Over the summer, NZXT released its initial Canvas-line of gaming displays which offered two QHD monitors for gamers that offered different aesthetics designed to match up with the look of their setups. Fast forward about two months as NZXT has now released two FHD Canvas displays with both the same design implementation with a focus on high refresh rate gaming. Offering both a 25" and 27" display in either a black or white backplate with matching stands, the more affordable price point on these 240hz 1080p displays will attract eSports gamers. NZXT sent one of their Canvas 27F 240 to take a look at to see where it shines versus the competition.
With the goal of eSports in mind, NZXT needed to hit all the critical specs to be in competition to begin with. The panel on the FHD Canvas is IPS, which will allow for faster response times as these can hit 1 ms. This model is also a flat panel that offers a 1000:1 contrast ratio with 16.7 million display colors and a brightness rated at 400cd/m2. NZXT did only opt for HDMI 2.0 on its ports as the monitors will offer two of these and one Display Port 1.2 along with two USB Type A, 1 USB Type C/ DP Alt and a USB Type B 3.0. With this USB port, this allows configuration via the NZXT CAM Software and the ability to plug peripherals in or utilize the 3.5mm audio jack on the device. These Canvas models do not sport any speakers, but it is nice to have the audio options for headphones, microphones, etc. as long as the USB Type B is plugged into the PC.
NZXT has added a solid set of options in its CAM software to utilize with the monitor. It offers a 1 ms response time, which is actually adjusted via the CAM software, at least in terms of speed settings. Users can either choose Normal, Fast or Fastest along with adjusting the Gamma with three pre-tuned settings. Sliders include Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, Blue Removal and Black Removal. The last four options are listed under Advanced Adjustments and while it’s cool that the software explains what these options do, it would have been nice to see some more options here. Color Temperature can also be set here along with the audio volume to the device. FreeSync Premium can be enabled from here along with Moving Picture Response Time, which is only enabled with FreeSync and HDR turned off.
The CAM software does allow for Profile Sync to allow specific settings to launch for games or time of the day. This is a nice touch, but there seems to be a disconnect from what’s on the Canvas display itself. It’s strange that the profiles on the monitor do not carry over to the software. The actual monitor options allows FreeSync to be enabled or disabled and it carries over to CAM, but there are color profiles that separate from what is in CAM. If HDR is enabled, this is the one setting the monitor offers. Disabling HDR, however, opens up a picture mode aimed towards different gaming genres. FPS, RTS, RPG, Racing, Cinema, Professional, Night and Standard offer various levels of color and brightness, but these are not selectable in CAM.
How do the colors and lighting fair on the Canvas 27F? The color saturation can get deep and comes off vibrant without sacrificing color bleeding effects. Colors like red, orange and yellow come off strong and are easily discernible, but the oversaturation on specific color profiles seem to give the impression that there’e bleeding. This also may help compensate for the general issues with black levels on IPS panels. The HDR is some of the best on a gaming monitor I’ve encountered, as generally it just makes everything bland, lifeless and pale. With the level of color saturation, however, it offers a discernible difference and feels useful even though it won’t hit the levels of a television. The rear light panel is also consistent across the entire screen without any light bleeding alongside the bezel or any striping on the actual screen. At the price point the Canvas 27F is at, it’s consistent across the board in terms of its visual quality.
In testing bothDoom EternalandCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, neither experienced any ghosting while maxing out the full refresh rate. While Doom was easily able to hit the max rate and almost seemed way too fast to keep up with, Call of Duty hovered only around 200 FPS with an (now) older i7-9700. The RTX 3080 isn’t going to push 1080p as games tend to lean more on the CPU at that point, but I think with the new CPUs coming out, we’ll see many more games push the maximum FPS of these 240hz and higher monitors. Playing at a higher refresh rate allows for better response times not just from the system, but also personally as the ability to react faster will become natural. This is needed for the edge for eSports competition and for the pricing of these monitors, it’s hard to beat. I conducted pixel testing and the UFO refresh rate test online and everything worked as advertised. I did discover that extending a desktop will cause the refresh rate to mirror the main monitor. Otherwise, using the Display Port consistently provided a 239.xxx refresh rate. The viewing angle is rated at 178-degrees and it remains viewable from a deep angle with a bright background. Dark backgrounds tend to fall off much quicker, but doing a multiple monitor setup won’t offer any issues with viewing.
NZXT has offered an unorthodox way of selling the Canvas. The monitor can be purchased by itself, without a stand but the option to buy the stand is there. I’m guessing this is a way to save money if you want to run a multi-monitor setup. NZXT also has its own monitor arm it sells separate. The combo for the 25F is $249.99 and the 27F is $269.99. The stand is $40 and buying just the monitor drops the price $40. The stand and monitor come in both black and white, but the front bezel on the white display is black. I asked a NZXT rep to see if this was tested out to see how a white bezel would work to better match the back panel and they stated the black bezel provides better immersion. I do feel it may be a distraction if the bezel was white, but the other half of me would like this to match the rear.
Closing Comments:
NZXT has offered subtle changes and possible upgrades to differentiate itself from the competition with the Canvas 27F 240. The Canvas is not a budget monitor and aims not only closer to the premium monitors on the market, but also at a cheaper price. The colors are excellent and vibrant on the 27F and the VESA HDR 400 works well for a IPS panel. The deep colors are strong and help compensate for the blacks on the display. Integration in the CAM software is a nice touch, but the lack of more options at launch hurts especially since there are separate color profiles on the monitor itself. The pricing is strange, but ultimately if you’re looking for one monitor it’s either $250 or $270, but if trying to do a multiple monitor setup, NZXT shaves $40 off if you don’t need the stand. The lack of any real technical issues and the ability to conform the monitor to whatever usage that’s desired is a bonus. I spent more on a Dell monitor recently that does much less than this despite being a curved monitor, having only 144hz refresh rate and lacks the details of the Canvas. This is also the perfect match for someone who has a NZXT case, but overall is an excellent high-refresh FHD display at the price.
