NEC MultiSync E231W review: NEC MultiSync E231W

The NEC Multisync E231W offers an abundance of features for the relatively low price of $300. While playing games, its colors left a lot to be desired and many of its preset settings were disappointing, necessitating some detailed calibrating on our part. Those shortcomings are made up for by its full ergonomic support, a robust OSD with some useful features, and its aforementioned $300 price tag. It's difficult to find a well-performing 23-incher with full ergo support, but NEC found a way to offer this one at a competitive price.

7.3

NEC MultiSync E231W

The Good

The NEC MultiSync E231W has full ergonomic support, a robust and useful OSD, and all at a relatively low price for the package.

The Bad

The NEC MultiSync E231W's performance in games lags behind the best 23-inchers, and its aesthetics are uninspiring. Also, its preset setting are disappointing, necessitating some calibration.

The Bottom Line

The NEC MultiSync E231W offers a lot of features for a relatively low price.

Design and features
At first glance, the 23-inch NEC E231W looks a lot like its cousin the NEC EA221wm, with a black, matte finish and semi-angular corners. The initial depth of the panel is a fairly deep 1.25 inches, followed by another 1.5 inches, including the connection options and ventilation system. This brings the full depth to 2.75 inches. The right and left sides of the bezel are a small 0.75 inch in width.

With the panel adjusted to its lowest depth, the distance from the bottom of the bezel to the desktop is about 2.1 inches and 6.5 inches from its highest. The full width of the display is 21.6 inches, which is a hair smaller than the Samsung PX2370. The circular foot stand measures 8.6 inches in diameter and when knocked from the sides, the panel topples quite easily when adjusted to its highest height, though not so much from its lowest.

Ergonomic options include a 10-degree back tilt, panel swiveling, pivot, and the aforementioned 4.4-inch height adjustment. Connection options include DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. The connections face downward and would be a pain to reach if not for the pivot and height adjustment features, which help to make accessing the connections a less apoplectic experience. That said, we still prefer it when connections face outward. On the upper middle back of the display is a built-in carrying space with enough room for even the largest hands to carry the monitor comfortably. At the bottom of the stand is a cord organizer.

In the lower-right-hand corner of the bezel resides the OSD array and the power button, all aligned horizontally. The power button sits on the far right, highlighted by a blue LED. The array consists of four buttons: Menu, Select, Reset/Eco mode, and a small joy "nub," used to navigate through the menu.

OSD options consist of Brightness, Contrast, and an Auto Brightness mode. The Auto Brightness control can be set to react to ambient light so that it adjusts the monitor's brightness in accordance with how much light is in the room. Conversely, its White Image setting lowers the brightness if a white image, like a word doc, is on screen. This saves on power and diminishes eye strain. The OSD has six base presets: Standard, Text, Movie, Photo, Gaming, and Dynamic, each of which adjusts the brightness, contrast, and color temperature to be appropriate to the task at hand. There are also six color temperature presets, including 9,300K, User, 7,500K, SRGB (at 6,500K), 5,000K, and Native. Each color preset allows you to adjust the red, green, and blue values individually, as long as the base preset remains at Standard.

Other options include Eco Modes 1 and 2, which cap the brightness to 80 and 40 percent, respectfully, automatically saving on power. Another power-conscious feature is the carbon footprint meter, showing you what your current carbon footprint is for the monitor in percentages. Additionally, the OSD includes a mode that estimates how much the monitor's current power consumption is costing you. (Its estimates are in dollars, but it provides five additional currency options.)

Navigating the OSD proved to be a mostly painless process, especially using the joy "knob." Also, the buttons are distinct enough that you can very successfully navigate the OSD from within a dark room.

Performance
DisplayMate performance: We tested the NEC MultiSync E231W through its DVI input, connected to a Windows Vista PC and a DVI cable included with the monitor. The display posted a composite score of 89 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests, which is several points lower than the Samsung PX2370's 96. In our Black Level test, the E231W crushed only very dark grays and was able to just barely display down to a level-two gray, which is two levels above true black. This indicates an optimal black level for the display. In our color-tracking test we didn't see any obvious errors compared with the Samsung PX2370, but there was a very slight red push.

The monitor excelled in our screen uniformity test, showing very little dark patches, indicating a mostly uniform backlight. This carried over to our Dark Screen test, which displayed only trace amounts of backlight breakthrough on the top and bottom middle edges of the screen. Also, in our Motion Bitmaps test we saw slightly more streaking on the E231W than the PX2370 showed; however, this did not carry over to our real-world games and movie tests.

Text: We saw no color problems with black text on a white background. Fonts were visible down to a 6.8 point size.

Movies: We tested the NEC MultiSync E231W in its Movie preset, using the Blu-ray version of "Avatar." The E231W displayed the nighttime scenes in the movie without missing any of the dark detail, like the hair of the Na'vi; however, colors were not as vibrant as on the PX2370, nor was the picture as sharp. The picture seemed to lack an appropriate amount of red, as redheaded characters appeared like brunettes. Overall, colors just didn't have as much pop to them. When we changed the preset and adjusted the red, green, and blue attributes, however, we saw a definite improvement. Check out the Recommended Settings and Use section for more details.

Games: Because of our intimate familiarity with World of Warcraft (WoW), it remains the best tool for judging color quality and vibrancy in games. We looked at WoW in the NEC MultiSync E231W's Gaming preset and found that the preset delivered a drab and lifeless image compared with the Samsung PX2370. The Gaming preset's contrast was just too high and didn't take advantage of the monitor's capability to produce relatively deep blacks. When we switched to both the Standard and Native color preset, we saw some improvement in the liveliness of the color, especially with the brightness turned up. Still, even with these settings, the color just didn't have the pop of the PX2370. We tried adjusting the color values separately, but couldn't find a setting that was simultaneously accurate and eye-popping.

Photos: The NEC MultiSync E231W's Photo preset displayed photos that looked drab and greenish compared with the lush environments and healthy faces the PX2370 produced. When we adjusted the settings (see below), we saw much improvement in color quality.

Viewing angle: The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the way down from the top of the screen. At this angle, you're viewing the colors and gamma as the manufacturer intended. Most monitors are not made to be viewed at any other angle. Depending on the panel type, picture quality at nonoptimal angles varies. Most monitors use TN panels, which get overly bright or overly dark in parts of the screen when viewed from nonoptimal angles, making for inaccurate color representation. The NEC MultiSync E231W uses a TN panel, and when it is viewed from the sides or bottom, we perceived the screen to darken about 6 inches off from center--typical for a TN.

Recommended settings and use: During general use, we found the Standard preset, with the contrast set to 31.3 percent, to be the NEC MultiSync E231W's optimal picture setting. For movies and photo viewing, what worked best for us was the standard preset with the color set to 2 and the Red attribute set to 100 percent; the Green to 75.5 percent; and Blue to 90. For games, the Standard preset and Color preset set to Native was the best.

As with most TN-based monitors, the NEC MultiSync E231W shouldn't be used if pinpoint accurate color reproduction is required; however, the monitor is great for watching movies, casually viewing photos, and for general use. It's not the best for playing games. If you do have stringent color needs, we suggest you narrow your search to IPS or PVA-based panels only. The more expensive Dell UltraSharp U2711 is a good place to start.

If you require more than the base level of ergonomic options, the NEC is a low-price way to get them all.

Power consumption: The NEC MultiSync E231W achieved the lowest monitor power consumption we've ever seen, earning a good power rating. Its Default/On power draw was 15.3 watts, compared with the Samsung PX2370's 25.01 watts in the same test. The E231W's default state is to have its power saving mode, Eco Mode 1, turned on. Eco Mode 1 caps the brightness at 66 percent; that number that may actually be lower for most buyers, since the ambient light sensor will adjust the brightness to an even lower value. We disabled the sensor to get consistent results during testing. With both monitors' center-point calibrated to 200 candelas per square meter (cd/M2), the E231W drew 22.4 watts, while the PX2370 drew a lower 19.9 watts. This indicates that without its Eco Mode feature, the E231W would have likely have noticeably higher power consumption. Based on our formula, the NEC MultiSync E231W would cost $4.84 per year to run, compared with the Samsung PX2370's $7.65 per year.

Juice box
NEC MultiSync W231W	Average watts per hour
On (default luminance)	15.3
On (max luminance)	25.8
On (min luminance)	8.7
Sleep	0.39
Calibrated (200 cd/m2)	22.4
Annual power consumption cost	$4.84
Score	Good

Find out more about how we test LCD monitors

Service and support
NEC backs the MultiSync E231W with a solid three-year parts and labor warranty that also covers the backlight. Its toll-free technical support is available weekdays from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. NEC also offers e-mail and live-chat support. NEC's support Web site is simple to navigate, making the monitor's manual easy to find.