Iiyama Prolite E2481HS review

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Verdict:

A good-looking budget monitor, but it needs a colour calibrator to help it reach its full potential

Review Date: 12 Feb 2013

Price when reviewed: £152

Buy it now for: £162
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.dabs.com

Reviewed By: Katharine Byrne

Our Rating 2 stars out of 5

User Rating

The Iiyama Prolite E2481HS is a 23.6in TN panel with a Full HD display. It sets itself apart from other Prolite models with its slim 7mm bezel, something that would look much smarter if it wasn’t for the chunky matt plastic stand beneath it. The stand is fixed, but there’s more than enough screen tilt to help you find the best viewing angle.

When we first started testing the Prolite E2481HS, the screen looked extremely bright, and images seemed to have a white sheen. Colours were pale and far less rich than those displayed by our reference monitor, and this isn’t something we expect straight out of the box.

Our calibration tests revealed it was only displaying 89.4 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. This is below average, even for a TN panel, but we managed to increase this figure to 96 per cent after calibration by installing a custom colour profile. This is just shy of the 97 per cent we’ve seen from some of the best TN and IPS monitors, and it brought back a much needed depth to our test images.

Our solid colour image tests revealed further issues with the E2481HS. TN panels aren’t known for colour accuracy, but while blues, reds and greens were greatly improved after calibration, whites were still quite dull and blacks looked almost grey. There were also noticeable shadows in the upper and lower parts of the screen, leaving a brighter patch running across the middle, as well as a very slight bleed from the LED backlight all the way along the left-hand side.

Its contrast levels were better, with lots of detail in both the light and dark areas of our test photos, but colours still looked drab and washed out, and the bright sheen we’d seen prior to calibration was particularly noticeable here.

There are controls on the back of the screen to adjust the brightness and contrast levels, but even lowering the brightness didn’t help. On the other hand, its matt finish meant we had no problems with reflections, and we had no trouble seeing what was on screen, even in our brightly lit offices.

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