It has a brightness of 350 cd/m2 and 1,000:1 contrast

Oct 23, 2014 08:29 GMT  ·  By

There didn't use to be many displays that didn't conform to the 5:4 or 16:9 aspect ratios, but now there seems to be a steadily growing number of 16:10 ones. Iiyama has just contributed with a monitor that fits the bill.

5:4 used to be the normal shape for consumer monitors, about a decade back, but the cinematic 16:9 format has since replaced it as the preferred aspect ratio.

16:10 is a bit taller than 16:9 and allows for a bit more workspace. You could say that monitors featuring this design convention are cinematic panels adapted for video editing and creation rather than playback.

Anyway, Iiyama has just revealed a 16:10 display, one that does one better and also goes beyond the regular resolution boundaries as well.

The Iiyama ProLite XB3070WQS

If you're familiar with the way the company names its products, you should be able to deduce the screen size from the name alone, among other things.

The newcomer has a diagonal of 30 inches and a native resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, plus a response time of 5 ms and a brightness of 350 cd/m2. Considering that the LCD technology is AH-IPS, the response time is quite impressive.

The color quality is high enough to cover 146% of the sRGB color space and 99% of the Adobe RGB palette as well. In layman’s terms, it means that the display will let you design games and films with color quality and clarity better than what most consumer monitors will be able to emulate once people actually buy and run the products.

Quite ironic when you think about it, but such is life we suppose. At least the contrast ratio is a regular 1,000:1, even if the dynamic contrast ratio is in the millions:1.

Finally, the monitor uses a rheostat to control the brightness of the LED backlight (instead of PWM) so it doesn't flicker at low settings.

Availability and pricing

The Iiyama ProLite XB3070WQS 30-inch professional 16:10 monitor should be selling in Japan soon, if it isn't already. Buyers will get dual-link DVI, HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 and a D-Sub connector.

The company developed it for professional content creators and video editors, but the good response time makes it a decent choice for gaming as well. If it had been of 8 ms or more, we would have had a problem. It falls to you to decide if the price (whatever it is) isn't too high, something quite possible given the deliberately broader color gamut, which isn't that easy to implement.