Buyer’s guide for creative professionals
Do you really need to pay a premium for a professional screen? After all, every feature comes with a hefty price. Here, we’ll run through those features so you can decide
Intended use
If you intend to use the monitor for a single task, such as photo editing, print design or animation, you’re likely to be working in a single colour space (see below). You pay more for the ability to switch between colour spaces at a touch of a button. If you can avoid this, you can save a fair sum.
HDR specialists
If you’re creating HDR content for a living, you’ll know exactly what HDR standards you need your monitor to handle, and you’ll know the benefits that come from picking a monitor that comes equipped with both the HLG and PQ gamma curves. This means that creators can edit and colour grade their HDR content more reliably.
For non-creators, the question is simpler because you just want to consume content. Here, you ideally want DisplayHDR certification. The 400, 600 and 1000 suffix determines whether the monitor can handle HDR content that peaks at 400cd/m 2 , 600cd/m2 and 1,000cd/m2 . All three are worthy, but in our experience it’s the DisplayHDR 600 and 1000 badges that make an impactful difference.
Colour spaces
One typical advantage of professional monitors is their ability to reproduce a wider, more vivid range of colour than a standard monitor. Pretty much all the images and videos you see on the web are designed to be viewed in the sRGB colour space – most standard monitors, laptops and mobile devices are designed to reproduce this particular range of colour.
For professional applications, however, models need to cover almost 100% of the standards in which they work. In video, that ideally means Rec.2020. If you’re designing games for an iPad, you should aim for DCI-P3. Magazine designers and photographers, whose work is likely to be printed professionally, should look for the Adobe RGB colour space.
Delta E and colour accuracy
You also need to be assured of accuracy, as measured by Delta E. If this is less than 1, the theory goes that no human eye will be able to spot the difference. Between 1 and 2? Fine for the vast majority of people, but if you know what you’re looking for then you might notice there’s a problem.
In n the graphs opposite, you’ll see we don’t just cover the average Delta E but also the maximum. Ideally, you’re looking king for a value of under 1 for the average rage and under 2 for the maximum.
Hardware calibration
If colour olour accuracy is key, you need a monitor that’s accurate not just on the day you buy it but two years down the line. You can use software calibration to do this, but this will only work with the computer connected to the monitor. As such, you can get away without hardware calibration, even in professional situations.
Hardware calibration is desirable as it’s tied to the monitor, not the computer sending the signal. This also means the monitor knows it needs to be recalibrated, so a reminder can pop up, and high-end monitors even include an automatic calibrator that will do the job without human intervention.
Brightness and contrast
We also look for brightness uniformity, but we don’t put this at the top of our list. In fact, one of our Recommended monitors comes out bottom in this test. The human eye is good at compensating for differences in brightness, and there has to be a big change to be annoying or to cause inaccuracies in editing. Also note that BenQ’s exceptional results are due to its electronics smoothing out the brightness levels across the screen, but at the expense of contrast ratio.
We don’t think creatives need be too concerned about the contrast levels of any monitors here: they’re all superb.
Physical factors
The flexibility of a monitor’s stand is worth careful consideration. You may be displaying your work to several people, so being able to swivel it on its base and tilt it back make this easier for all concerned. Height adjustment is also important as you’re likely to be staring intently at the screen for years and it pays to get the setup right.
The extras
Monitor hoods are often offered as an extra or bundled into the package, and if you’ve never tried them before you might be surprised by how useful they are. They minimise reflections, and also help some people to focus their attention on the screen. We’re also fans of anything that minimises our reliance on onscreen displays (OSDs), whether it’s a puck or software control.
The warranty
One reason Eizo charges more is that its warranty is the best out there. It includes on-site cover for five years (and guarantees zero bright sub-pixels for the first six months), so you can buy with confidence and justifiably amortise the cost of your monitor over five years if buying for a business. We also rate each brand’s reliability, based on the feedback of thousands of PC Pro readers, in our feature table on p76.