Eizo ColorEdge CG279X review: A brilliant monitor for professionals

To say the Eizo ColorEdge CG279X is a niche monitor is one of the world’s great understatements. While you can argue the mainstream case for NEC’s MultiSync EA271U, the CG279X has a narrow band of people who should buy it: professionals who work in video post-production, image processing and pre-printing. If you must be 100% confident that the colours you see on-screen are the same that will appear on calibrated movie screens and final prints, you need a monitor like this.

Put in that perspective, the CG279X suddenly looks affordable. If you’re spending thousands on a print job then you want whites, say, to jump out of your carefully crafted blue background; get it wrong and it will look lacklustre. That could be the difference between a successful campaign and a failure.

Eizo ColorEdge CG279X review: Panel

This has been true of all Eizo’s ColorEdge screens, but what makes the CG279X interesting is that it has HDR video output in mind. Eizo isn’t the first here. Last year, we reviewed the Asus ProArt PA32UC, a 32in 4K screen that had been certified for editing HDR material at 4K. At a shade over £2,000, it’s a similar price to the Eizo, too.

How can the Eizo cost the same when it’s smaller and has a lesser resolution? First, it offers automatic calibration, thanks to a built-in sensor, and second, it proved a much better performer than the Asus in our quality tests. Stick to sRGB mode and it will cover 94.3% of the gamut with an average Delta E of 0.38 and maximum Delta E of 0.81. I haven’t seen better colour accuracy than that, with the Asus delivering an average of 1.04 in the same tests.

Eizo ColorEdge CG279X review: Performance

If you need to work in the Adobe RGB space, expect reduced accuracy – its average Delta E moved to 1.57 and its maximum jumped to 8.13, but even those are respectable scores. Plus, it covered 94.4% of the Adobe RGB gamut. I actually preferred to use it in User mode, where (after minor tweaking) it achieved 99.8% sRGB coverage, 96.5% in Adobe RGB and  91.9% in DCI-P. All with an average Delta E of 0.3 and a maximum of 0.66.

You must also consider brightness uniformity in a monitor such as this and, again, the Eizo proved a star. The biggest variance came at the top right, which was 4.6% brighter than the centre, but in general you can trust that the difference is between 0% and 3%. These are excellent figures: the Asus varied by up to 8%.

Naturally, Eizo can’t guarantee that the precise monitor you buy will have the same figures, but its exacting quality assurance means that no screen will be shipped with a maximum Delta E of 3 or more, with similarly strict conditions on brightness uniformity. A print-out in the box lists the precise performance of the panel in your monitor.

Eizo ColorEdge CG279X review: Features and settings

Just as importantly, it’s ludicrously easy to jump between ten colour spaces – including sRGB, Adobe RGB and presets for HLG and PQ gamma curves – via the excellent onscreen display (OSD). As with the NEC, there are a stunning number of controls but navigating them is made simple thanks to a context-sensitive menu that appears above each touch-sensitive button. If only all OSDs were as easy to use.

Not that you have to use the OSD. The CG279X also marks Eizo’s release of ColorNavigator, which offers an even easier way to switch between the user modes and tweak settings. IT departments can also use it to manage multiple Eizo ColorEdge monitors.

Eizo also takes this opportunity to add USB Type-C to its connection options, along with DisplayPort, HDMI and old-school DVI – as well as a four-port USB hub with two placed on the left-hand side. (There are no speakers or headphone jacks, though.) Meanwhile, the CG279X’s sturdy stand pivots smoothly, swivels almost 360 degrees and offers a generous 155mm of height adjustment.

The only question is whether a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 is sufficient. While I missed the NEC’s 4K resolution, a 1440p panel is detailed enough for a 27in screen to still look fine if, say, you’re working on a document on the lefthand side and browsing the web in another. What it can’t do is match the Asus ProArt PA32UC for 4K HDR editing.

Eizo ColorEdge CG279X review: Verdict

As ever, it’s a matter of choosing the right tool for your needs. This is, as we’ve come to expect from Eizo, a stunning and colour accurate screen. If it ticks all your boxes, buy it.