Improving Colours

As usual, we used our technical equipment to measure the differences between the colours requested by the graphics card and those displayed on screen. On an excellent screen, the average distance across our palette of 18 colours should be a deltaE score of 2. On traditional monitors, it will be around 3.5, whereas poor performers might reach 6.5.

On the N220W, me measured a difference of 5.5--a fairly mediocre result. This can be seen by the translucent bars on the graph. The further they extend beyond the solid bars, the less accurate the colour.

However, these early problems weren't disastrous. It's not always the case, but here, we were able to play with the settings to improve things enough to reach a deltaE of 2.8. We used the following settings:

- brightness = 80
- contrast = 50
- red = 76
- green = 67
- blue = 56

The N220W has three particularly interesting characteristics. It’s stylish with nice finishing touches, the least expensive 22'' on the market today, and has two VGA inputs. In some ways, its design is the exact opposite of the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW which is very much in fashion at the moment, but is nevertheless a success.

While Samsung seduces with curves and a glossy bezel, Hyundai does the same in the opposite way with straight lines, right angles and a matte body. Its inputs are also surprising. For economical reasons, the manufacturer has passed on DVI, offering instead two VGA inputs.,

On the other hand, for this price, it's no surprise to find the 5 ms TN panel we find on 95% of today's 22'' displays.

A recent 5 ms TN ... so better performance?

In short, no.  It might be a new screen, but there's nothing revolutionary to report from our tests: this screen uses a 5 ms TN panel found on just about all of today's entry-level 22'' models.  There is noticeable ghosting when playing games--and it's much worse than on the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW--and, using the default colours, the colour fidelity is far from accurate.  Another likely problem for games is that the input lag is, on average, around 25 ms, putting it one or two frames behind a CRT.  The 226BW, on the other hand, has no input lag at all.  However, this is only really an important factor if you game online.

As with other TN panels of any response time, this screen fades to black when you look at it from below, it suffers from flicker in movies and has an average gamut, rather than the wider range of colours available on high-end screens.  The upshot is that there is a risk of seeing solid balocks of colour in areas where there should be attractive gradients.

To sum up: the N220W produces exactly the same picture as any other 22'' with a 5 ms TN panel, but costs less money and sits inside an attractive bezel.  For use in the office, playing non-FPS games or looing at video online, it should be perfectly adequate.  On the other hand, for HD movies, careful photo retouching or gaming online, there are better options.