Top 4 27-inch Monitors

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The 27-inch monitors‘ resolution is, in general, ideal for photos, videos, and gaming. If you want a bigger picture and more workspace in Windows or OS X, this monitor will help you out.

The following are the top 4 27-inch monitors explained in detail about their design and features.

1. Dell UltraSharp U2715H

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The Dell’s UltraSharp U2715H is the best 27-inch monitor for most people because it has an amazing image quality that has made it top in the competition. Apart from this, it has an ultra-thin bezel, plenty of display connectors, a highly adjustable ergonomic stand, and a built-in USB 3.0 hub. Simply to say, there isn’t any other monitor available with a combination of picture quality, price, features, and warranty. It has excellent color fidelity and works great right from the moment you plug it in. You need not calibrate it or even switch to a different preset.

The U2715H is good for gamers since its panel uses a new anti-glare coating which eliminates the annoying cross-hatching pattern. This is a problem in U2713HM that the users found.

Quality of Display :

Performing the CalMAN 5 tests, the U2715H results in 37 to 371 cd/m2 of light between its lowest and highest brightness settings. According to Heinonen, a great monitor on its lowest brightness should get down to 60 cd/m2. This U2715H will allow you turn the brightness of the monitor, high or low, depending on the environment.

The DeltaE 2000 values – One way to measure the monitor’s color quality. A DeltaE value below 1.0 is said to be perfect. Under 2.0 is good enough for print production work. Noticeably, there wouldn’t be any difference in the display colors even if you had a perfect reference to compare with. Above 3.0, and you’ll probably see a difference. The DeltaE 2000 value of the Dell UltraSharp U2715H grayscale is 1.317.

Connections and Cables :

There are two HDMI 1.4 connections, one Mini-Display Port 1.2, and two standard Display Port 1.2 connections in which one is connected from your PC to your monitor and other for connecting a second monitor to the first.

There’s no DVI or VGA connector, but Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable, a power cable, and a USB 3.0 cable are available with this version.

Design :

The display is surrounded on the sides and top by a quarter-inch-wide bezel. That may not look thinner than the half-inch or inch-wide bezels of most monitors. Dell’s monitor feels bigger and looks better than any other desktop monitors. The bottom bezel is about a half-inch thick.

2. NEC MultiSync PA271W

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NEC MultiSync PA271W is the best performing monitor provided with some advantages such as a sharp on-screen display, its color reproduction is impeccable and is very comfortable too, except that it is costly. It has virtually no backlight bleedthrough.

A disadvantage of the NEC MultiSync PA271W is it lacks connection options. This monitor is similar to the Dell UltraSharp U2711 which is similar in performance but costs less. Overall, NEC performs better. The Dell U2711 performance is within the same level and has a plenty of connection options available at a lower price. Most of the pro users will like the NEC MultiSync PA2711W.

Design :

The Dell and the NEC have the same screen size but the Dell weighs 30 pounds whereas NEC is 7 pounds heavier. The dark gray panel is a thick 3.5-inches deep and its bezel is 0.8-inch wide, and its foot stand is 12.5-inches wide and 9.2-inches deep. The screen height is adjustable by 5.75 inches and is 0.75 and 6.5 inches from the desktop when at its lowest and highest points, respectively. It has all the varieties of adjustable ergonomic options.

The monitor’s onscreen display array has several buttons aligned along the lower right-hand corner of the bezel. The buttons include Menu, Input, PIP, Right and Left ,and Up and Down buttons. To the left of the array, there is a blue LED, the power button, and an ambient light sensor.

3. Apple Thunderbolt Display

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In 2010, Apple released a new version with an improved screen and by that time there were many more Mini DisplayPort-compatible Macs in the wild, thus widening its appeal. With the Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, Apple adds a superfast connection, as well as some other functionality.

Display:

The display includes a 20-degree back tilt as its sole ergonomic option, with no screen-height adjustment and pivoting offered. Calibration options in OS X include brightness, color temperature, gamma, and contrast controls. The interface for the latter can only be accessed by turning on expert mode from the Display Calibrator Assistant.

One interesting and welcome bonus for MacBook Air owners is that plugging the display into an Ethernet connection allows the Air to take advantage of full wired Ethernet speeds as opposed to being limited to Wi-Fi.

Design:

The Apple Thunderbolt Display shares the same basic design as the (non-Thunderbolt) Cinema Display released in 2010. This 27-inch IPS screen with its 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution made the transition with no degradation in quality. The chassis design is almost exactly the same as the previous version, and along with the new features. The Thunderbolt Display is unveiled along with all the features that you get with the Cinema Display.

The monitor’s framework, including the back of the monitor and its foot stand, has the same smooth aluminum gray finish as the Cinema Display. It also includes an ambient light sensor, a built-in camera and microphone, built-in 2.1 speakers, and three USB 2.0 ports just as the Cinema Display and is located on the lower back left.

The panel is 2.25 inches in full depth and about 25.6 inches wide. The bezel fixed with the screen is 1.1 inches wide on the right and left sides, and the distance from the bottom of the bezel to the desktop is 3.6 inches. The foot stand is 7.4 inches wide and 8.2 inches deep.

4. Samsung SyncMaster S27B970

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The S27B970 takes some very apparent design cues from Apple’s Thunderbolt Display. It sports a clean aesthetic, with smooth rounded corners, a glossy screen, and a combination of metal and plastic finish.

Design:

The panel is fairly thin, extending back about 0.8 inches in depth. The screen and bezel are highly reflective and sport glossy surfaces, with the left and right side bezel measuring 0.9 inches in length. The screen is 25.4 inches wide and features a plastic silver trim that runs entirely around the edge of the panel. The back of the panel is devoid of any connections but has an embossed silver Samsung logo on the left side. The surface is black matte plastic, designed to resemble  black wood.

The panel attaches to a metallic chrome neck that stretches 16.8 inches from the foot stand to its peak. The top of the neck is flattened off, ledge like, with a plastic silver top. The neck attaches to the panel via a hinge that allows for 10-degree tilt and 4 inches of screen height adjustment; a feature the Thunderbolt Display failed to include. At its lowest height, the panel sits 2.4 inches from the desktop and 6.4 inches at its highest.

Much to my disappointment, there’s no built-in swivel mechanism. The Thunderbolt Display skipped out on a swivel as well, but its smooth metallic finish allowed it to easily slide around on smooth surfaces. Thanks to the rubber attachments on the bottom of the S27B970’s foot stand, it won’t be sliding much.

About the foot stand, the plastic silver, flying-saucerlike stand looks like something out of a ’50s sci-fi movie, lending a kind of art deco vibe to the monitor’s aesthetic. However, the top of the foot stand can easily be peeled off a bit, although you can’t actually remove it. It’s not a huge beef, but with a $1,200 monitor, you expect a better quality standard. The stand itself is a wide 9.7 inches in diameter, which keeps the monitor well-grounded with the panel at its lowest height, but unfortunately, it wobbles  when at its highest.

The DisplayPort input is embedded too deeply in the foot stand. This isn’t a problem when plugging it in, but DisplayPort requires that you press a button on the cable in order to unplug it. The problem is that the space between that button and the bottom of the tip of the S27B970’s foot stand is too smaller than most human fingers, making it nearly impossible to disconnect DisplayPort without using a tool like a screwdriver.

Connections:

In addition to DisplayPort, the S27B970 consists of HDMI, DVI and a USB upstream port on the back of the foot stand, with neither port presenting the same problem that the DisplayPort did. On the right side sits two USB downstream ports, and on the bottom edge of the panel are two speakers.

The OSD array sits on the bottom of the neck, with each button or touch sensor emitting a bluish-white LED light. The array consists of an Enter button, a Menu button, and up and down navigation buttons that double as volume and preset shortcut buttons, respectively.

The OSD itself has most of the options like five different presets – Standard, High Bright, Cinema, RGB, and Calibration. Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness controls, as well as Red, Green, and Blue adjustment options. There are controls for response time adjustment, color temperature, and gamma. Eco savings options aren’t as cool as the ones on recent Samsung monitors, allowing you to only change the brightness to 50 and 75 percent.


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