Test 2 Picture Quality
Screen quality is critical for large displays
Because 4K displays appeal particularly to designers, video editors, and anyone else who works with large visual projects, the quality of the display itself is critical. We’ve tested these screens in both moderately low and office-level ambient lighting. In addition, each screen warmed up for an hour before we ran our tests to ensure full stability of the image.
Our Spyder5Elite colorimeter tests showed that, while none of these displays achieved full coverage of the Adobe RGB color space (no surprise, since that’s a rare thing indeed), the 32-inch AOC came much closer than other two. The BenQ and Lenovo both managed 80% coverage.
However, the AOC’s higher score is actually undermined by its VA panel. This means you must sit face-on to see colors and contrast accurately. With a screen this wide, that’s not possible, so things will always look a little different in different parts. For gaming that’s not a big deal, but any kind of graphics creation can suffer.
Contrast ratio, the difference between darkest and lightest tones, is an interesting statistic. It’s tossed around a lot, and high ratios can make a difference in brighter environments. We noted scores at 50% brightness in particular as that’s likely to be a realworld average brightness setting. AOC’s display achieved 1330:1, a score almost twice as high as the rest, so if your environment is strongly lit and can’t be muted, this will hold out better. This is almost certainly due to the use of the aforementioned VA panel type, a technology which generally produces a far greater contrast ratio than IPS. However, the scores of the BenQ and Lenovo are more than good enough in typical conditions. This is partly related to absolute brightness. The best brightness level setting is one that balances with your surrounding ambient lighting. Pushing a display to its maximum brightness in lower lighting conditions is dazzling and can interfere with color perception, so in practice, the contrast ratio difference matters less.