NEC MULTISYNC EA275UHD

£800/$760 It’s a quality display monitor that’s also good for business

Smartly turned out in deep charcoal, the NEC monitor has a slightly corporate feel to it. For example, it supports ‘cost saving device management’, whereby all connected NEC devices can be controlled from a centralized location. There’s also a wide range of eco-friendly settings, including an option for the monitor to turn itself on or off depending upon whether there’s a human being sitting in front of it.

Standard and ‘photo’ viewing modes are accompanied by text, gaming, movie and dynamic modes, but there’s no preset for the Adobe RGB colour space. Connection ports include DP, DVI and HDMI, along with a USB 3 hub.

Unusually, the NEC also boasts built-in speakers, a feature only matched by the larger Viewsonic monitor in this test group.

Like the Eizo monitor on test, the NEC uses touch-sensitive virtual buttons rather than physical switches for accessing the on-screen menu. This time, however, they’re not illuminated and encroach up the right hand side of the bezel, instead of all being nicely arranged along the bottom edge.

Unfortunately, the menu system isn’t all that intuitive.

Performance

Used in its SRGB preset, the NEC proved disappointingly inaccurate for colour rendition, with a noticeably red colour cast. However, switch to the default viewing mode and colour accuracy is transformed, beating even the Benq, though the Benq delivers better results after a custom calibration. Brightness uniformity is boosted by a dedicated uniformity-enhancing mode. Gamut for the Adobe RGB colour space is good, if nothing special.

There’s a wide range of eco-friendly settings, including an option to turn itself on or off