Nixeus VUE 30: 30" 2560x1600 IPS Monitor Review
by Chris Heinonen on August 20, 2013 6:00 AM ESTWith the Nixeus VUE 30, I was looking for something that can drive down the prices of 30” LCD monitors while providing a display that is high quality for a general user. After using it and testing it, I feel like it has split the middle on this and made a choice that I don’t really agree with.
Having a 30” display is very nice. Even the slight increase over a 27” 1440p display is noticeable, and I just can’t get enough desktop space for getting work done. The prior 30” to come by here, the Dell U3014, was very nice but also aimed to a more discriminating user group that is willing to pay the extra money for its features. The Nixeus aims for a more general user, and the price reflects that.
What doesn’t reflect that is the use of a wide-gamut CCFL backlight. Most people don’t use AdobeRGB aware programs or content and don’t have a need for this. If the Nixeus VUE 30 had an sRGB mode that reduced the gamut I wouldn’t care, but it lacks that. Because of that it is using a feature that is aimed at a higher-end market but in a product targeting a more general user group. If there isn’t going to be that sRGB mode, I’d rather see a standard gamut CCFL or LED backlight that lets more people see their images and games without over-saturated colors.
That makes the target of the Nixeus, and a recommendation for it, less clear. If you are someone that uses the AdobeRGB gamut and wants a 30” display, then I think the Nixeus is probably a great choice. The overall bench tests are very good, and in AdobeRGB mode the gamut is also pretty accurate. Finding a comparable AdobeRGB 30” monitor is also quite expensive. Searching at Newegg finds nothing below $1,000 and the Nixeus is currently $730 at Amazon as I write this. That 30% savings is quite large and makes the Nixeus a very good buy there.
If you don’t use AdobeRGB then it’s trickier. If you want a really accurate image and use the sRGB gamut, you have to look elsewhere. If you’re planning to use the Nixeus for general office work and productivity, and some gaming, then you will probably be OK with it. The grayscale can come out very accurate in the end, and that matters more for general work than an accurate color gamut does. If you just don’t care about image quality and care about having more screen area, then the Nixeus will be fine as well.
At $730 the Nixeus is much cheaper than prior 30” panels but still carries a significant premium over a 27” display. The VUE 27 is $475 at Amazon, so those extra 160 vertical pixels, 3" diagonal, and the larger gamut are costing you over 50% more than a 27” display. Is that extra price worth it? That’s more for you to decide. I really hope the VUE 30 is the start of a downward trend in 30” displays that will mirror the one we have seen with 27” displays. I also hope we will see some that either have standard gamut backlights or an sRGB mode, to fix the one major complaint I have with the VUE 30.
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Sabresiberian - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
It is great to see prices drop this much, but the standard 30" screen still has a serious problem, in my eyes. .25mm dot pitch.Okay that isn't terrible; it's something I could live with. But the fact is, I can buy a 27" with much better dot pitch (.233mm) and spend a lot less money. I hate the 16:9, but it isn't as bad as .25mm for me in that large of a display, personally, so the trade-off means I'll go with spending less money to get something a bit closer to what I want.
Give me 16:10.
Give me at least (most?) .233mm dot pitch, - better certainly isn't an unreasonable thing to ask in this day and age.
Give me an IPS panel (or comparable, or, gasp even better!), preferably with a backlight solution that doesn't feel like a heat lamp shining on my face.
Give me accurate colors, a uniform display, screen surface that isn't too reflective OR to heavily anti-reflective, a thin bezel so I can put 3 of them side-by-side without big spaces between the displays..
Give me low lag.
Sell it to me for less than $600. Really, I think $500 isn't unreasonable, but I'll buy it at $600.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
Windows still doesn't handle odd DPI all that well, though 8.1 may improve this. As someone who has used 30" LCDs for years now, I will tell you that I have no issues with the dot pitch, and in fact I often have to increase the magnification to read text comfortably. I think a dot pitch for desktop displays of around 0.28-0.30mm is actually better for most people past 30 years old. For businesses with 40+ year old employees, I have had many instances where I had to set their 1080p or 1920x1200 display to run at a lower resolution because the user complained that the text was too small.So, sorry to burst your bubble, but in the larger market of the world (e.g. people older than 25) having higher DPI is not actually all that important or even desirable. Not to mention, if you had a 4K 25" display, you need GPUs capable of driving that resolution at a reasonable level of performance. Just like the business world doesn't worry too much about high DPI displays, they're not interested in high performance GPUs for general computer use either.
josephandrews222 - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
GREAT comment about dot pitch and age. I'd like to see an anandtech article about dot pitch that addresses this very topic...in detail.Impulses - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
These displays aren't marketed at the business world either tho...stephenbrooks - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Right on with the dot pitch comment. I recently got to work on a 27" 1440p display and felt I had to set the Windows 7 UI & font scaling to 125% rather than 100% (I'm 29). The side-effect was that 125% looked kind of "Mac like" with high res fonts still the same size, whereas 100% was like trying to work at a scale designed for ultraportable laptops.seapeople - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I call BS. My eyesight is TERRIBLE. I can't see the broadside of a barn if it was flying at me and mooing. But I have these wonderful things called glasses. It's not like glasses stop working when you get older. I currently am sitting about 24 inches from my 125 ppi laptop screen and I can still tell that the text is not nearly as clear as it could be (i.e., on the retina iPad). For example, > ... that's not a smooth, clean arrow, it's a blocky/fuzzy travesty that would look so much better with more pixels in it.menting - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
Does this monitor use PWM for brightness?I wish more monitor reviews would cover this section as well, as I (and quite a few others) find PWM annoying and tiring to the eyes
mdrejhon - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - link
You can test a monitor's PWM by using http://www.testufo.com/#test=blurtrailmdrejhon - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - link
Oh, and when testing TestUFO, make sure to use the Chrome browser, and lower brightness to 0% to check for the PWM artifact.ezridah - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - link
You should review the 4 different Monoprice monitors. They have 2 types at each size and the low end ones are significantly cheaper than this.