HP DREAMCOLOR Z31X STUDIO DISPLAY
It ain’t fashionable, but it is awesome
TOO MANY tech companies are slaves to fashion. HP certainly isn’t guilty of that crime with its DreamColor Z31x Studio Display, a glorious 31-inch panel, with what HP describes as full “cinema style” 4K resolution. To say that the Z31x defenestrates the vogue for slim screen bezels would be the understatement of the eon. This thing is fat.
It is also, however, designed for serious professional productivity and contentcreation work. So, quality, accuracy, and functionality are what matter, rather than superficial aesthetics. The Z31x has all of that in spades. For starters, those bezels are a function of its ability to fully calibrate itself. Top and center, HP has located a sensor that swings down on a motorized arm, allowing for full calibration.
What’s more, the calibration tool can be set to run automatically. Similarly, the display can be configured to turn itself on and warm up on schedule. A nice trick, and indicative of the attention to detail HP has lavished on this screen. The same goes for other features, including a built-in KVM switch, dual DisplayPort inputs, two HDMI 2.0 sockets, a USB Type-C port with DisplayPort pass-through and charging power up to 60W, and an Ethernet port with support for configuring settings over a network via HTTP.
But it’s the 31-inch IPS panel that really qualifies this screen as seriously special and worthy of true “pro” status. It all starts with that 4K “cinema” resolution. Specifically, that’s 4096x2160 pixels, rather than the more typical 3840x2160 grid. It’s thus slightly wider than the norm, with a 17:9 aspect ratio, and capable of showing 4K movie masters in full, which are encoded with 4,096 horizontal pixels.
Adding to its movie creation credibility, the Z31x can run at both 50Hz and 48Hz. The latter not only aligns with High FrameRate cinema content, it’s also double the 24fps used by conventional theatrical releases, allowing for proper playback of major movie formats. The Z31x also has a true 2:1 pixel doubling mode, allowing 2K content to be displayed pixel for pixel, instead of via interpolation.
But that’s just the beginning. Next up is true 10-bit-per-channel color fidelity and support for multiple color spaces. HP says the DreamColor Z31x is good for 100 percent of the sRGB space, 100 percent of BT.709, 100 percent of AdobeRGB, 99 percent of DCI-P3, and 80 percent of BT.2020, also known as Rec2020.
If all that sounds impressive, it is, but there’s an obvious omission: This is not HDR-certified. But it is still gorgeous regarding image quality. With the full 4096x2160 resolution on a 31-inch panel, pixel density is fairly high, but it’s the colors and accuracy you’ll appreciate.
This screen looks bang on in native color mode and it’s a cinch to jump into one of the numerous alternative calibrated color spaces via the OSD. There’s loads of contrast on offer, too, and the viewing angles are as good as you’re going to get from an LCD-based display. It’s not eyepoppingly bright, but it’s not supposed to be. What it’s supposed to be is a seriously capable display for SDR content creation. It very much delivers on that remit.
The Z31x isn’t cheap, but there are some very attractive deals available—as little as $1,800. At that price, you could almost argue it’s a steal.