Displays NEC 26" IPS Monitor for £100 too good to be true? Evidently not!

About 5 years ago I upgraded from a 22" 1680x1050 to a 28" Hanns-G monitor with 1920x1200 res and the pixel pitch was quite different on paper (90 px/in vs 82.3 px/in) but not vastly different in practice. Gaming on the 28" never looked grainy or pixellated, colour was good... and it was a TN monitor.

Seeing that you can get a good 27" 1080p IPS monitor for £180 nowadays, and the pixel pitch is still well clear of 80 px/in, I see no reason not to get one. I almost did, and would have if I hadn't got the NEC.

 

I've currently got a 1440p screen, but had a 1200p 28" model as well.

For gaming and the like you don't really notice it, on the desktop etc there is a difference, but it's not exactly terrible.

I think a 1080p 27" is ok. Especially since a 1440p screen will probably cost twice as much (mine had a scratch and was a refurb, so got it quite a bit cheaper)

 

All true, I was talking more broadly about monitor-buying folks really.

Anyway, I'm hoping for this one being listed or someone wanting rid of theirs - otherwise there's a 24" version in the US on eBay, should come in sub-£200 shipped. Same 12-bit LUT and fancy adjustments.

 

Wow, just switched to analogue DVI and the hum has massively dropped, so much quieter!

EDIT: Scratch that its just at a higher brightness as soon as I turned it down its back to being noisy.

 

Hmm, mine is now buzzing (as of yesterday), seemingly from around the power supply area. I've tried brightness settings from 50-70% which makes no difference. Ideas?

EDIT: Awaiting callback from NEC...

 

Kenny has listed the last monitor on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161043350409 if anyone is still interested

 

Will be interesting to see what they say.

 

Indeed. However, I'm pretty sure my issue is a well-documented one from NEC screens in that era, where their power supplies buzz on 240v, but are silent on 110v. I'm hoping NEC will offer a PSU swap, but the price is important, as paying £100s for a new PSU would be ludicrous.

 

*deletes link*

 

I don't think I can keep this monitor to be honest...

It's a nice picture quality but...

The backlight bleed is bad for me (probably need to modify the color comp option a fair bit more to compensate).
The buzz is driving me nuts - it's more prominent using analogue than digital.
It's a little too big for how close I sit to the monitor most of the time.
There's a tiny little stuck sub-pixel somewhere and a small biro-like mark on the screen (3-4 pixel length) which both irritate me slightly.

I have a 24" SPVA monitor which is quite nice and does the job adequately for what I want/need on top of that there are no stuck sub-pixels, it's also more or less silent for me.

I paid £118 delivered and regretting it now... should've put that towards a new laptop instead.

Rather than put this up on the bay - is there anyone else local to either South West London, Bracknell, South Reading or Newbury that wants to pay £118 for it?

To be fair - if I could get rid of the buzz - I'd probably be ok!

 

^ bsp stick it in the selling section of this forum; I doubt it'd take very long to shift at that price. Remember, despite the minor problems you outline, it's a top notch professional monitor and I'm pretty sure somebody would be up for trying to "fix" it.

@ Cei, I also read about the voltage problem but some users were unable to resolve the buzz by switching to 110v. I really hope mine doesn't develop any of these problems...

 

bsp I would take it, but backlight bleed and screen scratches are my #1 pet hates with displays.

 

Krikkit, maybe you want mine? IQ is flawless without the bleed issues etc, just the buzz off the PSU. I paid £168.20 for mine though as I was late in the deal.

 

What price are you looking to sell for, Cei?

 

Sold to me. Took it for the same price paid (£150+pnp)

 

Well if anybody else is looking to sell I might be interested. These monitors look pretty nice.

 

We've almost come full circle on this story...

 

I should be getting my colourimeter in the post tomorrow and will share the calibration details when it's done. Loving the screen so far... I'd take this over a 30" any day.

 

Even pooks 30"?

 

I had a Dell U3011 for several months and it's a very VERY nice piece of kit (as I'm sure a similar NEC or Eizo or LaCie would be too) however the res is just overkill for desktop gaming (and many other things too), in my humble opinion. Games run faster at 1920x1200 and there is no loss of eye candy at that res, and a 26" diagonal is a nice compromise between 24" and 30". I honestly cannot fault the NEC as a gaming monitor - being wide-gamut it's also totally overkill, but in terms of size, res and picture quality, it's untouchable. Actually scrap the overkill bit... the over saturated colours have so much punch that they make me jizz in my pants. My crosshair has never looked so GREEN!

Now a 30" for photo/video editing or other work that would benefit from the extra screen estate, absolutely. I wouldn't get anything less.