ist the corner glow still visible if you look at the picture (at a usual angle) with the brightness set to 30% (shoud be about 140cd/m2)? Or 60% (should be about 200cd/m2)?

The link to the wallpaper is http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/d..._2560x1600.jpg
Click to expand...

Great picture, BTW! Right now I'm looking at it on a Samsung SyncMaster 943T and the color shift looks just awful. ;-)
 
Thanks guys!!

@albovin: Yeah man so am I. I'm Glad I took the plunge and thank you for helping me with it.

@InToGraphics: Thanks dude!! I was about to make the same decision. But time was a luxury I didn't have since applying to art school and needing the best colour reproduction possible. (Huge scholarship hanging in the balance.) And no haha it isn't :p

@Tarc: It's excellent. I've had the luck to try the Eizo 30inch CG and the gamma shift is considerably noticeable. With this if I move my head to respectable degrees that I would do if I was using it normally I don't notice any shifts. But there is the glow that is mentioned in the corner. Bu that's only noticeable if you have it set at a really high brightness level. Colour reproduction is excellent and I havent even calibrated it with the SVII yet. The Space is a God send for concept work as it allows me to open a multitude of references and brush options on the same screen without moving my original illustration to the side to make room.

Hope the helps if you have anymore questions feel free to ask!!
 
Brashen said:
But there is the glow that is mentioned in the corner. Bu that's only noticeable if you have it set at a really high brightness level.
Click to expand...
That is interesting. I have glow no matter what brightness level I choose though it gets worse (obviously) the brighter the setting. Could you please share with us what your manufacturing date and firmware version is? I wonder if they are finally using LG's latest panel revision.

One thing that I can see that from your photos that makes the monitor perceptually better is that you have a bright window (lots of bias light) which makes many of the monitors faults less visible. Could you look for glow & backlight bleeding at night with only moderate room lighting?

Brashen said:
The Space is a God send for concept work as it allows me to open a multitude of references and brush options on the same screen without moving my original illustration to the side to make room.
Click to expand...
No, not really - you'll see, it will get small very shortly :p
 
Hey Pawstar,

There is a little bit of BackLight bleeding towards the right hand middle of the display. BUt that's if I look for it in a really dark room. Since I work in a sedated to semi bright room This doesnt affect me at all....and honestly what LCD doesnt have Back Light bleed? Hopefully this will get better as I use the monitor. No striping to see and I've tried to look for it using Photoshop. The glow is bearly visible and I have my brightness set to 72%

Your right about the space tho. I could definately pictire myself getting the NEC 20quxi and adding it to the setup.

Manufacturing date was August.
 
OK I noticed another thing about the heat issue .

Once you lower the brightness level the heat just seem to disappear.......I guess that should be obvious?
 
I want one but I am only ready to pay $1,500 CAN. Patience, my friend, patience...
 
Brashen said:
No striping to see and I've tried to look for it using Photoshop.
Click to expand...

Brashen,

The best way that I know to test for the striping problem is to run the bad pixel test program DPB.exe. You can download it from:

http://www.laptopshowcase.co.uk/downloads.php?id=1

When you run it, click on the 3 dots by custom which will open the color palette. Click on the gray square which is at the bottom row of the "Basic colors" group, 4 squares to the right of the leftmost square.

Now press OK, and click on the Custom button (which should show as gray). It will display a completely gray image on your screen, and you'll be able to see the vertical striping if it exists. I've seen it on all the 3090 units that I looked at, including units made in 6/08 and 9/08.
 
One important thing often overlooked in these reviews/notes is that in the end, it is still a beautiful display to look at and work with. I stuck with my second monitor (you'll see parts of my posts in the original post) and have been happy since. Gaming is incredible, SV-II works nicely, and I have printed hundreds of pictures that I have Photoshopped using this monitor, all of which have come out dead on for color...

Almost every computer product could be better in some way or another, as is with this monitor, but it's a pleasure to own...

And with winter coming up in Colorado, it in combintation with my SLI'd GTX-280s and OC'd Q9450 keep the room nice and toasty!
 
I 'd like to state first that I am not at home at all with the specialist expressions used here. No knowledge whatsoever about monitors other than using currently a LaCie electron 22, i.e. old fashioned big one. But on reading the comments, not least those of albovin, I am most inclined to buy a NEC 3090. But which one? There is constant reference to the greatness of SpectraView II in connection with 3090WQXI yet I am told by Nec that it can not be used with it, can not be added later. They say that if I want to benefit from the blessigns of SpectraView, I need to buy not 3090WQXI, but far more expensive NEC3090SpectraView.

I am a cartographer, not at all interested in film editing or photography, still use colours with maps. The program I rely on is Illustrator. Do I need in this context the far more expensive version of 3090, or not?

Also there is much talk here about back light bleeding. What is it? What are those famous vertical stripes and how worried should I be about such things?

Finally, how is NEC3090 likely to compare in terms of picture quality with my LaCie?

Please help! Many thanks
 
This is interesting. I have the DS-305W which I'm fairly certain uses the same panel that is in this particular model, the LG Q5 H-IPS. I've noticed that there is quite a bit of white glow on blacks, which is expected from an H-IPS. However, I've thought there may be some more shift in gamma/black cross in the corners. I'm going to take some screenshots of that same 2560 background and see if the grass detail is shot on my monitor. If so, maybe H-IPS should be stayed away from until the panel behaves properly. Just some thoughts...
 
Borzasnyul said:
But on reading the comments, not least those of albovin, I am most inclined to buy a NEC 3090. But which one? There is constant reference to the greatness of SpectraView II in connection with 3090WQXI yet I am told by Nec that it can not be used with it, can not be added later. They say that if I want to benefit from the blessigns of SpectraView, I need to buy not 3090WQXI, but far more expensive NEC3090SpectraView.
Click to expand...

I don't think that is true. I read that the recent LCD3090W-BK-SV is simply the 3090WQXi bundled with SVII-PRO-KIT.
 
I hope there might be some European 3090WQXi users around here...

I'm quite interested in buying the NEC 3090WQX, but before I press the order button I want to find out to which extent is the European version crippled as far as the HW calibration goes. Apparently the US version is said to work just fine with SV, but

I read conflicting reports on the web on whether the "European" version of the NEC 3090WQXi can be HW-LUT calibrated with Spectraview. Are there users of this monitor (purchased in Europe) which could shed some light on this? If it works what are the steps to make it happen and what is the version of your firmware?

I used to own an early 2690WUXi and there SpectraView calibration worked just fine, but recently I read that this was disabled in newer firmware.... The way to go, NEC!
 
My 3090 W-BK-SV sings when in sleep mode. When the monitor is "on", but the video card has turned it off until it needs to wake it up. It's a pretty annoying and obnoxious noise. "Wheeeeeeeee". So, I just punch the power button on the front manually. There's no way I'm going to RMA this huge beast for that minor inconvenience, especially when I have a pixel-perfect panel (and having just wasted tons of time with two 2490 RMAs due to panel defects). I got it to use it, not to use sleep mode, but still ... at that price point ... anyways ...

Otherwise, aside from its known characteristics of black level, slight glow/viewing angle, wide gamut, it's a wonderful LCD monitor! Lol, okay that sounds like a laundry list, but the 2490 is an insanely beautiful screen to be compared too. If anything, I'd wish for lower black level, then non-wide gamut. I don't find the not-quite-as-great viewing angle due to glow-from-the-side to be any issue for me. I sit in front of the thing.

Those pics up there showing extreme corner glow must have been at a very, very low brightness level and taken fairly close to the screen. I am running at about 130 cd/mm (18.2% brightness) and see nothing that severe. Certainly 3090 black is not 2490 black.

Though it's not quite a home-run for the price, the 3090 is monster monitor if you can secure one.

.
 
Surly73 said:
Can you expand on this?
Click to expand...

As pointed out in albovin's review, the 3090 back light stops dimming at 72.7% brightness, and uses panel blocking lower than that to reduce maximum brightness. So, if I'm running at about 130 cd/mm brightness on both, and the 2490 is ~0.21 cd/mm black and the 3090 is ~0.32 cd/mm black, then the contrast ratios are about 619:1 and 406:1, respectively.

Funny effect, but as the 3090 back light unit dims over time, the contrast ratio is going to increase!

Also, as you step to the side, the 2490 stays fairly black, and the 3090 doesn't.
 
xorbe said:
As pointed out in albovin's review, the 3090 back light stops dimming at 72.7% brightness, and uses panel blocking lower than that to reduce maximum brightness. So, if I'm running at about 130 cd/mm brightness on both, and the 2490 is ~0.21 cd/mm black and the 3090 is ~0.32 cd/mm black, then the contrast ratios are about 619:1 and 406:1, respectively.

Funny effect, but as the 3090 back light unit dims over time, the contrast ratio is going to increase!

Also, as you step to the side, the 2490 stays fairly black, and the 3090 doesn't.
Click to expand...

Ahh, thanks. I missed that detail way-back.... That is truly unfortunate behaviour for the 3090 CCFL system...yuck.
 
Right. I think it was Snowdog that said "the 30 inch scene is a mess". There is no clear winner in the 30" category no matter how much you want to spend, period. Eizo, PVA and stupid expensive, any need for am RMA would take longer than NEC. NEC, blacks and wide gamut. Everything else, wide gamut and no OSD, and definitely less features/service than NEC/Eizo. NEC seems to be the best high-end compromise, but it's still just that.

But really, if you saw the 2490 and 3090 next to each other in action, you'd be blown away, they are nice.
 
Does this display have the "dirty" looking anti reflective coating that the dell 3007 has?


This white box as I type this looks like I need to wipe down the screen. You start to stop noticing it after a while but using another display after makes it hard to go back.
I just cannot take it anymore after spending some time with the apple displays (ips ones)
 
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