This is a simplified translation of AFAIK the first professional test review of the NEC MultiSync 24WMGX³ in the Net.
The review is performed by the most popular Russian high tech review resource IXBT.COM
Reviewer: Aleksey Kudryavtsev
The monitor is very interesting.
Ixbt.com reviews are very interesting too, but unfortunately they are never translated into English (like prad.de). Therefore thousands of monitor enthusiasts around the world miss another good source of information.
This is an attempt to share a very fresh review with HardForum readers.
Enjoy it.
LCD Monitor NEC MultiSync 24WMGX³
Scope of Supply
Monitor with the stand
Cables:
Power
VGA-VGA
DVI-D-DVI-D
HDMI-HDMI
Audio (minijack 3.5mm-3.5mm)
Manual
CD
Back Panel Cover
Remote w/ 2 AAA
Manufacturer's Specification
Panel - A-MVA w/ antiglare
Diagonal - 24.1" (61.1 cm)
Visible Area - 518.4 x 324.0 mm
Resolution 1920x1200
Dot Pitch 0.270 mm
Brightness - max 500 cd/m2
Viewing Angles - 178/178 with 10:1 CR
Response Time - 16ms BtB, 6 ms GtG
Number of Colors Displayed - 16 770 000
Video Inputs - VGA (15-pin D-Sub), DVI-D w/HDCP, 2xHDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite
Audio In - Minijack 3.5 mm, 2xRCA, 2xHDMI
Audio Out - Minijack, Optical (from HDMI signal only)
Headphones - Minijack 3.5 mm
Video Compatibility - from 640x480 to 1920x1200/60Hz, including 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
Internal Speakers - Stereo, 2x 5W
Also:
Kensington Lock
200x100 mm VESA mount
Height Adjustment 60mm, Tilt Front10°, Back 25°, Swivel Right-Left 45°.
Other:
Dimentions: 558.5x401.4(460.3)x270.0mm w/ stand
Weight - 11.2 kg w/stand, 7.9 kg w/o stand
Power Consumption - 110W Typical, Standby - not more than 2W, Off - not mare than 1W
Voltage - 100-240V, 50/60Hz
Average Price in Moscow - $1286
Manufacturer WWW - www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk
Design and Mechanics
The cabinet and the stand are made of black matte plastic with the exception for the panel frame (front side) and the stand base - they are glossy black.
Glossy finish is relatively resistant to scratches but prone to fingers/dust marks.
The panel itself is matte, non-reflective.
The frame looks quite thin for such a large panel.
The design in general is balanced like "strict with a touch refinement".
Control buttons are convenient with well readable signs. LED is incorporated in Power button. Brightness of LED can be adjusted in OSD.
Remote control receptor is located in the lower right hand corner and masked with the model name.
Without the back panel cover the rear view is not attractive - metal parts, screws, etc. pop up.
But the monitor's elegance and symmetry are complete when
the back cover with shiny logo is attached.
Connectors are groupped in two areas.
The first group of, let's say "entertainment" connectors are open from the left hand side,
while PC connectors are accessible from underneath.
Kensington lock, power cord connector and main power switch are found at the rear panel.
The "leg with two joints" allows to regulate monitor's height and tilt. The panel has two rubber stickers underneath to prevent polished base from scratching while in lowest position.
The base can swivel. It's sturdy. There is an opening in the stand for the cables - to keep them neat. VESA mount is possible.
The monitor is supplied with a remote control. The remote is a very nice piece of equipment - pleasant to touch, convenient to use. Unfortunately its buttons are not lit.
The upper part of the cabinet gets quite hot when the monitor is set to max brightness.
The monitor does not produce any noise.
Connectors.
The monitor has an extended list of connectors. This allows to get several devices (including PC and various external entertainment devices) connected simultaneously.
External speakers can be connected to minijack (3.5 mm, audio signal from the current source is transmitted). A receiver can be connected to optical digital output to get stereo sound from HDMI device.
OSD contains variety of controls for precise audio/video functioning. For more detail refer to the Manual.
OSD.
The monitor provides an impressive choice of settings and additional controls, including eye strain reducing technology.
Please refer to the Manual to see the full list of features.
Subjectively, both control buttons and remote are convenient and sharp in use.
Sound.
The built-in speakers are relatively powerful. Stereo effect is clear. Low (from 75Hz ), middle and high frequencies present.
In around 170-200Hz the cabinet begins to resonate and the Power button begins to rattle. The higher volume sounds comfortable when the Power button is covered with a piece of scotch to prevent rattling. Further volume increase leads to the whole monitor to resonate.
Connection of headphones disables speakers.
The quality of sound over headphones is very good.
Those who are interested in precise NEC 24WMGX³ sound quality test - look at this link. It's not translated but those who are keen on audio can get some info from the diagrams.
Image management
This part of the test is based on OSD description.
It's not possible to translate this part word for word - OSD is huge.
I just retell the main points noted in the review.
Again, refer to the Manual for other detail - the NEC 24WMGX³
has literally unprecedented set of convenience controls for a consumer monitor .
You can regulate:
Brightness
Contrast
CR optimizer
Sharpness
Auto Brightness
Color adjustment
Saturation adjustment
Sets to improve moving images
Scalar with wide choice of modes including Side Cut - no black
bars for HD video.
Etc.
Interpolation of lower resolution is good.
At native resolution (both for DVI and VGA) one pixel width lines are well distiguishable.
The NEC 24WMGX³ has been tested with the use of BD player.
The review does not mention any problem as far as video support is concerned.
Instrumental Test
Subjectively - colors are realistic and vibrant.
GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display LT
Target: Gamma 2.2, 6500K
DVI
Factory setting (Brightness 100%, Contrast 50%)
Before correction: gray tones in Standard Mode have tendency for higher color temperature.
Correction turned out to be a tough work. Although improved, color temperature retained the tendency - the darker the tone of gray the higher the temperature (warmer tone).
More profound calibration will probably lead to better result.
The easiest solution is sRGB mode which is relatively close to 6500.
Color gamut is close to sRGB:
Gray scale observations
Standard Mode (Brightness/Contrast 100/50%):
every step is distinguishable from 0 to 254.
Video Mode: the range increases (up to 255) but the number of gradations lessens - some adjacent gradations merge.
With Contrast control increase the brightest gradations are lost.
With Brightness or Contrast control decrease - brightness decreases with no loss in gradations.
No dithering noticed.
To support gray scale visual estimation an instrumental test was performed.
Below: brightness increment step by step from 0 to 255
The instrumental test confirms generally steady increment in brightness increase between gradations of gray (gradations visibility) with the exception for 253-254 steps.
Panel homogeneity
For this test a specially designed highly sensitive focused (4 +/-0.5 degrees) probe is used.
Brightness of white and black backgroung was measured at 25 points of the screen. The table below includes values for factory settings:
Instrumental measurements say that actual CR is high and is practically equal to advertized 1000:1
Homogeneity for white screen is very good, for black screen - little less.
Brightness and Contrast Ratio
Brightness is measured in the center of the screen with the use of Argus-02 photometer.
The monitor achieves maximum brightness of 450cd/m2 with brightness and contrast controls set to 100%.
Workable max brightness (with all gradations of gray visible) is not more than 440 cd/m2 (395 cd/m2 for sRGB mode).
Brightness change graph is linear with CR stable within the whole range of brightness.
This graph says that the NEC 24WMGX³ uses backlight to regulate brightness with no loss of gray scale gradations.
Brightness range is from 440 to 106 cd/m2 that allows users to work with comfort in different environment. Only in complete darkness one can find this monitor minimal brightness little high so that contrast control can be used to reduce brightness firther (and contrast too).
Backlight flickers at low brightness, but it's hard to notice that in regular use.
Response time.
Subjectively: the panel looks fast, good text scrolling with minimal blur, overdrive artefacts are not visible.
We measured transition time between black and white and also between halftones.
For the halftone test our method is the next.
We perform three measurements for a fixed halftone "X":
1. Transition time between black and X
2. Transition time between X and white
3. Transition time around X - we cover +/- 10% zone as we consider 20% difference to be the minimal important figure for halftones.
Total transition time BWB is less than advertized 16ms:
At factory settings Brightness/Contrast 100/50:
Halftone transition time is quite fast - average for totals is 14.1 ms, maximum - over 30ms and minimum - 6.5 ms:
A closer look reveals a sort of peaks at the edges of some transitions (the most noticeable is between 10-30%), but it does not produce any visible effect.
Generally speaking, the monitor is fast enough for comfortable playing dynamic games.
Motion Picture Mode
This technologous to those used in the Samsung 245T and the BenQ 241WZ - a dark frame is included to simulate "CRT looking" motion in the screen.
MP Mode induces visible flickering and makes brightness go down.
But the moving objects look sharper indeed.
There are three levels of MP Mode.
They change the time of the dark frame presence. The longer the dark phase the darker the screen looks.
This is how it looks in the graph (Black to white transition):
Is there any sense in use of MP Mode?
It's up to the user. But visible flickering will induce more eye strain.
Input Lag
For this test a CRT monitor was placed next to the NEC 24WMGX³ . Series of photos of moving clock hand were taken.
Average input lag is about 12ms.
With Through Mode On input lag drops to 2ms for DVI and 6 ms for VGA connection.
We can state that with Through Mode On, there is practically no input lag on the NEC 24WMGX³ .
A sample photo of the test:
Backlight modulation measured:
It's high frequency (180Hz) makes it invisible for a naked eye.
CR Optimizer is quite slow.
It takes it about 1.5 second to raize brightness to max when a white frame replaces a black one on the screen:
Viewing Angles Measurement
Subjectively: viewing angles are very good.
White screen changes its tone from angle view, black screen becomes brighter and gets light lilac tone.
There is some diagonal effect too.
We took series of measurements using a specially designed probe to get values for different vertical, horizontal and diagonal angles at different levels of brightness, and for the level of black as well:
White background loses 50% of brightness with angle deviation:
Vertical.........34°/-33°
Horizontal.....46°/-46°
Diagonal.......40°/-41°
We note smooth decrease in brightness with any angle deviation.
Diagonal effect is slightly more pronounced.
For +/-82° range, CR stays higher than 10:1 and even for diagonal angles it does not drop below 15:1.
Conclusion
The sum of the NEC 24WMGX³ qualities makes it a universal display - you can work, watch video and play games.
24" diagonal looks insufficient for a true home theatre, but for it's desktop equivalent this size is perfect.
Pros:
Excellent image quality (high CR, good color rendition, homogeneity and viewing angles)
Wide range of brightness regulation with no loss in image quality
Fast panel with no overdrive artefacts
Variety of connectors
A lot of picture quality features (motion picture, auto brightness, advanced scaling, PIP function, etc.)
High quality sound for headphones
Stylish design
Ergonomics and OSD convenience
Good scope of supply (remote, cables)
Cons:
The monitor cabinet resonates at certain frequences when volume is high.
********************************************************************
The original test review is located here.
The review is performed by the most popular Russian high tech review resource IXBT.COM
Reviewer: Aleksey Kudryavtsev
The monitor is very interesting.
Ixbt.com reviews are very interesting too, but unfortunately they are never translated into English (like prad.de). Therefore thousands of monitor enthusiasts around the world miss another good source of information.
This is an attempt to share a very fresh review with HardForum readers.
Enjoy it.
LCD Monitor NEC MultiSync 24WMGX³
Scope of Supply
Monitor with the stand
Cables:
Power
VGA-VGA
DVI-D-DVI-D
HDMI-HDMI
Audio (minijack 3.5mm-3.5mm)
Manual
CD
Back Panel Cover
Remote w/ 2 AAA
Manufacturer's Specification
Panel - A-MVA w/ antiglare
Diagonal - 24.1" (61.1 cm)
Visible Area - 518.4 x 324.0 mm
Resolution 1920x1200
Dot Pitch 0.270 mm
Brightness - max 500 cd/m2
Viewing Angles - 178/178 with 10:1 CR
Response Time - 16ms BtB, 6 ms GtG
Number of Colors Displayed - 16 770 000
Video Inputs - VGA (15-pin D-Sub), DVI-D w/HDCP, 2xHDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite
Audio In - Minijack 3.5 mm, 2xRCA, 2xHDMI
Audio Out - Minijack, Optical (from HDMI signal only)
Headphones - Minijack 3.5 mm
Video Compatibility - from 640x480 to 1920x1200/60Hz, including 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
Internal Speakers - Stereo, 2x 5W
Also:
Kensington Lock
200x100 mm VESA mount
Height Adjustment 60mm, Tilt Front10°, Back 25°, Swivel Right-Left 45°.
Other:
Dimentions: 558.5x401.4(460.3)x270.0mm w/ stand
Weight - 11.2 kg w/stand, 7.9 kg w/o stand
Power Consumption - 110W Typical, Standby - not more than 2W, Off - not mare than 1W
Voltage - 100-240V, 50/60Hz
Average Price in Moscow - $1286
Manufacturer WWW - www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk
Design and Mechanics
The cabinet and the stand are made of black matte plastic with the exception for the panel frame (front side) and the stand base - they are glossy black.
Glossy finish is relatively resistant to scratches but prone to fingers/dust marks.
The panel itself is matte, non-reflective.
The frame looks quite thin for such a large panel.
The design in general is balanced like "strict with a touch refinement".
Control buttons are convenient with well readable signs. LED is incorporated in Power button. Brightness of LED can be adjusted in OSD.
Remote control receptor is located in the lower right hand corner and masked with the model name.
Without the back panel cover the rear view is not attractive - metal parts, screws, etc. pop up.
But the monitor's elegance and symmetry are complete when
the back cover with shiny logo is attached.
Connectors are groupped in two areas.
The first group of, let's say "entertainment" connectors are open from the left hand side,
while PC connectors are accessible from underneath.
Kensington lock, power cord connector and main power switch are found at the rear panel.
The "leg with two joints" allows to regulate monitor's height and tilt. The panel has two rubber stickers underneath to prevent polished base from scratching while in lowest position.
The base can swivel. It's sturdy. There is an opening in the stand for the cables - to keep them neat. VESA mount is possible.
The monitor is supplied with a remote control. The remote is a very nice piece of equipment - pleasant to touch, convenient to use. Unfortunately its buttons are not lit.
The upper part of the cabinet gets quite hot when the monitor is set to max brightness.
The monitor does not produce any noise.
Connectors.
The monitor has an extended list of connectors. This allows to get several devices (including PC and various external entertainment devices) connected simultaneously.
External speakers can be connected to minijack (3.5 mm, audio signal from the current source is transmitted). A receiver can be connected to optical digital output to get stereo sound from HDMI device.
OSD contains variety of controls for precise audio/video functioning. For more detail refer to the Manual.
OSD.
The monitor provides an impressive choice of settings and additional controls, including eye strain reducing technology.
Please refer to the Manual to see the full list of features.
Subjectively, both control buttons and remote are convenient and sharp in use.
Sound.
The built-in speakers are relatively powerful. Stereo effect is clear. Low (from 75Hz ), middle and high frequencies present.
In around 170-200Hz the cabinet begins to resonate and the Power button begins to rattle. The higher volume sounds comfortable when the Power button is covered with a piece of scotch to prevent rattling. Further volume increase leads to the whole monitor to resonate.
Connection of headphones disables speakers.
The quality of sound over headphones is very good.
Those who are interested in precise NEC 24WMGX³ sound quality test - look at this link. It's not translated but those who are keen on audio can get some info from the diagrams.
Image management
This part of the test is based on OSD description.
It's not possible to translate this part word for word - OSD is huge.
I just retell the main points noted in the review.
Again, refer to the Manual for other detail - the NEC 24WMGX³
has literally unprecedented set of convenience controls for a consumer monitor .
You can regulate:
Brightness
Contrast
CR optimizer
Sharpness
Auto Brightness
Color adjustment
Saturation adjustment
Sets to improve moving images
Scalar with wide choice of modes including Side Cut - no black
bars for HD video.
Etc.
Interpolation of lower resolution is good.
At native resolution (both for DVI and VGA) one pixel width lines are well distiguishable.
The NEC 24WMGX³ has been tested with the use of BD player.
The review does not mention any problem as far as video support is concerned.
Instrumental Test
Subjectively - colors are realistic and vibrant.
GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display LT
Target: Gamma 2.2, 6500K
DVI
Factory setting (Brightness 100%, Contrast 50%)
Before correction: gray tones in Standard Mode have tendency for higher color temperature.
Correction turned out to be a tough work. Although improved, color temperature retained the tendency - the darker the tone of gray the higher the temperature (warmer tone).
More profound calibration will probably lead to better result.
The easiest solution is sRGB mode which is relatively close to 6500.
Color gamut is close to sRGB:
Gray scale observations
Standard Mode (Brightness/Contrast 100/50%):
every step is distinguishable from 0 to 254.
Video Mode: the range increases (up to 255) but the number of gradations lessens - some adjacent gradations merge.
With Contrast control increase the brightest gradations are lost.
With Brightness or Contrast control decrease - brightness decreases with no loss in gradations.
No dithering noticed.
To support gray scale visual estimation an instrumental test was performed.
Below: brightness increment step by step from 0 to 255
The instrumental test confirms generally steady increment in brightness increase between gradations of gray (gradations visibility) with the exception for 253-254 steps.
Panel homogeneity
For this test a specially designed highly sensitive focused (4 +/-0.5 degrees) probe is used.
Brightness of white and black backgroung was measured at 25 points of the screen. The table below includes values for factory settings:
Instrumental measurements say that actual CR is high and is practically equal to advertized 1000:1
Homogeneity for white screen is very good, for black screen - little less.
Brightness and Contrast Ratio
Brightness is measured in the center of the screen with the use of Argus-02 photometer.
The monitor achieves maximum brightness of 450cd/m2 with brightness and contrast controls set to 100%.
Workable max brightness (with all gradations of gray visible) is not more than 440 cd/m2 (395 cd/m2 for sRGB mode).
Brightness change graph is linear with CR stable within the whole range of brightness.
This graph says that the NEC 24WMGX³ uses backlight to regulate brightness with no loss of gray scale gradations.
Brightness range is from 440 to 106 cd/m2 that allows users to work with comfort in different environment. Only in complete darkness one can find this monitor minimal brightness little high so that contrast control can be used to reduce brightness firther (and contrast too).
Backlight flickers at low brightness, but it's hard to notice that in regular use.
Response time.
Subjectively: the panel looks fast, good text scrolling with minimal blur, overdrive artefacts are not visible.
We measured transition time between black and white and also between halftones.
For the halftone test our method is the next.
We perform three measurements for a fixed halftone "X":
1. Transition time between black and X
2. Transition time between X and white
3. Transition time around X - we cover +/- 10% zone as we consider 20% difference to be the minimal important figure for halftones.
Total transition time BWB is less than advertized 16ms:
At factory settings Brightness/Contrast 100/50:
Halftone transition time is quite fast - average for totals is 14.1 ms, maximum - over 30ms and minimum - 6.5 ms:
A closer look reveals a sort of peaks at the edges of some transitions (the most noticeable is between 10-30%), but it does not produce any visible effect.
Generally speaking, the monitor is fast enough for comfortable playing dynamic games.
Motion Picture Mode
This technologous to those used in the Samsung 245T and the BenQ 241WZ - a dark frame is included to simulate "CRT looking" motion in the screen.
MP Mode induces visible flickering and makes brightness go down.
But the moving objects look sharper indeed.
There are three levels of MP Mode.
They change the time of the dark frame presence. The longer the dark phase the darker the screen looks.
This is how it looks in the graph (Black to white transition):
Is there any sense in use of MP Mode?
It's up to the user. But visible flickering will induce more eye strain.
Input Lag
For this test a CRT monitor was placed next to the NEC 24WMGX³ . Series of photos of moving clock hand were taken.
Average input lag is about 12ms.
With Through Mode On input lag drops to 2ms for DVI and 6 ms for VGA connection.
We can state that with Through Mode On, there is practically no input lag on the NEC 24WMGX³ .
A sample photo of the test:
Backlight modulation measured:
It's high frequency (180Hz) makes it invisible for a naked eye.
CR Optimizer is quite slow.
It takes it about 1.5 second to raize brightness to max when a white frame replaces a black one on the screen:
Viewing Angles Measurement
Subjectively: viewing angles are very good.
White screen changes its tone from angle view, black screen becomes brighter and gets light lilac tone.
There is some diagonal effect too.
We took series of measurements using a specially designed probe to get values for different vertical, horizontal and diagonal angles at different levels of brightness, and for the level of black as well:
White background loses 50% of brightness with angle deviation:
Vertical.........34°/-33°
Horizontal.....46°/-46°
Diagonal.......40°/-41°
We note smooth decrease in brightness with any angle deviation.
Diagonal effect is slightly more pronounced.
For +/-82° range, CR stays higher than 10:1 and even for diagonal angles it does not drop below 15:1.
Conclusion
The sum of the NEC 24WMGX³ qualities makes it a universal display - you can work, watch video and play games.
24" diagonal looks insufficient for a true home theatre, but for it's desktop equivalent this size is perfect.
Pros:
Excellent image quality (high CR, good color rendition, homogeneity and viewing angles)
Wide range of brightness regulation with no loss in image quality
Fast panel with no overdrive artefacts
Variety of connectors
A lot of picture quality features (motion picture, auto brightness, advanced scaling, PIP function, etc.)
High quality sound for headphones
Stylish design
Ergonomics and OSD convenience
Good scope of supply (remote, cables)
Cons:
The monitor cabinet resonates at certain frequences when volume is high.
********************************************************************
The original test review is located here.