The gamma curves are not ideal, yet good, at the default settings. The value of gamma is too high for green and red, and the corresponding halftones look darker and have more contrast than they should. The gamma value is all right for blue, but the contrast is too high as is indicated by the characteristic bend in the top right part of the diagram.
The monitor doesn’t have Response Time Compensation. Its response time average is 12.8 milliseconds (GtG) with a maximum of 24 milliseconds.
The differing gamma curves already indicated that the monitor would have problems with the color temperature setup, yet the numbers are disappointing anyway. Even in the Warm mode the temperature of white is normal but the temperature of gray gets as high as 10,000K! The monitor yields a very cold, bluish, picture as the consequence. The temperature of 50% gray grew so high in the Cool mode that our calibrator couldn’t even measure it. Thus, this monitor has to be calibrated (if you’ve got a calibrator) or carefully set up with your own hands.
The brightness and contrast ratio are good as today’s TN matrixes go. The time when TN-based monitors couldn’t show a contrast ratio higher than 300:1 in our test is long gone!
The monitor offers four factory-set modes which are set up wisely enough in terms of brightness. The Text mode is meant for good ambient lighting – its brightness will prove excessive under mild evening lighting at home. It’s not quite clear why it is the Graphics mode rather than Movie that is the brightest of all. Perhaps the developer devised that mode for playing computer games rather than for viewing photographs.
The color temperature quality wasn’t high at the default settings, but it only gets worse in the Graphics and Movie modes.
The gamma value is too low, resulting in a darker and higher-contrast image than it should be. Dark halftones almost lie on the X-axis, and there’s an odd bend in every gamma curve. So, this mode is obviously not meant for processing photographs and it is also too dark for playing games. The Text and Standard modes are free from such problems (the latter mode coincides with the monitor’s default settings, though).
Overall, the Acer P223W is pretty on the outside, but sloppy inside. The manufacturer should have set up its color reproduction better and thought about installing fast matrixes with Response Time Compensation into the Premium product series.
Highs:
- Appealing exterior design
Lows:
- Glossy screen coating
- Poor color reproduction setup
- Slow matrix
- Poor uniformity of brightness on black
Recommended usage:
- Text-based applications (documents, spreadsheets, Internet)
- Games that don’t require a fast matrix
