More mundane scenarios and tasks which do not involve gaming is where the Nixeus NX-EDG274K really shines the brightest. This monitor really has changed our opinion on smaller 4K monitors and changed our opinion on what the minimum size for 4K ‘should be’. Honestly, up until now we always thought 30-inches or greater was where 4K made sense, but the smaller dotpitch on 27-inch models makes a whole hell of a lot of sense. So much so we probably will not be buying 1440P monitors for our personal rigs ever again.
Let’s back up and explain our change of opinion. Much like gaming at 4K res is a game changer, working with a 4K monitor in day to day tasks is just as big a game changer. Going from ~3.7million pixels (1440P – or 108.8 DPI) crammed into 27-inch real-estate to ~8.3 million pixels (4K – or 163.2DPI) is a massive leap. Even things you do not think about things like the sharpness of text displayed on your screen go from ‘good’ to ‘oh holy hell that is sharp’. Think going from reading a book written in crayon to one written with a good quality pen… as the level of ‘native anti-aliasing’ is significantly higher with such a small dot pitch. Simple things like an ‘O’ or a ‘W’ actually look like O and W’s at normal viewing distances. Not ‘close’. But actual Os and Ws as a 0.156mm dot pitch on a 27 inch screen makes things razor sharp. While we will never actually enjoy excel spreadsheets and the like… this monitor does help make it more tolerable. Still not good enough to replace our tablets for leisure book reading, but certainly good enough to significantly reduce eye strain.
Even ignoring this, as maybe you do not read a ton of engineering or machinist manuals on your screens, things such as photo editing really do look more lifelike… and you will not need to zoom in as much to be accurate with any touch-ups. To be blunt it will increase your work productivity. No matter if that is photo, video, text, spreadsheet, or anything else editing. If you are a content creator, the NX-ED274K will make you more efficient compared to the typical 1440P 27inch monitor you are using now.
If you are a content consumer, the NX-EDG274K also has you covered. Curves and angles are also smoother in pictures. Mix in good color reproduction and movie watching is phenomenal. Thanks to LFC (and a constant framerate) movies can also be properly upconverted from 1080P to 4K without issue. What you see on your screen will be what the director wanted you to see (even if that is not an ‘accurate’ color pallet). No stretching, no additional black bars. Just movie watching goodness.
Now with that said, the included speakers are best described as ‘tolerable’. They actually are better than most as they are not the ‘downwards firing’ abominations that are so prevalent these days… but they are not something you will want to rely upon for serious music or movie enjoyment. Even a cheap pair of Logitech speakers will be a noticeable upgrade. To be blunt, we would have rather Nixeus had spent the cost of these speakers on a wider VRR range… but to be fair we can count on our thumbs the number of monitors that actually satisfied us when it came to audio clarity. It just is so noticeable on the EDG274K as everything else is so above average as to curb stomp the bell curve.
The only other hitch, is that most Operating Systems are not designed around uber high def displays. They still cater mostly to 1080P users (aka the ‘lowest common denominator’). As such you are probably going to have to play with your OS’ size/scaling settings. Before you do… do not be surprised if text and icons are so small that they all but disappear – especially when talking about a 27-inch monitor with 4K resolution. This is not a hard or time-consuming fix, so do not panic. Change the scaling until it looks ‘right’ to you. For some that will be 150% others 200 or 225%, you may be different. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to this. Just adjust things until it looks or ‘feels’ right for you.
