Eizo Foris FS2333 review

The Eizo Foris FS2333 is a 23in gaming monitor with a difference. Instead of using a TN panel like many other gaming monitors, the FS2333 has an IPS panel. These often have much better colour accuracy than TN panels but their response times are a fraction slower, which can mean fast moving images might not look quite as sharp onscreen.

This isn’t really an issue now that most monitors have response times of just a few milliseconds, but the FS2333 certainly has the speed to compete with allegedly faster TN panels. We certainly didn’t notice any blurring from the display when we played Battlefield 3.

The FS2333 isn’t just good for gaming, though. It’s far from the most attractive display we’ve ever seen, but its industrial, box-like frame wouldn’t look out of place in a corporate environment and doesn’t take up much room on your desk. It’s height adjustable, too, and its superb viewing angles made it very easy to find a comfortable working angle.

Its colour accuracy is outstanding. It may not appear so initially because the monitor defaults to Eco mode when you first turn it on, but when we switched the monitor to one of its customisable User modes our colour calibrator showed it was already displaying 99.9 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. This is excellent, even for an IPS display, and we managed to increase this to a perfect 100 per cent after calibration.

Unsurprisingly, our subjective image tests looked great. Whites weren’t quite as bright as our reference monitor, but blacks were very deep thanks to its low black level of 0.28cd/m². Reds, greens and blues were also very rich and vivid, and we didn’t see any signs of backlight bleeding.

Its default contrast levels were also good. We measured a contrast ratio of 905:1 before calibration, which is in line with Eizo’s claimed figure of 1,000:1, and our high contrast images showed a great level of detail in both the light and dark areas of each photo. Some areas were still very black compared to our reference monitor, but the FS2333 has two methods of improving its contrast.

The first option is its Contrast Enhancer feature. We found this was quite subtle on dark images and only increased the brightness and level of shadow detail very slightly. Smart Insight, on the other hand, increased brightness dramatically and improved the amount of detail far beyond our reference monitor. This was eliminating shadows in Half Life 2, and colours didn’t look too oversaturated either, which can often happen when the contrast is increased. Both modes will be too much for bright images with lots of primary colours and very little shadow detail, but it’s hugely superior to other gaming monitors we’ve seen when it comes to eliminating shadows.

It’s worth noting that you should look after the FS2333’s remote control, as this is the only way to access the monitor’s menu options. The only buttons on the front of the monitor are the power button, volume controls and a source input switch, so you’ll need to use the remote control to alter the brightness, black level, colour temperature and saturation, hue, contrast, individual colour values and change colour mode.

There are seven colour modes to choose from, including Cinema, Game, Paper, sRGB and Eco, but nearly all of these have various settings locked down. Instead, we’d recommend sticking to one of the User colour modes, as Cinema’s default settings were far too blurred, Paper washed the screen orange and Gaming was a little too grainy for our liking. Some of these flaws can be corrected, but colours were far from accurate in these modes and we much preferred the more flexible options of the monitor’s User mode.

The FS2333 also has a good range of connection ports, including two HDMI inputs, DVI-D and VGA inputs, a 3.5mm audio input and a 3.5mm audio output. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack conveniently positioned on the side of the bezel.

The Eizo FS2333 is a great monitor. It’s one of the best gaming monitors we’ve tested and has by far the best colour accuracy of all the 23in monitors we’ve tested. Its looks won’t be for everyone, and it doesn’t have any 3D capabilities, unlike the BenQ XL2720T, but if you’re looking to upgrade your current gaming monitor or are just looking for a fantastic 23in display, the FS2333 is for you.