Eizo FlexScan EV3895
A 37.5in curved monitor that would grace any executive’s desk, although you pay for the features and quality
“Eizo screens always top our charts for usability. Take the onscreen display, where it still has the clear lead over all rivals”
I n our most recent monitor Labs ( see issue 315, p68), it was the curved LG UltraWide 38WN95C that proverbially blew our socks off. This giant had everything we could think of, whether that’s top-ranking image quality or an expansive working area. And I can’t understate the amount of space that a 37.5in curved IPS panel with a 3,840 x 1,600 resolution provides; it’s like having three “normal” monitors side by side, but the gentle 2300R curve means it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
The Eizo FlexScan EV3895 also includes a 2300R curved 37.5in IPS panel with the same expansive resolution, but that’s where their similarity largely ends. If two monitors could be brothers, the LG would be the relaxed one kicking back on his PlayStation while the Eizo FlexScan EV3895 would wear a sharp suit and sip on Moët & Chandon Impérial. The Eizo is professional to the nth degree, and that means frivolous activities such as gaming aren’t in its sights: a 60Hz refresh rate won’t satisfy ardent players any more, unlike the LG’s 144Hz.
Instead, the Eizo’s promise is to deliver everything a professional needs. We can start with colour accuracy, with a pre-calibrated sRGB mode ensuring that you can be confident of the colours you see. It covers 95.2% of that gamut out of a 96% volume, which means that only 0.8% of the colours displayed fall outside of sRGB. Couple that with an average Delta E of 0.44 and you have effectively perfect accuracy.
If you’re looking for punchier colours, you must switch to the Movie preset. This is the DCI-P3 gamut by another name, with 94.2% coverage out of a 97.5% volume. Colour accuracy
remains excellent, with an
average Delta l E of f 0.68.
Still, the EV3895 wouldn wouldn’t t be my top choice for Netflix nature documentaries because it doesn’t support any HDR standards. That’s reflected in a maximum stated brightness of 300cd/m2 and, as with almost all Eizo screens we’ve tested over the years, our measurements back up Eizo’s claims: the highest level we measured was 307cd/m2 . The LG goes up to 450cd/m2 and supports DisplayHDR 600.
Eizo screens always top our charts for usability. Take the onscreen display (OSD), where the company still has the clear lead over rivals. It relies on six touch-sensitive buttons that sit to the left of the power button on the bottom bezel. Press one and a context-sensitive menu instantly pops up, with shortcuts to control brightness, speaker volume, choice of inputs or colour profiles. Or you can head into the full menu, which is blissfully easy to navigate.
There are four preset colour modes: sRGB, Movie, Paper (sepia for reading) and DICOM. If you want to take finer control, you have two presets to play with, letting you take finer control of the gain, sharpness and hue to name but three. What you don’t get is the granular level of control offered by Eizo’s ColorEdge screens, which makes sense as this isn’t a display designed with creators in mind.
Along with its lesson on how to design an OSD, Eizo could also deliver advice to other monitor manufacturers on how to create height-adjustable stands: the contoured design here is reminiscent of Sydney Opera House. That not only ensures the EV3895 would make a bold statement on a business’s front desk but also that the astonishing 193mm of height adjustment is smooth. I also appreciate the solidity of the base and the generous amount of tilt.
Keeping that neat desk ethos in mind, note the USB-C connector with 85W of power delivery. That’s enough to feed all but the most power-hungry of laptops. It’s also great to see two USB-B inputs. With a built-in KVM, you could attach two other computers to this screen but only need one keyboard and mouse between them (the EV3895 detects which is active). There’s a flexible choice of pictureby-picture modes too. This is where the high number of inputs comes in useful: one DisplayPort and two
HDMI alongside the USB-C.
A four-port USB hub is located on the lefthand side of the screen alongside a 3.5mm audio jack. There is a pair of speakers in the EV3895, but they’re weedy and best left for video calls.
So, Eizo or LG? They’re both excellent screens, and there’s little to divide them for image quality. The LG is undoubtedly more versatile: it supports HDR content, is far better suited to gaming and even packs superior speakers. The Eizo wins out for its range of business-friendly features, whether for its greater height adjustment, the KVM or a reassuring five-year warranty to the LG’s two years. In a way, your decision is easy: it should be entirely guided by what you want to use your monitor for.