NEC 1980 SXi BK 19'' 25 ms LCD "Mini-Review"

NEC 1980 SXi „Mini-Review” by Peacemaker



Specs :

Screen size – 19’’
Revision – A1
Matrix type– S-IPS (probably by NEC)
Number of colors – 16.7 mil
Pixel response time– 25 ms
Native resolution (pixels)– 1280 x 1024
Dot pitch – 0.294 mm
Viewable area – 376 x 301 mm
Brightness – 270 cd/m2
Contrast – 500 : 1
Viewing angles – 176/176
Extra features – Ultra thin bezel – 17 mm, OmniColor (sRGB), Ambix+ (D-Sub, DVI-I, DVI-D), TORO (pivot), RapidResponse, RapidMotion,
Warranty – 36 months

NEC 1980 SXi – links :

Polish site
http://www.nec.pl/productPresentation.php?id=1324&range=0&L=1
Origin :
http://sklep.komputronik.pl/pelny.php?id=15765

At a glance :

Base – heavy, very stable, takes up little space
Monitor stand– forward/backward, up/down tilt adjustment
Setup buttons – there’s as much as eight of them! ( that’s including the POWER key). Easily accessible, convex., properly spaced, allow for hassle -free adjustment
Drivers – smooth installation from CDR, NaviSet ( allows you to alter all parameters from Windows level, no need to touch the front panel), extra software for Gamma-correction etc.
Adjustments – the monitor comes set up a bit too bright for my liking. I’ve decreased brightness to 20%, contrast to 46.3%, changed color depth to 6500 K (default 9300 K), the AutoBrightness feature works nice (decreases brightness while browsing www sites, increases it in games and movies).
Resolution – 1280 x 1024 crisp as ice ! Lower resolutions work very well, fonts appear slightly blurred in Windows, working& surfing comfortable down to 800 x 600). Games show little difference, I bet that in hot combat you’d never notice that you’re not viewing in native resolution ( unless your machine can handle max details at native frequency).


Monitors I’ve worked with :
MAG 71V, CTX PR 711 F, Samsung Syncmaster 959 NF, and several other eye burners... As you can see, the list does not include an LCD monitor.

I’ve decided to write this mini-review because I have been unable to find one. It is dedicated to all those looking for a perfect LCD monitor.

The last from the above list had been standing on my desktop until my first LCD monitor finally got shipped to me last Friday. I’ve slowly grown fed up with having a 20-kg hunk of junk taking up ¾ of my desk space. After a lengthy search, after many inquiries on various forums, my choice changed from the seemingly obvious TN+ (because I’m an avid gamer and I was mighty hot for the Viewsonic VP 912S which, unfortunately, seems to be an effing mirage in my country) to the none-too-popular and perhaps just a tad pricey
S-IPS matrix, which was theoretically designed to merge the speed of the TN+ with the viewing angles and colors of the PVA matrix.
When I finally knew what I was looking for, all that remained was to choose one of the LCD monitor manufacturers. I dropped a few questions here and there. I got many different answers, but after a short debate I withdrew to pre-planned positions and ordered a NEC 1980 SXi Black (it matched the rest of the setup, hehe).



There’s no disputing about taste, but.… this monitor has caught my eye with its simple form and design, creating a stunning visual effect, especially when it’s already in front of you.

Out of the box with it, then! Upon opening, your eyes meet a really nice black piece of plastic. A small piece, since the rest of the monitor is taken up by the matrix ! I honestly didn’t believe that the great appearance seen on photos could have such a stunning effect at a close encounter !
The monitor is very easy to adjust for height and tilt. As far as turning is concerned, you need to turn the whole base. It’s kinda heavy, but not too heavy to move.
NEC 1980 SXi works, like almost every 19’’ and 17’’ LCD, at 1280 x 1024. However, going down even to 800 x 600 can be achieved by Windows, IE etc. 1024 x 768 is perfectly OK, not to mention 1280 x 960. Even if you lose a little focus in those applications (and let’s not exaggerate – it still is good), the difference is really minimal in games !
IMHO the opinion that LCD’s can only be used at native resolutions is greatly exaggerated.
As far as colors go – well, I’m no CG artist but this monitor has a massive range of color adjustment – separate for the three basic colors, six others, text screens, geez there’s lot of that stuff ( I might find the time to play with it sometime)!
Finish quality – nothing to pick on. Black plastic, ultra thin bezel, ascetic look, no flashy lights, chrome rims and other dispensable sh#t.. Driver installation from the enclosed CD and...the desktop...looks just great, crisp focus, perfect icons, stunning colors.
No dead pixels.
Just a quick setup to keep the eyeballs from burning out too fast and...here we go!

The standard: Test machine :
Monitor connected through DVI-I and DVI-D (no particular difference noticed, so I stuck with DVI-D) to a Leadtek 6800GT card.
ForceWare 66.93 WHQL drivers.
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
AA x 4, AF x 8, V-sync ON.
Digital Camera – Sony CyberShot DSC – P12
Heineken – 6 pack , salt sticks, etc (to cancel out smearing effect heeheeehee !)

Games :
Unreal Tournament 2004 (favorite killer of LCD monitor testers in reviews I’ve read), America’s Army – my personal favorite , Pacific Fighters – yet another consumer of precious time.
Movies :
Underworld, Animatrix, Garfield, Star Wars – Episode I, Dark Blue World (DVD).

Photos were taken during pause or when the (ingame) object was at a standstill. Trust me or not, I’ve got no problem with smearing.

UT2K4 - (1280 x 1024, maxed out) seemed a little suspicious at first, slightly blurred picture, a little choppy but after 3 hrs of play I was totally satisfied – finally got those Shock shots in hee hee heee! At this moment I have totally forgotten just what smearing in UT2K4is and I’m. fully enjoying the game.


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The rest of the aforementioned games, due to their more peaceful nature, performed superbly.

America's Army – at first a little impression of choppiness..like a tiny lag or sthg.. this wasn’t caused by a drop of FPS or a large ping. Perhaps this is just the way LCD’s are, it might also be a driver issue. I don’t know. After a little while my eyes probably adjusted and I could happily join a VIP hunt


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Pacific Fighters – started at 1280 x 960 due to the lack of higher resolutions for LCD’s in the game’s options (next step is 1600 x 1200). Visual settings- at Perfect.
Looks brilliant, zero smearing, great focus, I fly around shooting sushi, happy as a kid .


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I also played Doom 3 Demo, Richard Burns Rally for a little while. Well. My impressions were identical to described above.
doom3

Sure, there is some „smearing effect”. But smearing surrounds us in everyday life – ever try downing three quick ones at night, fixing your eyes on the nearest streetlight and tilting your head sideways?? Now THAT is what I call smearing! Kinda makes you nauseous, don’t it? Hee hehee.

Movies look brilliant, no hangups, no smearing, black color is black as should be. At night, in complete darkness, sure you can see the matrix glowing! I ain’t gonna watch movies with my monitor turned off, am I ?? The matrix is lit up pretty even, but what do I know. I’m but a layman.

Animatrix :


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Darkblue World (DVD) :


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I, Robot :

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Underworld :

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SW Epizod I :

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A little note here – bye bye CRT.

Pictures of the NEC - desktop, views, resolutions, toro (pivot) :


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front
bok
tyl
959vs1980
ergo1
ergo2
katy_przod
katy_gora
katy_dol
katy_bok
toro
pulpit1280x1024
pulpit1024x768
pulpit800x600
komplet kabli

All those remarks of LCD “testers” on smearing that you can find on the Net belong among my son’s fairy tales. Don’t take what they say for granted. Information you can get from them, e.g. on smearing, has nothing to do with reality. IMHO some guys, like those from Hardware Tommy’s, are a tad too harsh in their reviews.
I realize that these are individual opinions, but just don’t take them overly seriously. At this moment, even the trees outside the window seem a bit smeary ;p.
To sum it all up - I am very happy with my new monitor.

Pros : Quality, quality and more quality in design and finish, image at native and non-native resolutions, OSD display, bezel, On switch , heeeheee, the taste of Heineken , software, TORO (even though I don’t know how to turn it on LOL) – what you see in the pictures is a 900 rotation by nVidia driver (the image is sort of blurry, as if the resolution were 1024 x 768), you can surf, play , watch movies, create Cg art, you name it. And finally my eyes aren’t all teary and bloodshot in the morning.

Cons : ……….. I want the NEC 2080 UX+ BK already ! ( too much room on the desktop all of a sudden hahaha!) the price could be 300 – 400 PLN less ( though the price is always disputable), 1 (one) fried subpixel ( visible on white background on the left, centre portion of the screen if you strain your eyes real hard) It doesn’t hurt anything, even though sometimes while flying in PF I mistake it for a barely visible contact and alert my wingmen - Bandit 11 o’clock! Break, break ! heheheeee !

Sincerely,

Peacemaker.

P.S.

The pictures do not give full credit to the quality of the display they were taken “by hand” on a borrowed camera and all.

I want to thx Kuba – for translating,
and Sandman78 for inspiration.

Well... thx for all comments. I hope You enjoy this review.

EOT...

Peacemaker.

Peacemaker said:

Well... thx for all comments. I hope You enjoy this review.

EOT...

Peacemaker.

Click to expand...

I Dont Care what anyone says that was a sick REVIEW MY FRIEND thanks for testing so many applications and games on this monitor.

ive always been an NEC fanny, most of the monitors in my house are LCD-TV's or NEC CRTS good good good REVIEW!!!!

ch0s3npimp said:

I Dont Care what anyone says.

ive always been an NEC fanny, most of the monitors in my house are LCD-TV's or NEC CRTS good good good REVIEW!!!!

Click to expand...

Thats the point... there was no comments, so i just start thinking maybe reviews like this is not interesting or maybe there are only DELL users or somethink else, i don't know.

Thak You for Your comments, I hope it helps someone, when somebody will be searching of any user reviews.

Greetings,

Peacemaker.

Peacemaker said:

Thats the point... there was no comments, so i just start thinking maybe reviews like this is not interesting or maybe there are only DELL users or somethink else, i don't know.

Thak You for Your comments, I hope it helps someone, when somebody will be searching of any user reviews.

Greetings,

Peacemaker.

Click to expand...

man i still cant believe its 25ms!!! how much does this go for? also im very impressed with the Viewing angles, from the picture it doesnt look like it gets darker, at different viewing angles which is a good thing

Until recently, I searched and searched this forum like crazy for reviews or comments of high-end NEC LCDs. Mostly about 2080UX and 2180UX. But I could not find out much and got tired of searching. I only found out that Lacie 321 has the same panel used in 2180UX. The Lacie seems to be a great quality monitor (should be with that price tag)
I'm glad I see this mini review here. It's like 19 inch version of 2180UX, I believe(same response time and the same 10 bit LUT(Oh, yeah!). 2080UX has 16ms and 8 bit). Thanks for the review, peacemaker, seriously and it's very close to what I expected from NEC.
This forum is infested with Dell topics. You can almost name this forum 'Dell LCDs and Miscellaneous displays.'
I know people talk mostly about gaming display here but even geared toward business market NEC's displays are no slouch in that department. Not to mention the overall quality. I wonder why they don't deviate their views from mainly Dell displays.
But who am I kidding? My desire to look for other LCDs went out the window when I first saw the news about the new Dell 24 inch widescreen(Samsung made, I presume).
But before it I was really sick of it.

Thanks for the review. I also am a fan of NEC. Two of my PC's have NEC monitors.

POLSKA, POLSKA, POLSKA

Holy crap that's alot of photo's! Very nice read though. Plan on getting a 19"LCD soon enough myself.

Haloevo said:

Holy crap that's alot of photo's! Very nice read though. Plan on getting a 19"LCD soon enough myself.

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man i wish i could find this monitor else where so i can loook into buying....

Hi !!! I just found secret menu (advanced) in my NEC !!!
There is RAPID MOTION option, default off - thats why my 3d animation was not so smoth ! I'm after format c: , so when i install all games, etc i give you a shout how it works ! There is also gamma setings, LED power, and many many more !!!
SHIT! I never found a word in all damn reviews in the new - just nothing about this ADVANCE MENU !!!

greetings,

Peacemaker.

Many thanks for this review, very interesting.

Could someone tell what is the difference between the models :

1980
1980 SX
1980 FX

Many thanks,

Ptta

NEC 1980SXi has Samsung PVA LTM190E1-L03 panel.
I have Samsung 910T (which also have LTM190E1-L03), i like it but i think darker colors are harder to differentiate than 193T.

On that 2nd Animatirx screen shot u have, if u look at the brown wall on the left side of the guys face. Its hard to see the vertical lines cos its very dark. On 193T i can see vertical lines on the wall reasonably well.
edit: that Animatrix was bad example cos i can see the vertical lines on just as well on 910T. but if u read my other post n check the scene on "girl next door", scene near the end. i have better example there. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=894685

edit: my mistake your monitor has LPL 19" S-IPS LM190E02-B4 panel, 1980SX (without the i) has the Samsung PVA panel.
p.s. your matrix screen shots still look very similar to 910T.

Hi
I'm happy that You like this review. I hope it will be helpfully when You decide to buy some LCD.
Now, NEC-Poland says that my revision - A1 is build on NEC panel, not LG or Samsung (if it is really Samsung, i don;t care, becouse they do great panels, i know, i know "Nec panel is only SA-SuperFine S-IPS" Come on ! )

NEC 1980 - don't know, SXi - S-ips, 25 ms, 500:1 contrast, FXi - S-ips, in my opinion elctronic improvments) - 18 ms, 600:1 contrast.
Well, screenshot is only a screenshot, but i think everything depends of how you can setup your monitor settings. SXi has very, very advence menu, i mean - you can edit six colours, gamma level (advance menu), black level (am), rapid motion (am), and much more. So if You know how do setup all this settings, You are the winner
BTW, after Rapid Motion i put on, WHOW !
Every game runs just beautifull !!! Smooth, and without any streaking or freezing of picture (its strange, but on Pacific Fighters i didn't notice that, but on Ut2k4 it was noticable), now everything is like it should be.
But if you run games in non-native resolution, picture quality is preety bad (it is not noticable when RM is off).
If Your rig can handle everygame on native its awesome to play on it.

Greetings,

Peacemaker.

Hi!

I may purchase as well a NEC 1980. I have a question for you. Can you tell me if the native resolution (1280*1024) is well suited for a 19" screen?

Many thanks,

ptta

blix9 said:

Until recently, I searched and searched this forum like crazy for reviews or comments of high-end NEC LCDs. Mostly about 2080UX and 2180UX. But I could not find out much and got tired of searching. I only found out that Lacie 321 has the same panel used in 2180UX. The Lacie seems to be a great quality monitor (should be with that price tag)
I'm glad I see this mini review here. It's like 19 inch version of 2180UX, I believe(same response time and the same 10 bit LUT(Oh, yeah!). 2080UX has 16ms and 8 bit). Thanks for the review, peacemaker, seriously and it's very close to what I expected from NEC.
This forum is infested with Dell topics. You can almost name this forum 'Dell LCDs and Miscellaneous displays.'
I know people talk mostly about gaming display here but even geared toward business market NEC's displays are no slouch in that department. Not to mention the overall quality. I wonder why they don't deviate their views from mainly Dell displays.
But who am I kidding? My desire to look for other LCDs went out the window when I first saw the news about the new Dell 24 inch widescreen(Samsung made, I presume).
But before it I was really sick of it.

Click to expand...

Blix,

I am interested as well by the 2180. The researchs I have done so far seem to show that the 2080 is a bit small for 1200*1600. Perhaps that the 2180 should be better.

I have read very good reviews of the 1980 fxi...

Do you have more info about the 2180 ?

ptta

I finally purchased the 1980 FXI.

I am really happy with it, nothing to say...

The auto-brightness feature that allows to automatically change brightness upon current light conditions is perfect...

ptta