It's been quite a while since we heard much from Hazro. They first emerged on the scene in 2007 with an interesting range of IPS based screens in sizes of 24, 26 and 30". We reviewed the HZ24W, HZ26W and HZ30W at the time in full. Hazro then updated their range with some new features and improvements, giving rise to the HZ24Wi and HZ26Wi in 24" and 26" sizes. We reviewed the updated HZ26Wi at the time in Sept 2008. After this, it went a bit quiet from Hazro. However, recently we have heard news about new 23 and 24" monitors (July 2010), and then a bit later news about new 27" and 30" models as well (August 2010). While Hazro are updating their whole range, we have already been sent the newly updated 30" model for a full review.

Interestingly (and probably confusingly), Hazro have released the new HZ30Wi with two versions. These are identified by their slightly different model numbers and separated by the different LCD panels used in production. The specs change slightly between the two screens but overall they are similar. There is the regular HZ30Wi which uses an LM300WQ3 IPS based panel manufacturered by LG.Display. This is the version we have been sent for review and will be the main model supplied, with the largest stock available. It will also be a little cheaper than the other version. The other version is the HZ30Wi-Q which uses a slightly different LM300WQ5 panel from LG.Display. The main difference here is that the Q5 panel offers a 102% NTSC gamut as opposed to a 92% gamut of the Q3 panel. The availability of the HZ30Wi-Q will be far more limited, but Hazro have informed us that this is because the Q3 panel is far more popular and generally preferred by end users when it comes to practical use.

We'll talk more about this later, but let's start by taking a look at the specs for the HZ30Wi:

Above: Front views of the HZ30Wi. Click for larger versions

The HZ30Wi is a very big screen and is encased in matt, black metal which looks very nice. The bezel is very thin at around 16 - 18mm which is attractive. There is only a silver Hazro logo on the front of the screen, since the operational buttons are located on the left hand edge at the bottom.

Above: side view of the screen (left) and operational buttons (right). Click for larger versions

There are only 3 buttons available on the left hand edge of the screen, one for power on/off and two which control the brightness setting up and down. There is a small discrete (almost hidden) power LED located next to the buttons which glows green in normal operation and flashes orange/green in standby.

Above: Back and front views of the screen. Click for larger versions


Above: View from the back underside of the screen showing DVI interface and power / USB connections
Click for larger versions

The screen itself is pretty enclosed at the back with a squared-off metal finish. There are only connections for power (internal power supply so you only need a kettle lead), dual-link DVI and USB on the underside of the back section. Sadly there are no other video interfaces available such as DisplayPort and HDMI.

Above: Rear USB ports x4. Click for larger versions

There are then 4x USB ports on the back of the screen which are powered and therefore offer the max 500mA allowed per port. The HZ30Wi is a heavy screen, weighing 11Kg alone without the stand, which is about 5.5Kg as well! During operation the top of the screen gets pretty warm but there is no noticeable noise from the electronics.

Above: Rear views showing stand attachment (left) and height extension of the stand. Click for larger versions

The stand is not attached to the screen when shipped and you need to screw it onto the back of the screen with the four supplied screws. This is simple to do but does feel a bit like you are building your own monitor rather than just clipping a stand into place through some fancy connection (a la Dell series). The stand is metal as well and of a high quality and the reason for this is because of the weight of the metal-enclosed screen. It's very heavy (at 11Kg) so needs a very sturdy stand.

Above: Minimum and maximum height adjustments shown. Click for larger versions

The stand offers a fairly decent height adjustment range of about 10cm but the mechanism is quite stiff to move. The stand actually has a hydraulic-type adjustment so you have to press the top section down until you reach your desired height and then lock it in place using the provided tightener. I have been told that in the final retail version this will hopefully be a bit smoother. Once you've set the screen at a desired height you are probably not going to need to move it much anyway so not really a big issue.

Above: Maximum tilt adjustments shown. Click for larger versions

There is a a fair tilt adjustment range from the stand as shown above. There is a rotate function for turning the screen into portrait mode but I must admit that it was so stiff on the sample we had I did not realise it was there. Hopefully it will be easier to use on the final version, but I'm told by Hazro that once it starts to swing it is easier to move between landscape and portrait. Practicality of this featrure on a 30" screen is debatable of course, but some may find it useful.

Pivot swivel is possible but not officially supported: removing the back locking knob, the customer can swivel the screen up to 270 degrees. However, when the monitor swivels the full 360 degrees (i.e. the monitor is now facing backwards), the rear of the stand base cannot support the weight and the monitor tends to collapse. Hazro therefore suggest the user doesn't swivel the monitor at all.

The stand is at least very sturdy and the materials are of a high standard. Although not provided with the sample we had I am told that cable ties and clips are provided with the screen.

Above: Rear view of the screen shown. Click for larger versions

There is actually no OSD menu available on the HZ30Wi so there are no settings to adjust as such. The only control you do have is a rather limited control over the intensity of the backlight unit, and therefore the brightness of the screen. The up and down buttons control the backlight in 5 different steps so you can at least alter the backlight which is very important. This is something which was actually missing from some of their other models like the HZ26Wi which caused some buyers concern. Sadly without an OSD menu there are no preset modes available and no settings to adjust anything at all.

 

We tested the screen at factory settings and once calibrated (see calibration section). Out of the box the HZ30Wi used a very high 135.4W of power but this was reduced significantly to 82.2W once calibrated. Turning the brightness control down from the maximum of setting "5" to "3" will give you this kind of power saving. In standby the screen uses only 3.0W of power.

 

It should be noted that the sample we tested was slightly ahead of the real release of the screen so there will be a couple of minor aesthetic changes made when it ships to customers. A few of the silver screws will be changed to black, and the stands height adjustment will hopefully be a little smoother.

A note about warranties and support – I have received some emails and read online about some difficulties some buyers have had with the after-sales support from Hazro with their original launch screens. There have been some complaints online about lack of contact, warranty repair issues etc. I wanted to acknowledge that briefly here, as while we are mainly interested in the performance of the screens we test, we do know it can be a concern to potential buyers. Hazro are obviously a smaller company than the Dell’s and HP’s of this World so it's right to be a little cautious, but I have spoken to their representatives about the warranty and support customers can expect to receive from these new screens to which they have responded:

“Whilst Hazro as a brand remains as is, the company was reformed. Hazro is now operated by new management and whilst our warranty policy hasn't changed much, it will be strictly enforced by internal support staff [as opposed to outsourced warranty providers who were used previously]. It is important to note that all new Hazro monitors are manufactured and assembled in the UK so we have better control of the entire manufacturing process. Consumer sales account for 5% of our turnover; yet all consumer warranties will be handled by the same system used to manage business SLAs. A press-release will be prepared at some point outlining what exactly has been going on over the past 16 months. Full warranty details for the new screens will be available on the website soon for those needing specifics.”

 

Colour Accuracy, Black Depth and Contrast

The Hazro HZ30Wi utilises an 8-bit IPS panel capable of producing 16.7 million colours. Like most modern displays, the screen uses wide colour gamut W-CCFL backlighting and offers a colour gamut covering 92% of the NTSC colour space. This covers 100% of the sRGB reference as well which is a much smaller space, so it extends beyond this considerably. It is important to consider what colour space you will want to work with, so make sure you understand the differences between standard and wide gamuts. I would thoroughly recommend a read of this article over at X-bit Labs, which covers the pros and cons well. As a side note, the Q5 version of this screen, the HZ30Wi-Q offers a slightly bigger gamut covering 102% of the NTSC colour space.

An important thing to consider for most users is how a screen will perform out of the box and with some basic manual adjustments. Since most users won't have access to hardware colorimeter tools, it is important to understand how the screen is going to perform in terms of colour accuracy for the average user. I restored my graphics card to default settings and set it to its standard profile. The HZ30Wi was tested at default factory settings using the DVI interface, and analysed using LaCie's Blue Eye Pro colorimeter and their accompanying software suite.

I would like to note now that there is no OSD menu for the HZ30Wi. You do have limited control over the backlighting unit with buttons allowing you to switch between 5 settings of brightness. Although there is no actual indication which setting you are on, I will refer to them here as settings 1 to 5, with 5 being the brightest setting available. You can easily distinguish these 5 settings by changing the brightness control up and down with the operational buttons and observing the change to the screens brightness.

Default settings of the screen were as follows:

Hazro HZ30Wi - Default Factory Settings

 

At default settings you could immediately tell that the screen was set far too bright for comfortable use. However, colours felt bright and pretty even, but felt a little too vivid and oversaturated. I tested the screen in default mode with LaCie's colorimeter and software package. On the left you can see a CIE diagram representing the colour space which can be covered by this screen with its W-CCFL backlighting. The black triangle represents the monitors colour space, with the orange triangle being the sRGB reference space. As you can see, the monitor covers a wider range of colours, particularly in green and red shades and this test confirms that the monitor is indeed a wide colour gamut display.

 

 

For reference I have included the exact same results above, but with the colour space plotted against the popular Adobe RGB reference. As you can see, the gamut of the display covers this quite closely, being a little lacking in green shades and a bit wider in reds. The HZ30Wi-Q with it's Q5 panel is specifiied as being able to cover this colour space 100%. If you are looking to utilise the AdobeRGB colour space as well as sRGB, you may want to consider the Q5 model.

 

Continuing on with the results - Default gamma of the screen was very accurate, being recorded as spot on at 2.2, that being our target which is the default for computer monitors. Looks like the screen has been well calibrated in the factory for accurate gamma curves. Colour temperature was also pretty good, being recorded at 5779k, only 11% out from our target of 6500k, the temperature of daylight. Luminance was recorded at a very high 265 cd/m² however which is too bright for prolonged use. The target we aim for in these tests is 120 cd/m², that being the recommended luminance for LCD screens in normal lighting conditions. You will definitely need to turn the brightness control down as a start with this screen. At 265 cd/m² luminance, black depth was recordered at a pretty decent 0.32 cd/m². This gave us a static contrast ratio of 828:1 which was very good for an IPS matrix and close to the specified 1000:1.

 

Testing with the colorimeter revealed the graph on the right hand side above, showing DeltaE (dE 94) values across 16 shades. As a reminder, the lower these bars down the Y-axis, the better, in terms of colour accuracy. For reference, LaCie describe the DeltaE readings as:

• If DeltaE >3, the color displayed is significantly different from the theoretical one, meaning that the difference will be perceptible to the viewer.

• If DeltaE <2, LaCie considers the calibration a success; there remains a slight difference, but it is barely undetectable.

• If DeltaE < 1, the color fidelity is excellent.

Default colour accuracy was poor here with an average dE of 4.7, ranging up to 11.5 maximum. We will need to calibrate the screen to return more accurate colours. If you are doing any colour critical work you will need to do the same.

 

Calibrated Results

I wanted to see what was possible from the HZ30Wi with some accurate profiling and calibration. We had seen similar default performance from the previous HZ30W model when we tested it, with high default luminance and average dE of about 4.5. However, the previous model performed excellently once calibrated so we were hoping for a similar story here. Since there was no OSD, the only change we made to the monitor itself was to alter the brightness control down to level 3 (out of 5). The colorimeter would be responsible for making corrections at a graphics card LUT level since no hardware based alterations are possible from the HZ30Wi.

Hazro HZ30Wi - Calibrated Settings

Monitor OSD Option	Adjusted Setting
Brightness	3
Contrast	n/a
Preset Mode	n/a

	Calibrated Settings
luminance (cd/m2)	121
Black Point (cd/m2)	0.17
Contrast Ratio	713:1

The calibration was a success. Gamma, colour temperature and luminance were all pretty much spot on. With a more comfortable luminance of 121 cd/m² now, we had a black depth of 0.17 cd/m². This was good and gave us a high static contrast ratio of 713:1. This was not as good as default settings where we had seen 828:1, but this was a calibrated result with correction of white point and colour tones. Colour accuracy was now much better with an average dE of only 0.4. LaCie would consider colour fidelity to be excellent from this test. Maximum dE was only 1.3, so a significant improvement compared with the factory settings.

Testing the screen with colour gradients showed smooth transitions but some stepping in darker tones. There was no banding evident.

You can use our OSD settings and try our calibrated ICC profile if you wish, which is available in our ICC profile database.

 

Calibration Performance Comparisons

I have plotted the results of the tests above as compared with some of the other screens we have tested in a similar size range. I have also included all the other Hazro monitors we have tested for comparison. As you can see, default colour accuracy was 4.5 and matched the original HZ30W model. It was also pretty comparable to the HZ24W (4.1) and HZ26W (3.4) models we tested. Once calibrated the HZ30Wi (0.4 dE average) was again very close to the original HZ30W (0.3) and a little better than the HZ24W (1.1) and HZ26W (1.1). A good performance here once calibrated and no real complaints about the colour accuracy from these reports. LaCie would consider colour fidelity to be excellent.

Remember this is an IPS matrix as well, so offers better performance than a TN Film panel, even where the colour accuracy dE number is similar. Other factors come into play including colour depth (8-bit vs 6-bit+FRC) and viewing angles importantly. Viewing angles off-centre are also better than VA matrices, so you can't always tell everything from these reports. I would also like to point out that professional grade models like the NEC PA series have advanced technology to further improve performance for colour critical applications. Extended internal processing, 3D LUT's and hardware level calibration all play an important role and separate the PA models as professional screens.

I have also plotted the calibrated black depth and contrast ratio above. At 0.17, the black depth of the HZ30Wi was actually one of the best we've seen when compared with this selection of screens. It matched the IPS based HP LP2475W and NEC PA241W and was slightly better than the 27" Dell U2711 (0.18) which could be considered a direct rival given it's price, size and ultra-high resolution. The HZ30Wi was better than its predecessor as well which only reached 0.24. The other Hazro models from the original range were not nearly as strong in terms of black depth, ranging from 0.38 in the HZ24W all the way up to a very poor 0.58 with the HZ26Wi.

This same picture is reflected in the contrast ratio comparison as well. The HZ30Wi at 713:1 is second only to the Viewsonic VX2739wm, a TN Film based gamers screen (807:1). Hazro have made some good improvements since the original HZ30W (504:1) and certainly when compared with the 24" and 26" models. The HZ26Wi (205:1 - which was an updated version of the HZ26W) had no backlight adjustment and so suffered when it came to black depth and contrast ratio. The HZ30Wi offers a better contrast ratio than other IPS models here such as the Dell and HP screens which is an excellent result.

 

Contrast Stability

 

As you can see there are only really limited adjustments of the brightness setting (backlight intensity) possible from this screen, with 5 settings I have referred to as levels 1 to 5. However, these do at least allow a decent range of adjustments to the monitors luminance, and allow a stable contrast ratio across the range. Luminance ranged from 266 cd/m² at maximum settings down to 89 cd/m² at the lowest. The maximum luminance possible was just shy of the specified maximum brightness of 300 cd/m² but was very close. Black depth was a pretty decent 0.32 cd/m² even at maximum brightness setting, but ranged down to 0.11 at the lowest. This gave us a very good static contrast ratio of ~830:1 across the range which was very good for an IPS matrix. I plotted the results from this test on the graph below as well:

 

 

Viewing Angles

Above: Viewing angles shown from front and side, and  from above and below. Click for larger images

Viewing angles of the HZ30Wi were very good as you would probably expect from an IPS based panel. Horizontally there was very little colour tone shift until fairly wide angles past about 45°. Contrast shifts were noticeable after about 30° but were not too severe. Vertically the contrast shifts were a little more obvious and noticeable with smaller movements away from a central point of view. The screen did offer the wide viewing angles of IPS technology and was free from the very restrictive fields of view of TN Film panels, especially in the vertical plane. It was also free of the off-centre contrast shift you see from VA panels. On black images you could detect a white tint from a wide angle, but this was actually quite minor.

 

Panel Uniformity

Measurements of the screens luminance were taken at 35 points across the panel on a pure white background. The measurements were taken using BasICColor's calibration software package, combined with the LaCie Blue Eye Pro colorimeter. The above uniformity diagram shows the difference, as a percentage, between the luminance recorded at each point on the screen, as compared with the reference point of a calibrated 120 cd/m². This is the desired level of luminance for an LCD screen in normal lighting conditions, and  the below shows the variance in the luminance across the screen compared with this point. It is worth noting that panel uniformity can vary from one screen to another, and can depend on manufacturing lines, screen transport and other local factors. This is only a guide of the uniformity of the sample screen we have for review.

Uniformity of Luminance

 

Uniformity of the screen as a whole was good. 75% of the screen was within 10% deviance from the target luminance of 120 cd/m². As you can see from the above evaluation, the left hand side of the screen and the top right hand corner did vary a little more. Luminance ranged down to 94 cd/m² in the lower left hand corner and to 103 cd/m² in the top right. Overall though the performance was pretty good I felt, no severe differences. There are no uniformity compensation technologies used here - like in the NEC PA271W for instance.

 

Above: All black screen in a darkened room. Click for larger version

As usual we also tested the screen with an all black image and in a darkened room. A camera was used to capture the result. There were no obvious backlight leakage issues, although the bottom right and left hand corners did show a slightly lighter area as you can just detect from the above image. Thankfully there was no obvious leakage along the edges which can be a problem. Again, a pleasing result from the HZ30Wi.

 

General and Office Applications

It takes quite a bit of adjustment when you move to a 30" screen as the sheer size of it is quite overwhelming. We tend to use 24" monitors day to day and now they just look tiny next to this monster! The extra screen size and massive 2560 x 1600 resolution really gives you a lot more room to work with though, and you can easily carry out split screen working with multiple applications and windows open. It would be an excellent choice for any multi-tasking applications where you need to split the screen into sections. It's a little bit bigger vertically than the modern 27" screens which have a 16:9 aspect ratio and 2560 x 1440 resolution.

The screen has a 0.2505mm pixel pitch as standard for a 30" model. This is a bit smaller than a standard 24" model which is 0.270mm. Text does appear smaller as a result, and personally I find it a little too small for long term office use. It's not as small as some of the new generation of 27" screens with ultra-high 2560 x 1440 resolutions (0.230mm) which is good. Worth trying to see one in action if you are worried at all about font size.

There were no preset modes available from this screen which is a shame. You will have to calibrate the standard (and only) mode to get a more comfortable luminance as default settings are too bright. Might have been useful to feature settings which could be individually adjusted in different scenarios, including one for "text". There is no auto-brightness control either which is something I personally think is useful.

The image was very sharp and crisp and text was very clear using the Dual Link DVI interface. There was no D-sub of course here to make a comparison of picture quality. The decent range of ergonomic adjustments also made it fairly easy to get a comfortable position for the screen as you would hope. It's a little bit more difficult to move if you need to regularly change this position though due to its size and some of the limitations of the stand.

Above: Close up view of text at native 2560 x 1600 resolution (left) and at 1920 x 1200 (right)

With a resolution this high, some users will no doubt want to know if the scaler chips can handle interpolation well or not. Some may even want to use the screen outside of the native resolution, but be warned, this will impact on sharpness and picture quality. For comparison, I tested the screen in 1920 x 1200 resolution (popular amongst modern 24" screens). As you can see from the close up macro photos above, the font is very crisp and sharp when the screen is set at its native resolution. It becomes less clear and  overlaps more pixels when it is trying to scale a smaller resolution onto the panel. This is of course very common for any screen where you use it outside of its native resolution. Although text was readable and quite adequate when using a lower resolution, I'd obviously recommend using the native resolution wherever you can for optimum results. 1920 x 1200 also feels too big for a screen of this size.

The added 4x USB ports are useful for connecting external devices although it may have been useful to have some available on the side of the screen for quick access. A card reader may also have been useful although I suppose you can't have everything. Energy consumption could be considered a possible issue for office use where carbon footprints are high on the agenda nowadays. Default settings consume a lot of power at 135W and even once calibrated the consumption at 82W remains quite high.

 

Responsiveness and Gaming

The Hazro HZ30Wi was tested using the chase test in PixPerAn, a good bit of software for trying to quantify differences in real terms responsiveness between monitors. As a reminder, a series of pictures are taken on the highest shutter speed and compared. The images below show the best case example on the left hand side, and the worst case example on the right hand side. This should only be used as a rough guide to comparative responsiveness but is handy as a way of keeping a constant test of each screen.

30" 8ms G2G LG.Display H-IPS

30" 12ms G2G LG.Display H-IPS

27" 6ms G2G LG.Display H-IPS

27" 1ms G2G CMO TN Film (Response time mode = Advanced)

26" 5ms G2G LG.Display H-IPS

The Hazro HZ30Wi uses an 8ms G2G rated H-IPS panel from LG.Display (LM300WQ3). This is an updated version of the panel used in the original HZ30W model which was the LM300W01. As we've already discussed the other version of the new HZ30Wi (the Q5 model) uses the LM300WQ5 panel. More information on all of these is available in our panel parts database if you're interested. As far as LG.Display were concerned, the Q1 panel ranged from 16 to 8ms G2G in response time spec, depending on which revision is used. The Q3 panel is rated as 8ms G2G while the Q5 panel is rated as 5ms G2G. Hazro had rated the original HZ30W model as 12ms G2G in their specification, and the new HZ30Wi and HZ30Wi-Q are both rated as 8ms G2G.

That's just a quick overview of the response time figures on paper. What these do tell us is that all three panels use response time compensation (RTC) technology to boost pixel performance, particularly across grey to grey transitions. This RTC impulse varies from one revision to another, and can also be impacted by internal monitor electronics and its implementation by each monitor manufacturer.

As you can see from the above results, the HZ30Wi performs pretty much identically to its predecessor. There's not really been any change in real-life responsiveness between the two models. Thankfully the response time was pretty good in the first instance anyway, and considering this isn't really a gamers screen, it should be adequate for most people. Responsiveness was better from the 26" HZ26Wi with it's 5ms G2G rated panel. The competing Dell U2711 (6ms G2G) is also a little more responsive but does carry an unfortunate artefact in the form of dark trailing behind moving images. This is caused by an overshoot of the RTC impulse where it is applied too strongly. There was no apparent overshoot on the HZ30Wi, showing a good control of the RTC impulse. I have also included the 27" Viewsonic VX2739wm for reference which is of course a gamer-orientated screen with it's 1ms G2G TN Film panel.

 

30" 8ms G2G LG.Display H-IPS

22" 3ms G2G Samsung TN Film + 120Hz

I've provided a comparison above of the HZ30Wi vs. our reference screen when it comes to this test, the Samsung 2233RZ. The 2233RZ is a TN Film based 22" model with aggresive overdrive application, and with its 120Hz technology it is extremely fast and shows very few RTC arfecacts. This 120Hz technology also gives you a higher frame rate and smoother movement to the human eye so it is an excellent choice for gamers.

The HZ30Wi offers no hardware level aspect ratio control unfortunately, so if you are gaming outside the native resolution or aspect ratio, you will need to rely on software / graphics card control.

 

Input Lag

As usual I tested the screen in clone mode with a CRT to determine the level of input lag. This is something which can put off some gamers and is a delay between graphics card and monitor output. By hooking up a CRT you can show that  the LCD lags behind somewhat, which can affect users in some situations where they rely on the screen image being as fast as their inputs (e.g. fast FPS shooting games). Often, input lag is very low and probably wouldn't represent too much of a problem in real terms.

The input lag of the HZ30Wi was pretty low really, with an average of only 14.4ms delay. This ranged up to 30ms maximum delay in some cases, but was typically 10 - 20ms delay in our tests. This was better than the competing 27" models like the Dell U2711 (30ms) and NEC PA271W (32.5ms). It was also faster than the Dell 3008WFP (46.6ms, measurement from alternative source as we have not tested this screen yet). The screen was not quite as fast as its predecessor however which was recorded at 7.5ms. Nevertheless, a delay of 14.4ms is not very much and shouldn't present any real issue to most people. Hard-core gamers would probably look elsewhere at faster TN Film + 120Hz screens anyway. This is not a bad result for what is not a gaming screen.

 

Movies and Video

The following summarises the Hazro HZ30Wi's performance in video applications:

• 30" screen size make this a good cross-over between desktop monitor and LCD TV

• 16:10 aspect ratio not quite as suited to movie viewing as a 16:9 format screen since it leaves you with larger black borders at the top and bottom for DVD's

• 2560 x 1600 resolution can support true 1080 HD resolution content (1920 x 1080)

• Digital DVI interface supports HDCP for any encrypted and protected content

• There are no additional interfaces available which makes this impractical for really using as a multimedia screen. It's not designed as such, but I know many buyers like to connect external devices to their screens such as Blu-ray players and games consoles. Since there's only a single DVI interface here (to connect your computer), you can't really use it for anything else.

• Viewing angles are wide from the IPS panel. You can easily watch video content from different angles. This should also be fine for multiple viewers at once.

• Black depth and contrast ratio are very good. Detail in darker scenes should not be lost

• Dynamic contrast ratio is not featured which some people like for multimedia content.

• No 'multimedia' or 'movie' preset modes available meaning you need to use the same mode for office work as for movie work. Sometimes these presets can be handy for boosting brightness and colours to make movies more attractive.

• Pretty good pixel responsiveness, which should mean the screen is capable of handling fast moving images.

• No real issues with uniformity or backlight leakage. This can sometimes be an issue in movies especially along edges where black borders are present.

• Fairly decent ergonomic range available from tilt and height adjustments. They are not the easiest to re-position though which could become a factor if you want to watch movies from a different position other than your normal sitting-at-the-desk spot.

• There are no additional features such as integrated speakers

 

Conclusion

From a performance point of view I was impressed by the results we obtained from the new HZ30Wi. Colour accuracy once calibrated matched its predecessor which was pleasing, producing some very good results. Black depth and contrast ratio had actually been improved significantly since the original version and were some of the best we have seen in this size range. Other factors remained quite comparable to the original HZ30W as well, with response time and input lag being pretty much the same from both models. There'd been some improvements in the uniformity of the panel and a couple of extra features added which was also nice. Good to see an improved stand with height adjustment and the extra USB ports were a welcome addition.

However, I did feel that compared with some other popular large screens, the HZ30Wi did feel a bit more "basic" in its features and functions. This is deliberate of course, since the price point is very attractive (more in a moment on that). Despite the additional height adjustment from the stand, the movements were all quite difficult, mostly down to the sheer size and weight of the screen in its metal casing. There were no additional interfaces available which makes it pretty limited if you wanted to connect anything other than one computer. In contrast, the new Dell U3011 offers 2x HDMI, a second DVI and DisplayPort options. There was a lack of any sort of OSD menu as well which is quite unusual. This lead to a lack of adjustment options and presets and offered really only a limited brightness control. Hazro have made sacrifices in features and options in order to keep the production cost down.

The cost of the new HZ30Wi however is very attractive. The screen will retail for ~£800 (the HZ30Wi-Q will be ~£900) which includes VAT and delivery, making it considerably cheaper than its competition. At the time of writing, the Dell U3011 retails for ~£1200, the Dell 3008WFP for ~£1100 and even the 27" Dell U2711 for ~£850. While it might lack some features and extras that the others offer, it's certainly a big saving (up to 50%!) which I'm sure is a lot to any buyer. I think you need to decide whether you need all the extras before you make any decision, as if you don't need them, this would well be worth looking at.