The Iiyama ProLite B2480HS-B1 is a 24" monitor with a Full HD, 2 ms, TN screen. Could this be a worthy successor for the excellent B2403WS? Let's take a look.
Design and Build
Although Iiyama is lagging behind slightly when it comes to design with its matte black plastic casings, the firm still does a great job with hardware features. This monitor has a swivel stand and is height-adjustable, for example, so you can adapt the screen to suit your needs or working conditions, rather than the other way round!
The B2480HS-B1 can also be spun round into portrait mode, which can be handy for typing and office computing. Note, however, that the restricted viewing angles associated with TN technology do mean that your sitting/viewing position will be somewhat restricted in portrait mode—contrast will drop as you move to the side of the screen.
The B2480HS has a tried-and-tested trio of connections, with HMDI, DVI and VGA. As the latter two ports don't input an audio signal, Iiyama has added an audio line in for use with the monitor's 2 x 2-watt speakers.
Colours and Contrast
Out of the box, the colours aren't great in the B2480HS-B1. In fact, we measured a Delta E of 7.9 (which should be under 3 for colours to be considered accurate). A slightly dodgy gamma also affects the accuracy of the grey scale.
Image quality can be improved by changing two things in the menu. First, set the contrast from 50 to 40. Then, go to "Colour" and switch the "Gamma" from "Mode 1" to "Mode 2". This brings the Delta E down to 4.5, which isn't perfect, but it's much better.
Changing these setting does, however, have an impact on contrast, as the default contrast of around 900:1 is brought down to 700:1. We couldn't work out any way of improving that using the settings in the onscreen menu. The only way to achieve accurate colours with this monitor without killing the contrast is therefore to download and install a calibration profile.
Responsiveness
As with the colours, you'll need to make a quick adjustment in the menu to get the clearest, sharpest results with fast movement onscreen. Once you switch "Overdrive" (OD) from "Off" to "0", the average ghosting time drops to 10.5 ms. This doesn't make the B2480HS the most responsive monitor we've ever seen, but it's still good enough to satisfy gamers.
We tried pushing the OD setting up further to improve responsiveness more, but we found that as soon as we went past 0, traces of reverse ghosting started to appear (ghost images in opposite colours trailing behind moving objects).
The Iiyama B2480HS-B1 has no problems with input lag. Latency between a command and its onscreen response is just 7 ms on average, which won't have any impact at all for gamers playing in multiplayer mode.
Design and Build
Although Iiyama is lagging behind slightly when it comes to design with its matte black plastic casings, the firm still does a great job with hardware features. This monitor has a swivel stand and is height-adjustable, for example, so you can adapt the screen to suit your needs or working conditions, rather than the other way round!
The B2480HS-B1 can also be spun round into portrait mode, which can be handy for typing and office computing. Note, however, that the restricted viewing angles associated with TN technology do mean that your sitting/viewing position will be somewhat restricted in portrait mode—contrast will drop as you move to the side of the screen.
The B2480HS has a tried-and-tested trio of connections, with HMDI, DVI and VGA. As the latter two ports don't input an audio signal, Iiyama has added an audio line in for use with the monitor's 2 x 2-watt speakers.
Colours and Contrast
Out of the box, the colours aren't great in the B2480HS-B1. In fact, we measured a Delta E of 7.9 (which should be under 3 for colours to be considered accurate). A slightly dodgy gamma also affects the accuracy of the grey scale.
Delta E before and after adjusting the settings.
Image quality can be improved by changing two things in the menu. First, set the contrast from 50 to 40. Then, go to "Colour" and switch the "Gamma" from "Mode 1" to "Mode 2". This brings the Delta E down to 4.5, which isn't perfect, but it's much better.
Changing these setting does, however, have an impact on contrast, as the default contrast of around 900:1 is brought down to 700:1. We couldn't work out any way of improving that using the settings in the onscreen menu. The only way to achieve accurate colours with this monitor without killing the contrast is therefore to download and install a calibration profile.
Responsiveness
As with the colours, you'll need to make a quick adjustment in the menu to get the clearest, sharpest results with fast movement onscreen. Once you switch "Overdrive" (OD) from "Off" to "0", the average ghosting time drops to 10.5 ms. This doesn't make the B2480HS the most responsive monitor we've ever seen, but it's still good enough to satisfy gamers.
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Average |
This graph shows the ghosting time, measured in ms, which measures the time it takes this TV takes to entirely remove the previous frame. The shorter the time, the more fluid moving images will appear.
We tried pushing the OD setting up further to improve responsiveness more, but we found that as soon as we went past 0, traces of reverse ghosting started to appear (ghost images in opposite colours trailing behind moving objects).
The Iiyama B2480HS-B1 has no problems with input lag. Latency between a command and its onscreen response is just 7 ms on average, which won't have any impact at all for gamers playing in multiplayer mode.
Pros
- Good levels of responsiveness (after adjusting the settings)
- Height-adjustable swivel stand
- Portrait mode
- Connections (VGA, DVI, HDMI)
Cons
- Below-average contrast once the colours have been corrected
- TN screen looks dark when viewed from below
Conclusion
In spite of its good hardware features and a response time suitable for gamers, Iiyama hasn't paid enough attention to colour fidelity in the ProLite B2480HS-B1. Worse still—when you try to improve the colours, contrast drops as a result. As it stands, this display be fine for certain gamers looking for responsiveness above all else.
OUR SCORE
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