- 4-way ergonomic design (height-adjust, pivot, tilt & swivel)
- Two-step ECO Mode for significant power consumption savings
- Native resolution: 1920 x 1080
- Three-step ambient light sensor for automatic brightness adjustment
- Response Time: 14ms
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Product Description
Tft active matrix - 23 inch - 1920 x 1080 - 270 cd/m2 - 1000:1 - 14 ms - 0.265 m.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
99 of 102 people found the following review helpful
By skedaddle
Amazon Verified Purchase
Don't be fooled by the price -- you're not buying a run-of-the-mill TN consumer LCD. This is actually one of the best bargains in high-quality eIPS displays you're going to find anywhere.
First impression: the EA231WMI is a solid, quality-constructed monitor. This BK variant comes in a no-nonsense basic black with a sturdy, heavy stand that even adjusts for height as well as the usual axes (I only wish it had better tilt control, but it pivots, rotates and lifts up and down). The ports are down-facing, which is a little inconvenient to set up, but stable when the cables are cinched in. It also has a decent sound system, and takes DisplayPort, VGA and DVI (DualLink DVI-D compatible) up to its native 1920x1080 resolution. HDCP is accepted through DVI, so HDMI connections should work fine with just a converter. You can have separate signals connected and switch between them (on mine, one Mac on VGA, the other on DVI); there is a sound input, and in a very nice touch, a USB hub. Cables for DVI, VGA and audio are also included.
Picture quality is outstanding, especially considering the price, but you do need to make sure you have a good colour calibrator (or can calibrate by eye) because the default colour settings, at least on my Mac, were a bit off. A couple minutes with my trusty Pantone huey sensor and the output was stunning. The image is sharp and crisp (even analogue VGA), with massive contrast range, 8-bit colouring so there is no dithering, and virtually no trace of the gamma-colour shift one sees on a typical TN panel. Colour was near neutral out of the box, with none of the annoying "overgreen" you get with big gamuts, and nearly perfect grey ramps. Only at extreme viewing angles did the image contrast become constrained, and backlight bleed, while present, is minimal. I calibrated mine for sRGB with 2.2 gamma and 6500 K white point. It looks just great.
The monitor displays most resolutions from 640x480 all the way up to its native 1920x1080. You can either "letterbox" or stretch non-16:9 aspect ratios, including 4:3. I had no difficulties at 640x480, 1024x768 or 1920x1080 in true colour.
There are a few quibbles. First, the monitor is ungodly preachy and out of the box, reminds you of your carbon footprint (I kid you not). Regardless of your politics on this matter, I don't think we need monitors telling us this, and in EcoMode -- the default -- picture brightness is really diminished, which is problematic. I recommend disabling EcoMode and autobright right away; use something like the Pantone huey or another sensor if you really need ambient light management. The monitor menu joystick is also fiddly to work with. Also, because this is an eIPS panel, it lacks the speed of the faster TN panels. The 14ms response rate is decent for this type of panel at this price, and I don't notice significant input lag or blur with my games, but hardcore gamers will probably want to opt for something faster (I am not a hardcore gamer) and when moving windows quickly I see enough of a haze to make me suspect that it probably isn't fast enough for them. However, if you buy TN, you'll lose the colour fidelity, so it's a tradeoff.
Regardless of these concerns, this monitor gets a full five stars because of its sheer value. You won't get a panel this high quality at literally twice the price. If you're looking for a prosumer display at a consumer price, and you need the outstanding colour that this panel can offer you, stop now and buy this.
First impression: the EA231WMI is a solid, quality-constructed monitor. This BK variant comes in a no-nonsense basic black with a sturdy, heavy stand that even adjusts for height as well as the usual axes (I only wish it had better tilt control, but it pivots, rotates and lifts up and down). The ports are down-facing, which is a little inconvenient to set up, but stable when the cables are cinched in. It also has a decent sound system, and takes DisplayPort, VGA and DVI (DualLink DVI-D compatible) up to its native 1920x1080 resolution. HDCP is accepted through DVI, so HDMI connections should work fine with just a converter. You can have separate signals connected and switch between them (on mine, one Mac on VGA, the other on DVI); there is a sound input, and in a very nice touch, a USB hub. Cables for DVI, VGA and audio are also included.
Picture quality is outstanding, especially considering the price, but you do need to make sure you have a good colour calibrator (or can calibrate by eye) because the default colour settings, at least on my Mac, were a bit off. A couple minutes with my trusty Pantone huey sensor and the output was stunning. The image is sharp and crisp (even analogue VGA), with massive contrast range, 8-bit colouring so there is no dithering, and virtually no trace of the gamma-colour shift one sees on a typical TN panel. Colour was near neutral out of the box, with none of the annoying "overgreen" you get with big gamuts, and nearly perfect grey ramps. Only at extreme viewing angles did the image contrast become constrained, and backlight bleed, while present, is minimal. I calibrated mine for sRGB with 2.2 gamma and 6500 K white point. It looks just great.
The monitor displays most resolutions from 640x480 all the way up to its native 1920x1080. You can either "letterbox" or stretch non-16:9 aspect ratios, including 4:3. I had no difficulties at 640x480, 1024x768 or 1920x1080 in true colour.
There are a few quibbles. First, the monitor is ungodly preachy and out of the box, reminds you of your carbon footprint (I kid you not). Regardless of your politics on this matter, I don't think we need monitors telling us this, and in EcoMode -- the default -- picture brightness is really diminished, which is problematic. I recommend disabling EcoMode and autobright right away; use something like the Pantone huey or another sensor if you really need ambient light management. The monitor menu joystick is also fiddly to work with. Also, because this is an eIPS panel, it lacks the speed of the faster TN panels. The 14ms response rate is decent for this type of panel at this price, and I don't notice significant input lag or blur with my games, but hardcore gamers will probably want to opt for something faster (I am not a hardcore gamer) and when moving windows quickly I see enough of a haze to make me suspect that it probably isn't fast enough for them. However, if you buy TN, you'll lose the colour fidelity, so it's a tradeoff.
Regardless of these concerns, this monitor gets a full five stars because of its sheer value. You won't get a panel this high quality at literally twice the price. If you're looking for a prosumer display at a consumer price, and you need the outstanding colour that this panel can offer you, stop now and buy this.
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By Bob V
Amazon Verified Purchase
My most critical use and reason to upgrade was for photo editing and photo printing so if this is your need make sure to use the DVI connection for the best possible performance on any monitor. This monitor replaces my old 22" Samsung Synchmaster 225BW. The EA231WMi produced accurate color right out of the box. After color calibrating with Datacolor's Spyder 3 I found only small corrections were made in the monitor color correction profile produced by Spyder to calibrate the monitor to Spyder's theoritical calibration values.
The viewing angle is excellent with no visible color shifts or dimming with normal head movements and well beyond, thanks to the e-ips technology. Bonuses are the height, swivel, tilt adjustments and full array of cables (DVI, VGA, USB, audio). I don't need or use the VGA input, speakers, USB, or portrait tilt, so no opinion on those. I find the 23" size more than adequate for photo work (Lightroom, PhotoShop, PDF), AutoCAD, and all the MS Office applications. I use my monitor in a room with artificial lighting to provide consistent light color and light levels, especially important when comparing photographic prints. Much easier on the eyes too. Have been using this monitor heavily for 4 weeks. The reasonable cost of this monitor makes it practical to also purchase a monitor color calibrator such as the Spyder 3 to provide a repeatable and accurate color management system.
Life has been much sweeter with this monitor!
PC system details: ASUS P5Q-WS, Intel Core2Quad Q6600, Vista 32 bit OS, ASUS/Nvidia EN8600GT graphics card.
The viewing angle is excellent with no visible color shifts or dimming with normal head movements and well beyond, thanks to the e-ips technology. Bonuses are the height, swivel, tilt adjustments and full array of cables (DVI, VGA, USB, audio). I don't need or use the VGA input, speakers, USB, or portrait tilt, so no opinion on those. I find the 23" size more than adequate for photo work (Lightroom, PhotoShop, PDF), AutoCAD, and all the MS Office applications. I use my monitor in a room with artificial lighting to provide consistent light color and light levels, especially important when comparing photographic prints. Much easier on the eyes too. Have been using this monitor heavily for 4 weeks. The reasonable cost of this monitor makes it practical to also purchase a monitor color calibrator such as the Spyder 3 to provide a repeatable and accurate color management system.
Life has been much sweeter with this monitor!
PC system details: ASUS P5Q-WS, Intel Core2Quad Q6600, Vista 32 bit OS, ASUS/Nvidia EN8600GT graphics card.
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful
By B.O.
Amazon Verified Purchase
Below is my personal experience with NEC and their support
I've got a 6 month old NEC EA231 WMI monitor of which the multi control switch has failed working properly (up position seldom works)
NEC Display support offered me a replacement (with a refurbished unit told to be up to specs) under warranty, assuming I am supposed to pay shipping of the defective unit to NEC. So far so good.
The replacement unit has arrived timely, well packed but to my surprise the unit has a solid 1" darker spot toward the middle of the screen and also a dead pixel in the same area!
pics here: [...]
Contacting NEC support again, they are advising me that a dead pixel is within the normal specs (nothing new here, just annoying) and that the dark spot is also within the specs!! Are you (NEC) guys kidding me that you can live with a dark spot on the middle of your display, and that is considered within specs? Probable for a 50% blind person it will not make a difference.
Finally after additional discussions with managers overs the phone with they agree to send me a second replacement but I will have to pay back shipping charges for this unit as well as for the 1st one, because that is their warranty policy and the spot and dead pixel are falling within the specs while NEC is actually doing a favor for me.
For me as a paying customer, they are asking me to pay close to $100 in shipping charges to fix one defect on one $340 display being under warranty, saying that their policy does not allow to pay for return shipping because the spot and dead pixel falls within the specs.
One less customer to NEC for about $50 (the amount I have to pay to ship back a defective replacement display of which NEC does consider working within specs)
I've got a 6 month old NEC EA231 WMI monitor of which the multi control switch has failed working properly (up position seldom works)
NEC Display support offered me a replacement (with a refurbished unit told to be up to specs) under warranty, assuming I am supposed to pay shipping of the defective unit to NEC. So far so good.
The replacement unit has arrived timely, well packed but to my surprise the unit has a solid 1" darker spot toward the middle of the screen and also a dead pixel in the same area!
pics here: [...]
Contacting NEC support again, they are advising me that a dead pixel is within the normal specs (nothing new here, just annoying) and that the dark spot is also within the specs!! Are you (NEC) guys kidding me that you can live with a dark spot on the middle of your display, and that is considered within specs? Probable for a 50% blind person it will not make a difference.
Finally after additional discussions with managers overs the phone with they agree to send me a second replacement but I will have to pay back shipping charges for this unit as well as for the 1st one, because that is their warranty policy and the spot and dead pixel are falling within the specs while NEC is actually doing a favor for me.
For me as a paying customer, they are asking me to pay close to $100 in shipping charges to fix one defect on one $340 display being under warranty, saying that their policy does not allow to pay for return shipping because the spot and dead pixel falls within the specs.
One less customer to NEC for about $50 (the amount I have to pay to ship back a defective replacement display of which NEC does consider working within specs)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good quality monitor
This is certainly a good monitor. I've been using it everyday now since 2010. I photo edit on it--the gamma adjustment went very well. I watch videos on it. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ray
1.0 out of 5 stars
AVOID
Right from the start this screen was difficult to adjust, now, after 2.5 years it comes on then shuts off completely soon after the "on" button is pressed. Read more
Published 9 months ago by G. Sholette
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but I have to nitpick...
This monitor is really good for a back-lit LCD monitor. An excellent alternative to those highly priced IPS monitors. Even cheaper than Dell makes them. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. R
3.0 out of 5 stars
An accurate but unspectacular looking display
I got this monitor a little more than a year ago after reading reviews praising it's out-of-box color accuracy and relatively low lag for gaming. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Alexander V. Price
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great image quality and color fidelity.
The image quality and color fidelity of this panel definitely exceeded my expectations. (I calibrated it with a Spyder and very nearly could not tell the difference between the... Read more
Published on April 18, 2011 by Cory West
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent monitor...with some units having color uniformity issues.
I have to first say that this is the best monitor I have ever owned. But it is also the worst. Let me explain.
I first ordered this monitor in January. Read more
I first ordered this monitor in January. Read more
Published on April 15, 2011 by Justin H. Gaede
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great monitor, but watch out for defective direction-sticks
When I first got the monitor, I was very impressed with the color, brightness, contrast, response times, stand adjustability, and cable management features. Read more
Published on March 28, 2011 by freshmas
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nice monitor for the price. NO HDMI. DEAD PIXEL
Editing... Found a dead pixel. And the regular story about it of course is: "That pixel doesn't damage my work vitally. Read more
Published on March 23, 2011 by feline
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good monitor
This monitor has met my expectations. As a casual photo editor, I have been satisfied with the colors with no adjustment. Read more
Published on March 21, 2011 by Another Floyd
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not much use yet
Seems like a good product. Haven't had much time to use it. Haven't "tuned" it like others in the reviews. Used with Mac Mini.
Published on March 13, 2011 by Shasta Shopper
