Product Reviews

Large monitors make an enormous difference to any designer's workflow, and enormous monitors make even more of an impact, assuming you have room on your desk. If you do, then NEC's new 30in monster, the Multisync LCD3090WQXi (a name to be reckoned with), is definitely one to consider seriously.

This is a high-end LCD display with a native resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. To put it in more practical terms, you could show an A3 spread in InDesign or QuarkXPress, with bleed, at 100% - and still have ample room for all the floating panels you're likely to need.

When we tried this display we were stunned. It is huge, crisp and vibrant, but not overpowering - well, not once it was set up properly. Although it weighs in at over 14kg the height adjustment is well sprung, so you are able to slide the screen up or down on its support with surprisingly little effort. It is also a rotating display; you can turn the screen 90 degrees (plus a bit of slack), although we didn't see how to make use of the vertical orientation.

The rotating facility aside, NEC hasn't crammed this device full of semi-relevant features; what is available makes a lot of sense, although not all abilities will be useful for everyone. For example, the display's 'black level adjustment' goes beyond most display hardware adjustments, allowing you to tweak the density of the display's blacks to match different characteristics. This and a number of other colour control options puts seriously tweaky, powerful abilities within everyone's grasp. If you'll be using this to display video content then by all means push the device's output into delivering the perfect display; that's where these controls are ideal.

However, we recommend that most Mac users turn to proper

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colour management workflows based on ColorSync and accurate device profiles rather than to individual hardware adjustments, post-calibration at least.

The colour control built into the device helps keep colour consistent across the full display and unlike some cheaper LCD monitors, it reproduces colours without even subtle posterising. NEC states that it can 'produce 102% of the NTSC video colour scale, and 97.8% of the AdobeRGB colour space'.

Both the specifications and our tests show this as being a seriously high-end screen which can be used in critical prepress proofing work and retouching, and any pro-level graphic design task.

The Eco adjustment is interesting, although we weren't sure at first whether it was lip service. In fact it does reduce power consumption of the display by about 25% or 50%, depending on which of these options you choose.

The method used to achieve this is not exactly revolutionary stuff; it simply cuts down the brightness. Reduce the back-lighting level and you get - yes, lower power consumption. It is good to see this process made so obvious but be aware that the resulting drop in brightness will affect the appearance of whatever's shown on the screen, so it could compromise your ColorSync workflow if you first set it up at full level.

The ambient lightness sensor that is built into the front can constantly monitor the surrounding light levels and adjust the screen's backlight accordingly to make the perceived level feel relatively the same. Unlike the Eco mode, switching this on shouldn't interfere with the effects of a decent colour profile.

If your work environment lighting varies much, then this feature can keep things feeling more consistent.

Displays this large can't be driven at their full resolution by any old graphics card. A dual-link DVI card is essential, otherwise you'll be limited to lower top resolutions.

All Mac Pros and recent MacBook Pros have the required hardware - but older Macs and non-pro systems may not be up to it.

As you might expect, all this doesn't come cheap. The retail price is £1938, and even after shopping around online the best price we found was well over £1500. But then if you need it and you're sure your budget can stand it, this is without a doubt one of the best displays currently available.