Handling

At last: a 22'' monitor with something other than a TN panel!  The LP2275w uses PVA technology, which promises excellent contrast with a very deep black and, above all, very even viewing angles, unlike TN screens which appear to dip to black when you look at them from below.

PVA screens don't suffer from this defect, which alters the perception of images on the screen, which should have more even colours on a PVA screen.  We'll come back to this point in particular in our 'orange circle test.'

Essentially, this is a screen that's aimed at professional users.  The design has been noticeably refined from what we're used to on other monitors from HP.  With a matte finish and a square base, it's a long way from the lookand feel of the more mass-market range.  However, behind the scenes on this screen which looks like some of the first generation LCDs is a real gem: the base might not be much to look at, but it's height adjustable, mounted on a stand and has a pivot mode.  The frame shares this practical design philosophy, with VGA, DVI and Display Port inputs.  On one side, there is a two-port USB hub adding to the other two at the back.

So, let's have a look at the 'orange circle test', where the move to PVA should allow for very wide viewing angles as well as homogenous colours that TN panels can't even dream of.

The LP2275w spec states a 6 ms response time. Don't panic: although TN screens regularly have a response time of 2 ms, you're not comparing like with like because this measurement of response times is absolutely useless and doesn't provide any useful information.  These measures rarely represent the actual responsiveness of the monitors in question.  That might seem like harsh criticism, but at least it makes our opinion clear.  That's why we're going to forget about those 6 ms and take a good look at the screen itself.

In fact, with an average of just 0.55 frames of ghosting with a coloured image, the LP2275w is in fact more responsive than the average 2 ms TN screen, which would be closer to 0.8 frames.  The record is still with a TN however, the Samsung 2253BW, which we measured at 0.35.

The most demanding gamers will however be turned off by fact that the screen has roughly two frames of input lag.


Colour quality suffers from a dominance of blue and even if this is almost invisible in the different shades of grey, it does denature the other colours quite severely. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to correct this using the OSD. The only way of really improving colour rendering is by callibrating with a sensor.

A question worth asking: is the black as deep as usual? No. 0.25 cd/m² for the black with white at 200 cd/m², is only 'acceptable'. If you are used to working on a fairly dark screen however, like image professionals, you will be delighted to hear that at 100 cd/m², the black goes down to 0.14 cd/m².

Films

When it comes to films, this monitor is not like the others. A correction chip would have been some help in reducing flickering and compression faults. Nevertheless it does do better than your classic TN because at least you don’t have to point the screen in a particular direction to be able to see the image. This is what the PVA panel is all about: no blind spots from any direction