HP Announces 32” Pavilion Display for Everyone: QHD for $399

HP has introduced its Pavilion 32 display (V1M69A), which promises to combine large size, QHD resolution, VA panel and affordability. The Pavilion 32 monitor may not appeal to professionals or hardcore gamers, but for mainstream users this one could be a game changer because of its price-point. The monitor will hit the market late next month as a part of HP’s back-to-school product refresh.

Modern day desktop workloads involve a lot of multitasking as well as long documents, large spreadsheets and high-resolution images. For many tasks, big displays are not a luxury, but rather a necessity. However, it is not easy to find a monitor that boasts with a large size, a good quality panel and an affordable price. There are relatively inexpensive 24” and 27” monitors with IPS or VA panels available, but when it comes to models with diagonals like 30” and larger, then it is not easy to find a good quality affordable display. While there are low-priced 32” monitors from unknown brands, they usually feature cheap TN panels and can hardly boast with good quality. Meanwhile, well-known suppliers charge $500 and up for their 32” models, which is more than many people are willing to spend on a display. With its Pavilion 32, HP wants to address the market of affordable monitors with an offering that is currently not available from its rivals.

The HP Pavilion 32 (V1M69A) display uses a 32″ WVA+ panel with 2560×1440 resolution, 300 cd/m² brightness, 3000:1 static contrast ratio, 178°/178° horizontal/vertical viewing angles as well as 60 Hz refresh rate. WVA stands for wide viewing angle, which is a general term to describe various types of panels (including *VA and PLS) used by display makers in their products. HP does not disclose exact type of the panel that powers the Pavilion 32”, but confirms that this is a VA panel (though, we have no idea whether this is AH-VA, A-MVA, etc.), not a TN (which is typically used for low-cost displays). In many ways, the Pavilion 32 resembles the Envy 32 monitor, which HP introduced several months ago. The Envy 32 has a similar WVA+ panel, but features stereo speakers as well as AMD’s FreeSync to appeal to gamers, but it is also more expensive.

The new Pavilion 32 display from HP is equipped with two HDMI and one DisplayPort 1.2 connectors (cables are included in the package). In addition, it has an integrated USB 2.0 hub, which should be enough to connect a keyboard, but which will not be sufficient for modern external USB flash memory drives that support USB 3.0 transfer rates. Keeping in mind that the hub is located on the backside of the monitor, it looks like it was not intended for removable storage in general. The design of the Pavilion 32 allows adjusting tilt, but not height. Asides from that, the monitor cannot be used in portrait mode, which is hardly a problem for the vast majority of its potential buyers.

Select retailers as well as HP’s online store will start to sell the HP Pavilion 32 on June 26 for $399.99. The monitor is covered by a one- or three year-limited warranty.

The key selling points of the HP Pavilion 32 are its relatively low price as well as its VA panel. Right now, the majority of 32” displays with QHD resolution from well-known suppliers cost over $500. By making its product available for $400, HP appeals to a broader audience of users, who currently buy smaller monitors. What remains to be seen is whether other display makers follow HP with their inexpensive 30” QHD parts.

A Look At QD Vision’s Color IQ And The Philips 276E6 Monitor: Quantum Dots for Wider Color Gamuts

At this year’s CES Josh and I sat down with representatives of QD Vision to discuss their quantum dot display technology, along with where they see the television and monitor market moving in the next few years. QD Vision offers a quantum dot solution for displays, which is branded as Color IQ. The interesting proposition that QD Vision brings to the table with their technology is that it’s not just usable in high end displays, but also in less expensive ones where it can be used to bring features that were traditionally limited to high end displays down to a lower price point.

After our meeting with QD Vision, we were informed that Philips would be launching a new line of monitors that use QD Vision’s Color IQ technology. Given that these are some of the first computer monitors to come to market with quantum dot technology, I was quite interested in taking a look at it. The monitor in question is the Philips 276E6 monitor, which has a 27″ panel and claims to cover 99% of the Adobe RGB color gamut. Read on for more info about Color IQ, and to find out how well the Philips 276E6 performs.

Philips Begins Shipments of LCD Monitors with Quantum Dot Technology

TPV Technology, the company that produces monitors under Philips brand, has started to sell displays with QD Vision’s Color IQ quantum dot technology. What makes this notable is that QD Vision’s technology is one such method being developed to significantly and inexpensively increase color gamut that displays can produce. The new 27” monitor can cover 99% of Adobe RGB color space, and is launcing at just $299.

The quality of LCD monitors as well as their ability to accurately display colors depends on multiple factors, including the quality of their panels as well as backlighting. While there are panels which can cover very wide color gamuts, since typical LED backlights usually do not produce whites with a broad underlying color spectrum, color accuracy of actual mainstream monitors gets limited. Several companies, including 3M and QD Vision, propose to apply special quantum dot filters on the backlights to make them as “white” (and therefore as broad) as possible.

QD Vision’s Color IQ quantum dot technology is based on cadmium selenide semiconductor nanocrystals, which can very precisely control spectral output of LED backlighting, essentially allowing light to be shifted to other wavelengths in a controlled manner. The quantum dots can be made to emit at any wavelength beyond the source wavelength with very high efficiency and narrow spectral distribution, which helps to make backlighting cleaner and thus enhance color gamut of displays. Applying quantum dot filters in any form is a relatively cost efficient task because it is basically a process step in assembly of an LCD module. However, those filters have to survive temperatures produced by LEDs, which is why they are not applied everywhere.

The Philips 276E6ADSS monitor is based on a 27″ IPS-ADS panel with 1920×1080 resolution, 178°/178° horizontal/vertical viewing angles, 1000:1 contrast ratio (20M:1 dynamic contrast ratio), 300 cd/m² brightness, 5 ms gray-to-gray response time and 60 Hz refresh rate. The display features a D-Sub, a DVI and an HDMI with MHL connectors along with audio in and out. Thanks to quantum dot film on the backlight of the monitor, the 276E can cover 99% of Adobe RGB color space, whereas typically inexpensive displays only show around 70% of the Adobe spectrum. The new Philips 276E monitor is made of plastic and uses a rather calm white/silver color scheme.

While the Philips 276E display is a product with a rather unique combination of low price and wide color gamut, for TPV Technology it is also a test vehicle for quantum dot technology from QD Vision. Since this is the first ever display with QD Vision’s Color IQ tech, some of its early samples had teething problems. The review unit received by AnandTech did not support constraining to the sRGB color gamut. As soon as we mentioned this fact to the manufacturer we were told that later versions should have a proper sRGB operating mode.

The new monitor is already available at Amazon, B&H and some other retailers for $299.

Gallery: Philips Starts Shipments of Its LCD Display with Quantum Dot Technology