Iiyama ProLite XUB3493WQSU-B1
A terrific value panel, but spending more on the Philips 328P6 delivers big benefits
SCORE
PRICE £286 (£343 inc VAT) from scan.co.uk
Take two monitors into the office? Not Iiyama. With this 34in widescreen, it really is like having two monitors pinned together to form one gigantic workspace.
With a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 you aren’t getting the same amount of area as two 27in 1440p screens; in terms of screen diagonal, it’s closer to two 21in monitors. Still, no one will want for desktop space, with the panel a gift to any spreadsheet devotee or those who like to have two or three windows in view simultaneously.
However, we found ourselves drawn in closer than with a 27in 1440p monitor, and that means that its 109ppi density becomes a drawback.
Also note that a 21:9 ratio results in black bars on either side of most videos, which is a shame when the 5W speakers are so good.
Iiyama chooses an IPS panel, so you immediately benefit from excellent viewing angles. It’s also strong when it comes to brightness uniformity.
This wasn’t the best performer in our other technical tests, however, especially in its default mode. Its sRGB coverage of 88.6% (96.2% volume) is okay, but this panel struggles to go beyond this space. After some tweaks, we pushed those figures up to 92.6% coverage and 100.9% volume, but other panels have far wider gamuts.
Iiyama provides a handful of presets via its iStyle options – hidden away in a fiddly OSD – but only Standard gives a notable boost. And, in truth, that was mainly because it pushed our panel to its full and magnificent brightness of 425cd/m2 (Iiyama states 400cd/m2).
The stand is more flexible than the panel, including height adjustment of 130mm and 90° of swivel, but don’t be fooled by the fact it rotates 90°. This stand doesn’t actually support pivot mode, for the simple reason that it’s too short even when the height is at its maximum of 545mm.
As ever for Iiyama, its aggressive pricing means that this monitor can’t be beaten in terms of bang-per-buck – however, spending more on the Philips Brilliance 328P6 buys you a significantly better all-rounder.