LG IPS ColourPrime 27EA83 Monitor

Aug 05, 2023

The LG ColourPrime 27EA83 is the first monitor we have tested that can display a wider colour gamut than the Adobe RGB colour space. However, this has been achieved at a significant cost.

Its gamma is too high to enable it to be used for the kinds of image editing tasks that have high priorities for photo enthusiasts. Purchasers who wanted to use the screen for editing would need to adjust the gamma settings and have testing software that could check when the desired gamma had been set. The difficulties we encountered with the supplied software suggest image editing may not have been top of mind in the eyes of the designers.

Where the screen excels is as a display platform for viewing video clips and movies, as well as for gaming. It would also be a good platform for video editing and media creation with programs like Adobe Premiere Elements and Sony Vegas Pro.

The specifications suggest its response times are better than average for displaying moving images and, although we couldn’t make objective measurements, subjective assessments give us no reason to doubt the screen’s performance in this area. The high gamma isn’t such an impediment for this application and many users will find it attractive. Movie clips certainly looked bright and lively on the review monitor’s screen.

There are also good facilities for connecting a headphone or speaker plus DVI-D and DisplayPort connections that support overclocking (for speed-obsessed gamers). But you’ll need a fairly powerful GPU (and the right graphic card), along with plenty of video memory, to take advantage of it.

The review monitor wasn’t quite as good for working with text as the Eizo monitors we have reviewed, largely because the text lacks the ‘crisp’ appearance of the Eizo displays provide at the normal magnification level (100%). When you enlarge an area of text to 200% there’s nothing to complain about; letters and numbers are sharply defined and stand out clearly against a clear white background.

But at 100% they don’t look as clear-cut as they do at the same magnification on the Eizo screens we’ve reviewed. Users may also want to reduce the brightness of the screen somewhat when working with text and graphics as we found our eyes became quite tired after using the monitor at its factory-set brightness level for reading and writing text after about 40 minutes.

Price-wise the ColourPrime 27EA83 sits at the upper end of its category. Interestingly the going price in Australia is AU$430 more than the RRP for Eizo’s FORIS FS2333, which we reviewed last December.

By way of a performance comparison, the Eizo monitor scored 4.5 out of a possible 5, compared to the 27EA83’s 3.5 out of 5 in the Overall Rating on the same series of tests using the Spyder4 colorimeter and calibration software. Eizo offers a 5-year warranty, whereas the LG screen is warranted for three years.

So while we can’t recommend this display to photo enthusiasts for editing and printing still images or commend it to writers and proof-readers, it’s an excellent screen for diehard gamers and anyone who wants to edit video clips and/or create animations. (With the proviso that you can live with the very touchy adjustment controls and the limitations of the software.)

LG’s IPS ColourPrime 27EA83 came to our attention when it was announced as the winner of the Technical Image Press Association’s (TIPA) Best Photo Monitor award for 2013. Plenty of photographers are looking for monitors that deliver accurate colour, support calibration and have a gamut that covers as much as possible of the Adobe RGB and sRGB colour spaces so, since the 27EA83 meets these requirements we were keen to give it a run.

Front view of the LG IPS ColourPrime 27EA83 monitor. (Source: LG)

Compatible with both Windows and Mac operating systems, this 27-inch (diagonal) screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a higher-than-average native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels (WQHD). The LED display uses AH-IPS (Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching) display technology, which supports wider viewing angles and superior colour reproduction. This technology was developed by LG.

The features that matter most to photographers when selecting a monitor for image editing are colour gamut, gamma and bit depth, the latter indicating the colour palette displayed by the screen. The screen’s brightness, colour uniformity and stability and the ability to fine-tune parameters like brightness, gamma, saturation, hue, gain and colour temperature are also very important. The latter are critical for precise control of colour reproduction and essential for monitor calibration.

On paper, the 27EA83 claims to meet all of these criteria. According to its specifications, it can reproduce 99% of the Adobe RGB colour space. The ‘universal’ sRGB colour space is completely covered, ensuring accurate reproduction of colours in shots from digicams, camcorders, web pages and similar sources.

The 27EA83 also boasts a 10-bit colour depth, which means it can display 1.07 billion colours. This is achieved by applying Frame-Rate-Control (FRC) to what is essentially an 8-bit system. (FRC is a form of temporal dithering that works by flashing between two colour tones rapidly to give the impression of a third tone, not normally available in the palette.)

With effective control algorithms, an 8-bit+FRC can be indistinguishable from a true 10-bit panel for colour gamut. It has the advantage of being usable with a wider range of devices, whereas you can only make full use of true 10-bit capability if you have a full end-to-end 10-bit workflow, including a supporting software, graphics card and operating system.

Screen brightness is above average at 350 candelas/metre squared. The 27EA83 is noticeably brighter than the Eizo FlexScan SX2262W monitor we used for comparison, which is rated at 280 candelas/metre squared.

The normal contrast ratio for the screen is the same as the FlexScan SX2262W’s but the 27EA83 includes LG’s proprietary DFC (Digital Fine Contrast) enhancement technology, which automatically adjusts its contrast to obtain a sharper and more vivid image. This can boost the contrast ratio to a claimed 5,000,000:1.

The 27EA83 ticks all the necessary compliance boxes, including the C-Tick regulations for electromagnetic compatibility, the international EPA 5.0 Energy Star low power consumption rating and the FCC-B requirement for devices not to produce radio waves. It also carries TCO5.1 and TCO6.0 certification indicating the ‘industry’s best’ pixel performance, presumably indicating a low incidence of ‘dead’ or poorly-performing pixels. (We couldn’t find any on the review sample.)

Design and Ergonomics An elegant widescreen panel, the 27EA83 provides a generous amount of ‘real estate’ for viewing and working with images and its 16:9 aspect ratio is ideal for displaying HD movies. The screen is supplied with a separate stand, which is easy to attach if you want the monitor to sit on your desk. The screen is also slim enough to be mounted on a wall using an optional mounting plate. To fit the stand, you simply rotate the stand body (which is attached to the back of the screen) through 90 degrees clockwise until it is at right angles to the screen. The base, which weighs 1.8 kilograms, attaches to the stand body with a spring clip and is held in place with a screw, which must be tightened before the monitor is set on a desk.

Rear view of the LG IPS ColourPrime 27EA83 monitor, showing the stand body rotated into position and the stand attached. The power adapter is shown tucked in behind the stand body. (Source: LG.)

The power adapter clips onto the back of the screen behind the stand attachment and is held in place with a special adapter mount (supplied). A mains power cord (supplied) plugs into the end of the power adapter.

If you want to raise or lower the screen, you’ll need to remove the locking pin located behind a strip of tape on the back of the vertical stand base. (You’ll probably need tweezers or pliers). Once the pin is removed, the screen can be raised by 110 mm. There’s no need to reinsert the pin for further height adjustments.

The top of the screen can be tilted forwards through five degrees or back through 15 degrees. The screen can also be rotated through 90 degrees clockwise into a ‘portrait’ position. It can’t be swivelled to the left or the right.

A cable tie is provided so you can gather all the connection cables together behind the base of the stand mount. There’s also a Kensington security system connection on the back of the monitor to enable the screen to be tethered to a desk or table with a secure cable lock (purchased separately).

There are three Type A USB-in connectors on the rear panel, all supporting fast USB 3.0 connections. One of these can be used for connecting calibration hardware. A separate Type B USB port is provided for connecting the monitor to a computer.

Although most of the necessary cables are provided, if you want to connect a computer and AV device to the monitor via an HDMI cable, you will need to supply it separately. There are four USB ports (one for the computer connection and the others for peripherals like calibrators, keyboards and similar devices) plus a standard headphone jack.

The screen’s bezel is approximately 22 mm on either side, 20 mm wide at the top and 24 mm at the bottom. Tucked in under the right hand side of the bottom bezel are buttons for accessing the main adjustments. They are actually more like little knobs that you can find by running your fingers across the lower edge of the bezel.

These buttons are highly sensitive to touch, which is a pity because they represent the only way to change the monitor’s settings. This was the source of continual frustration while we were reviewing the monitor.

It’s really easy to hit the wrong button by mistake and we often switched the power off inadvertently early in the review period while feeling under the bezel for the other buttons. It doesn’t help that they are labelled in very dark grey against black using a small font size.

The control layout is straightforward. Furthest to the right is the power on/off switch, which has a red indicator LED inset above it. To its left are the OK button plus two directional buttons and the menu button.

Pressing the menu button calls up a strip of icons on the lower edge of the screen (shown above), which are selected by touching the directional and OK buttons. These buttons enable you to adjust brightness, contrast, volume, select input, adjust aspect ratio, adjust the ECO mode (Energy Star support), colour mode, picture-in-picture and settings, with additional icons for reset and exit functions. Sharpness can be adjusted within the Picture sub-menu, while the gamma. colour temperature and colour balance are adjustable in the Colour settings.

The sub-menu for the Colour Mode controls, which opens when the colour mode icon is selected and the OK button is touched.

Gamers will find there are three response time settings in the Picture sub-menu, the default being 8ms while the upper and lower settings aren’t defined. And for those who invest in an HDMI cable, the black level is also adjustable in the same sub-menu.

Software The software disk supplied with the 27EA83 contains three applications: the TUSB3410 driver, the True Color Pro/Finder calibration software and Screen Split software for Picture-in-Picture displays. While all three installed easily on our Windows 7 computer, we encountered some issues when trying to use True Color Pro/Finder and Screen Split.

True Color Pro/Finder refused to operate until we had removed the software for running our Spyder4 colorimeter. Once this had been done, it recognised the Spyder4 (and indicated other devices like the ColorMunki were also supported). However, when we tried to run a calibration, the software seized up before the process was half way to completion and displayed the message shown on the screen grab below.

We checked that the application had re-initialised and tried again ““ but with no success. The first three times the process stopped when 35% of the calibration had been completed, as shown in the screen grab below.

The next two times it got as far as 48% ““ but waited at this point for a bit over six minutes before displaying the error message. On our final attempt it got as far as 35% again, at which point we gave up. Fortunately, we had calibrated and tested the screen with the Spyder software before attempting calibration with the True Color Pro/Finder. So we are able to provide some test results in the Calibration section below.

Screen Spilt wouldn’t open at all, despite having uploaded without problems. We ran the Windows Troubleshooter and, after trying several options, received the message that the software was incompatible with our system. So we are unable to evaluate this feature.

These problems indicate LG still has some work to do on its software applications. (Maybe they work better on a different platform/operating system; although we doubt it.)

Calibration Calibrating the 27EA83 with the Spyder4 colorimeter and software was very straightforward and we were able to take advantage of the analytical facilities the software provides. Since we have used the same tests for other monitors we have reviewed in the past 12-18 months, the results presented here can provide an objective comparison of various aspects of monitor performance.

1. Colour Gamut

The review monitor performed very well in this test, as shown in the graph above. The green triangle shows the boundaries of the sRGB colour space, while the purple triangle delineates the Adobe RGB colour space. The red triangle shows the measured colour space for the monitor, which matches and actually covers a larger colour space in green wavelengths than the Adobe RBG colour space and is significantly larger than sRGB.

2. Gamma Gamma plots show the relationship between the brightness of a pixel as it appears on the screen, and the numerical value of that pixel. They are a good indicator of how mid-tones are reproduced. If gamma is set too high, mid-tones appear too dark.

The graph of the measured gamma (above) shows it to be significantly higher than 2.2, the recommended gamma for image editing with Windows PCs. While the measured gamma for the review monitor is acceptable for other tasks (gaming and word processing, for example) it is too high for image editing without adjustment.

3. Colour Accuracy.

The plot of colour accuracy shows two of the neutral greys to be off-scale. Other hues also deviate from the ideal values, some quite substantially.

4. Screen UniformityThe two Screen Uniformity tests check the brightness and colour consistencies of the display in nine sections of the screen, at various luminance levels. Separate graphs are provided for luminance (brightness) and colour measurements across four luminance levels. We present the upper and lower graphs for each category.

4a. Luminance Uniformity.

Luminance uniformity was slightly better than average, although a consistent area of variability was identified in the centre of the lower third of the screen.

4b. Colour Uniformity.

Colour uniformity was significantly better than average.

5. Overall Rating

The graph above shows the review monitor to be a bit of a mixed bag. It’s a stand-out performer when it comes to covering colour gamut and scores highly for colour uniformity. White Point, Contrast and Luminance Uniformity scores are all slightly above average but the overall rating is dragged down by a very poor tonal response.

Conclusion The LG ColourPrime 27EA83 is the first monitor we have tested that can display a wider colour gamut than the Adobe RGB colour space. However, this has been achieved at a significant cost.

Its gamma is too high to enable it to be used for the kinds of image editing tasks that have high priorities for photo enthusiasts. Purchasers who wanted to use the screen for editing would need to adjust the gamma settings and have testing software that could check when the desired gamma had been set. The difficulties we encountered with the supplied software suggest image editing may not have been top of mind in the eyes of the designers.

Where the screen excels is as a display platform for viewing video clips and movies, as well as for gaming. It would also be a good platform for video editing and media creation with programs like Adobe Premiere Elements and Sony Vegas Pro.

The specifications suggest its response times are better than average for displaying moving images and, although we couldn’t make objective measurements, subjective assessments give us no reason to doubt the screen’s performance in this area. The high gamma isn’t such an impediment for this application and many users will find it attractive. Movie clips certainly looked bright and lively on the review monitor’s screen.

There are also good facilities for connecting a headphone or speaker plus DVI-D and DisplayPort connections that support overclocking (for speed-obsessed gamers). But you’ll need a fairly powerful GPU (and the right graphic card), along with plenty of video memory, to take advantage of it.

The review monitor wasn’t quite as good for working with text as the Eizo monitors we have reviewed, largely because the text lacks the ‘crisp’ appearance of the Eizo displays provide at the normal magnification level (100%). When you enlarge an area of text to 200% there’s nothing to complain about; letters and numbers are sharply defined and stand out clearly against a clear white background.

But at 100% they don’t look as clear-cut as they do at the same magnification on the Eizo screens we’ve reviewed. Users may also want to reduce the brightness of the screen somewhat when working with text and graphics as we found our eyes became quite tired after using the monitor at its factory-set brightness level for reading and writing text after about 40 minutes.

Price-wise the ColourPrime 27EA83 sits at the upper end of its category. Interestingly the going price in Australia is AU$430 more than the RRP for Eizo’s FORIS FS2333, which we reviewed last December.

By way of a performance comparison, the Eizo monitor scored 4.5 out of a possible 5, compared to the 27EA83’s 3.5 out of 5 in the Overall Rating on the same series of tests using the Spyder4 colorimeter and calibration software. Eizo offers a 5-year warranty, whereas the LG screen is warranted for three years.

So while we can’t recommend this display to photo enthusiasts for editing and printing still images or commend it to writers and proof-readers, it’s an excellent screen for diehard gamers and anyone who wants to edit video clips and/or create animations. (With the proviso that you can live with the very touchy adjustment controls and the limitations of the software.)

Panel Size: 27-inch (69 cm) Aspect ratio: 16:9 Resolution: 2560 x 1440 pixels Panel Type: AH-IPS LCD Viewing Angles (H, V): 178/178 degrees (CR≥10) Brightness: 350 cd/m2 Contrast ratio: 5,000,000:1 (DFC), 1000:1 (Normal) Pixel pitch: 0.2331 mm x 0.2331 mm Response Time (Typical): 5 ms (G to G) Display Colours: 8-bit+FRC 1.07B colours Wide Gamut Coverage: Adobe RGB 99%, sRGB 100% Special features: 4-Screen Split, Dual Link-up, Original Ratio (Picture), Factory Calibration (Expert Report), Hardware Calibration Ready Audio: Headphone Out Video Input Terminals: DVI-D (Dual-Link), HDMI, Display Port USB Ports / Standard: 1 up, 3 down / USB 3.0 Power Consumption: 65W (normal operation); 1.2W max. (USB 3.0 On) in Power Save/Sleep Mode Height Adjustment Range: Up to 110 mm Tilt / Pivot: -5 to +15 degrees tilt, 90 degrees clockwise pivot Regulation Compliance: TCO5.1, TCO6.0, UL(cUL), FCC-B, CE, CB CCC, BSMI (if necessary), EPA5.0, Win8, C-Tick Warranty: 3 years Dimensions (W x H x D): 643 x 459 x 226 mm (with stand) Net Weight: 7.3 kg (with stand)

RRP: AU$999; US$999.99