Review: Eizo S2242W
Introduction
I’ve reviewed several Eizo monitors in my time and each and every one of them has impressed me because of the Eizo’s minute dedication to correct picture quality. Eizo has monitors for amateur and semi-professional as well as professional graphic artists and photographers. But the discerning users will also appreciate the Eizo quality.
S2242W is one of the new members of the Eizo family and it’s very interesting because it’s the first 22-inch display with a S-PVA panel and 1920x1200 resolution. The high 1920x1200 resolution is not common on screens smaller than 24 inches. But can S2242W deliver the same crisp and detailing pictures that I’ve seen on previous Eizo models? Will text look too small and how does Eizo S2242W compare to the much cheaper 22-inch monitors based on TN panels?
Size: 22" Resolution: 1920x1200 Response time: 6 ms (g2g) Overdrive: Contrast ratio: 1200:1 Brightness: 350 cd/m˛ Colours: 16.7 millions Colour gamut: 95 % of AdobeRGB Signal processing: 8 bit for each colour Viewing angles (H/V): 178°/178° (contrast 10:1) Dot pitch: 0,247 mm Panel (Type): S-PVA Power consumption: 32 W Wall mounting: Dimensions (HxWxD): 33.3cm x 51.1cm x 8.5cm (without stand) Weight: 11,4 kg Ergonomics
Tilt Swivel Height Pivot Built-in speakers: Inputs VGA DVI DisplayPort Audio (type) SCART S-video Composite Component HDMI Other Guarantee: - Pixel guarantee: - Etc:
Price and retailer
Our first impressions
Eizo has always used a very conservative design and S2242W is no exception. It has got a narrower frame and a more discreetly stand but that doesn’t change the fact that the monitor is very deep and bulky.
The stand has a lot of neat ergonomic options and S2242W features everything you could wish for from a PC monitor. It features tilt, height adjustment, rotation and pivot.
On the front screen you find a lot of buttons to navigate in the screen menus.
Inputs are connected on the back of the frame and facing downwards. Eizo S2242W has a digital DVI input and an analogue D-SUB (VGA) input. At the left there’s a 2-port USB hub.
The OSD (on screen menu) offer these image setting options: brightness, contrast, colour temperature, gamma, saturation, hue and RGB/gain (red, green, blue). It also has an eco mode, which ensures that brightness is adjusted according to the surrounds.
The menus are very tiny, though and only occupies a very small portion of the LCD panel. It would be nice to have bigger menus with larger text.Power consumption
We have acquired measuring equipment to measure power consumption. The power consumption on the Eizo S2242W is measured in the table below. Soon we will release a comparison applet allowing you to compare power consumption on a huge amount of LCD and plasma TVs.
Measurements on Eizo S2242W below:
| Out-of-Box | After calibration | |
| Stand-by usage | 0,7 W | 0,7 W |
| Pc usage | 62 / 33 W | 42,5 W |
I have provided two measurement values before calibration. I have measured with and without the eco-mode. When the eco-mode is activated S2242W adjusts itself according to surround light. The eco-mode measurement was taken during daytime on a cloudy day.
It surprises me that the stand-by consumption on the Eizo S2242W is 0.7 W. It contradicts the"green" focus on the S2242W.
Also, please note that the monitor uses less power after calibration. This is common on flat panel displays because many picture parameters are reduced during calibration.
Test tools
We use the DVI input for testing. The graphic card is Geforce 7900GTO.
The monitor has been measured and calibrated with a LaCie Blue Eye Pro. We also examine the monitor with the help of our monitorTest. And finally we test the monitor in games, movies etc.
Picture quality
Eizo is known for very accurate “out-of-box” settings. I have measured the “out-of-box” picture on S2242W below.
The graph says this:
The number on the left is the delta value. Delta is a difference between two factors; here it’s the difference between the measured colour on the panel and the actual colour that is our target.
Eizo has nice and beautiful picture “out-of-box”. S2242W sets no new standards (colour accuracy could be better) but it performs far better than the vast majority of monitors out there. Eizo aims wide with S2242W and they’re not trying to disguise it as a pro graphics monitors at an attractive price. But because of Eizo’s dedicated efforts in achieving good picture quality S2242W can accompany both photographers and amateur graphic artis.
Gamma is very, very accurate and varies by just 0.04 from our goal of 2.2. This is really no surprise because all the Eizo monitors I’ve tested has performed well. However, it is a respectable achievement when you contemplate today’s monitor market.
Colour temperature is a bit too low. I measured it at just under 5900 Kelvin. Our goal is 6500 Kelvin.
All in all a very impressive starting point for the Eizo S2242W, despite the fact that the colours are not spot-on. Eizo continues to impress me, even in a time where you feel that the focus amongst PC monitor manufacturers is to pump out cheap and nice looking displays without any emphasis on good picture quality.
I now calibrated Eizo S2242W in order to review the potential of Eizo S2242W.
Please note that the colour gamut has been expanded after calibration. It covers 95% of the AdobeRGB gamut. It is not recommended to use an expanded colour gamut when working with for example sRGB images. S2242W can also be calibrated to use the traditional colour gamut of 72%. Our measurement just shows that the LCD panel is able to cover more than the 72 %.
Here are the settings after calibration:
| After calibration | Brightness: | 23 |
| Contrast: | 50 |
| RGB: | Manual |
| • R: | 90 |
| • G: | 79 |
| • B: | 88 |
After calibration I lowered the brightness of the panel to make it suited for office use and graphic work. For games and multimedia you might want to increase brightness somehow.
After calibration Eizo S2242W impresses me again. I come very close to perfection in my theoretical measurement but let’s move on to the practical tests.
The colours are reproduced to near perfection. Colours are very accurate and nuanced. A gradient with a transition from black to red in our testing software monitorTest is reproduced perfectly.
Eizo S2242W is the first 22-inch display on the market utilizing 1920x1080 resolution, which typically is a 24-28 inch screen resolution. This means that the screen has some more pixels than a traditional 22-inch display, which also means that you have a larger desktop and working space, and finally it means that text appear smaller. Users might fear that the text becomes too small or unreadable but this is certainly not my experience after working in front of Eizo S2242W for some time now.
The high resolution of Eizo S2242W is effective and gives the user the same working space of a 24-inch monitor – without eye strain. I also had Dell 2209WA on the test bench for comparison at the time and I actually missed the high resolution of Eizo S2242W on Dell 2209WA.
However, if you have poor eyesight Eizo S2242W may not be the obvious choice for you. Text is small and at the moment Windows Vista does not provide very good scaling properties.
I have measured black level and contrast below:
| Out-of-Box | After calibration | |
| Black level | 0,23 cd/m2 | 0,12 cd/m2 |
| Brightness | 266 cd/m2 | 116 cd/m2 |
| Contrast ratio | 1157:1 | 967:1 |
Contrast ratio: +/- 50
Black reproduction is 0.12 cd/m2 after calibration. It is not quite as good as on the 22-inch Eizo S2231W reviewed by our Danish colleagues on FlatpanelsDK some time ago.
Equally important as deep blacks is shadow detailing. Shadow detail describes the monitor’s ability to distinguish different shades of dark gray. The problem is pertinent with virtually all display technologies because the very darkest shades of gray requires very small differences in brightness that can be difficult to reproduce. Poor shadow detailing in dark movies scenes results in lack of detailing and dull and too dark reproduction of the image.
But, shadow detail on Eizo S2242W is also impressive. I can distinguish all small steps in our testing software monitorTest, which also indicate that gamma on Eizo S2242W is very accurate and stable.
Finally, I examine light uniformity on the LCD panel. A lot of LCD monitors struggle with the so-called clouding / backlight bleeding today.
Eizo S2242W has no problems with backlight bleeding, which can be seen in the picture above.
Response and games
S-PVA panels have never been particularly well-suited for gaming purposes, and gamers generally prefer the inexpensive TN panels and sometimes the optimized IPS panels like the one in the old NEC 20GX2.
S-PVA panel are fair companions for sporadic gaming and general movie watching, though, and this statement also applies to S2242W. It has some trailing on the fastest sequences and you can experience trailing in for example quick shooters and in our testing software Monitor Test.
Eizo S2242W has some minor Overdrive trailing - the familiar halo effect - but it is not critical at all. Eizo S2242W did not surprise me in any way and it behaves as expected and like most good S-PVA panels. It does offer better response time than the cheapest S-PVA monitors, though. Overdrive control is better for example.
I tried comparing S2242W to Dell 2209WA in a shoot-out test. Dell 2209WA has an IPS panel and is considered an alternative to Eizo S2242W.
And Dell 2209WA is definately faster. It has less motion blur and it also demonstrates that the IPS panel is - in general - still faster than PVA panel.
Overdrive trailing is about the same on the two monitors. Some colour transitions are faster on S2242W but most transitions are reproduced fastest on Dell 2209WA. Dell 2209WA also has less input lag. Eizo S2242W does have some input lag, although it's not critical.
Viewing angles
Viewing angles on LCD panels has not improved significantly over the last couple of years, and Eizo S2242W does not differ from previous Eizo models based on S-PVA panels (all previously tested Eizo monitors).
The viewing angles will probably satisfy most users but they are not perfect. Torben Rasmussen has previously described one of the problems with S-PVA panels and viewing angles:
"S-PVA has a drop in the dynamic field when you are sitting right in front of it because of the way the small areas (liquid crystals) in each pixel are arranged. When you move your head away from the center line an increase in the dynamic range occurs so that you suddenly have more shades in the dark regions than you have in front of the screen. This is the big Achilles heel of the S-PVA."
From large angles colour intensity and contrast is also reduced on the S-PVA panel. Black becomes a tad more greyish. The S-PVA panels are a lot better than the cheap and very popular TN panels. S-IPS panels have the best viewing angles.
Viewing angles below:
Conclusion
Eizo has never disappointed me, and S2242W demonstrates very fine picture quality once again. The good picture quality is mainly due to accurate and natural colour reproduction. Black is not quite as deep as on previous Eizo monitors but still better than most PC monitors today, and shadow detail is almost ideal.
Eizo S2242W is also one of the first 22-inch monitors with the high 1920x1200 pixel resolution. This means that you get more desktop space but it also means that text is smaller. I don’t see this as a problem but instead an advantage of Eizo S2242W. After just a few hours of working in front of Eizo S2242W you are used to the extra pixels and now you have the desktop space of a 24-28-inch on a 22-inch screen.
The design and cabinet remains a problem. S2242W is not really a monitor designed for pro graphic work (rather semi-graphic / multimedia), and the design seems conservative and bulky for a mainstream monitor. I’m also a little disappointed that Eizo has not found time and space to integrate a HDMI input in S2242W - especially because some previous Eizo monitors featured HDMI.
But nevertheless, Eizo S2242W convinced me and it is indeed a good monitor for amateur / semi-pro graphic artist, photographers or discerning users. Eizo once again demonstrates that take picture quality seriously. I therefore award the Eizo with our Top-recommendation Award.
Press the award logo to learn more.
| Pros | Cons | target group |
| Picture quality | Response time | Graphic artists |
| Black and shadow detail | Design and physical dimensions | Photographersr |
| Ergonomics | Very tiny menu | Office/allround |
| Setting options | The discerning user |
Price and retailer
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