NEC MultiSync EA271F-BK Review & Rating

Many of our recent reviews of business monitors have been of professional-grade panels with eye-popping ultra-wide screens, expansive color gamuts, and prices to match. These high-end panels have a valuable place in many offices for content creators and C-level executives. But what the business world really runs on are cost-effective, workaday models like NEC's MultiSync EA271F-BK ($419). This 27-inch display delivers decent color accuracy, barely-there bezels, and superb adjustability. It's solid for general productivity use, though given the price and screen size, the 1080p native resolution just as easily could have been 1440p.

The all-black EA271F-BK measures 14.9 by 20 by 9.8 inches (HWD), with the height rising to 20.4 inches with the stand fully extended. Including the stand, this monitor weighs 16.8 pounds.

The EA271F-BK does well on ergonomics, providing height, tilt, swivel, and pivot control. The base has a circular lazy-Susan design that allows for easy swiveling to either side. The panel also rotates 90 degrees in either direction to allow for vertical portrait viewing. In landscape orientation, the side and top bezels are almost nonexistent (just 1mm thick), maximizing the screen space for the overall surface area and making this an ideal choice for butting up two or more in a multi-monitor array.

The core of the EA271F-BK is its 27-inch (measured diagonally) panel, which is built on in-plane switching (IPS) technology. It has a native resolution of 1080p (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), at a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio.

The days of 1080p (aka "full HD") being the alpha resolution are long gone, and many business monitors now feature 2,560 by 1,440 (1440p) or 3,840 by 2,160 (4K) native resolutions. But 1080p monitors are still common and very useful, especially at smaller screen sizes. The larger the screen, though, the lower the pixel density, so the EA271F-BK's pixel density works out to a modest 82 pixels per inch (ppi). Practically speaking, 27 inches is nearly as large a screen as you'd want on a 1080p monitor without potentially compromising image sharpness.

As a point of comparison, the 27-inch Samsung CHG70 and the ViewSonic VP2768, with WQHD (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) native resolutions, have a pixel density of 109ppi. The Editors' Choice Acer Predator X27, a deluxe 27-inch gaming monitor, has a 4K native resolution and a far greater pixel density (163ppi). These may produce somewhat sharper images than the EA271F-BK when viewed at the same distance from the screen, but they're also correspondingly higher in price.

The bottom line is that the EA271F-BK's resolution and ppi should be fine for general business use. If you are, say, a photographer or a graphic designer, you will probably want to spring for at least a 1440p panel at this screen size, though.

For connectivity, the EA271F-BK has an unusual set of ports, including a USB hub with one upstream and three downstream USB 3.1 ports (including one conveniently sideward-facing), one DisplayPort connector, one HDMI port, one VGA port, and one DVI-D port. We seldom see DVI-D ports on any new computers these days (higher-end video cards have given up on them), and VGA ports are an endangered species, as many laptop manufacturers are leaving these analog ports off. This monitor is a particularly good choice for an office with older hardware that can make use of these legacy ports, or for which these ports may be the only output choice.

One port we would have liked to see is USB Type-C, implemented as a video input from which you can charge a laptop while displaying content from it. Two related models, the NEC MultiSync EA271Q and the EA271U, include USB-C ports and have higher resolutions than the EA271F-BK, but they sell for considerably higher prices ($619 and $699, respectively).

Integrated into the bottom bezel at its right-hand edge are a line of touch-sensitive controls, labeled Input, Menu, and Eco, plus an on/off button and four arrow keys for the onscreen display (OSD). These are a welcome change from the line of unlabeled buttons on the bottom or even in back that I encounter on most monitors. Through the OSD, you can control a wide range of functions, including brightness, contrast, audio, and picture modes. Of the last, you get a choice among Standard, Text, Movie, Gaming, Photo, and Dynamic settings.

In my testing, using a Klein K10-A colorimeter and SpectraCAL CalMAN 5 software, I measured the EA271F-BK's luminance—brightness per unit area—at 262.4 nits (candelas per meter squared). Its contrast ratio, meanwhile, tests out at 802:1. These figures are both fairly close to NEC's rated values (250 nits and 1,000:1, respectively).

I made the chromaticity chart shown here with the EA271F-BK in sRGB color mode. The area within the triangle represents the colors that can be produced by mixing the primary colors red, green, and blue, while the area bounded by the curve approximates the range of colors that can be discerned with the human eye. The circles represent my color measurements.

NEC rates the EA271F-BK as covering 95 percent of the sRGB spectrum, while in our testing it records a slightly better measure, covering 96.3 percent. A couple of my data points were outside their ideal position on the chart, but color accuracy was generally good. For users who need a higher degree of color fidelity, NEC sells a variant of this monitor, the EA271F-BK-SV ($569), which adds SpectraViewII calibration software and the SpectraViewII Color Calibration Kit (SVII-PRO-KIT).

The EA271F-BK's built-in speakers (two of them) are reasonably loud, but they sound slightly distorted at higher volume levels. The video quality is good, with well-saturated colors that look true. The EA271F-BK is okay for light gaming, but it has no gaming-friendly features to speak of.

As a general-purpose business monitor, the NEC MultiSync EA271F-BK gets the job done. It has some nice touches, such as a nearly bezel-less cabinet, and a range of ergonomic adjustments including its ability to rotate into portrait mode. It also includes two ports becoming uncommon on monitors that will serve legacy hardware well: VGA, and (especially) DVI-D. Its IPS panel does a good job with color accuracy, although the Editors' Choice ViewSonic VP2768 does better, and that model offers a wide range of color-management features in addition to 1440p resolution.

Source: Pcmag.com

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