HP 2311xi IPS Monitor
by Chris Heinonen on August 13, 2012 12:15 AM ESTHP 2311xi - Design, OSD, and Viewing Angles
HP managed to make the right choices with their 27” ZR2740w monitor, hitting a reasonable price point without sacrificing quality. Now HP has introduced their 2311xi monitor, a 23” IPS display with LED backlighting that is designed with value in mind. Even with their value target, they haven't cut back on features, with multiple inputs and a good amount of adjustments available inside of the display.
With a street price of $200, HP is aiming directly at value priced TN displays that have ruled the low-end of the LCD market for years. We finally might be starting to move to better panels, as the price of IPS continues to come down. Has HP managed to get enough quality into a $200 display that it can convince people to move from TN panels when looking for a value display, or have there been too many sacrifices made in order to hit this aggressive price point?
The HP 2311xi is a very simple monitor on the outside. The only inputs offered are DVI, HDMI, and DSub, with no DisplayPort input. The lower right corner of the screen houses the buttons for controlling the OSD and otherwise the screen is free of any other inputs or outputs. One other item that is missing from the screen are VESA mounting holes for those that wish to use their own stand or other mounting device. The included stand offers tilt adjustment and some swivel, but offers no height or pivot adjustments so there is no way to use the 2311xi in portrait mode.
The OSD system is okay but not great, as you use two buttons for both left/right and up/down control, which continues to be a pet peeve of mine. However it does have a full array of options, including three default color temperatures and a user adjustable one, overdrive, sharpness, dynamic contrast, and more. It also has a DDC mode that works quite well I found, so if your calibration solution supports DDC you can have it configured automatically for you.
As you would expect from an IPS panel, the viewing angles are quite good and far beyond what TN can give you. Moving far off-axis we don’t see any color shift but do start to see a shift in the contrast at the very extreme angles. With a 23” display you aren’t going to run into any issues with viewing angles on the 2311xi no matter how you have it configured on your desk, or likely even if you are watching a movie on it from a few feet away.
| HP 2311xi | |
| Video Inputs | DVI-D, Dsub, HDMI |
| Panel Type | e-IPS |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.265 mm |
| Colors | 16.7 Million, 72% Color Gamut |
| Brightness | 250 nits maximum |
| Contrast Ratio | 1000:1 |
| Response Time | 7ms GTG |
| Viewable Size | 23" |
| Resolution | 1920x1080 |
| Viewing Angle | 178 Horizontal and Vertical |
| Backlight | LED |
| Power Consumption (operation) | 29 Watts |
| Power Consumption (standby) | < 0.6 Watts |
| Screen Treatment | Anti-Glare Coating |
| Height-Adjustable | No |
| Tilt | Yes, 0 to 25 Degrees |
| Pivot | No |
| Swivel | Yes |
| VESA Wall Mounting | No |
| Dimensions w/ Base (WxHxD) | 16.4 x 24.49 x 6.26 in |
| Weight | 9.25 lbs. |
| Additional Features | |
| Limited Warranty | 1 Year Parts and Labor |
| Accessories | DVI Cable, VGA Cable |
| Price | $200 Online (7/15/2012) |
Now that we’ve had a full overview of the HP 2311xi it is time to put it through our test bench and see how it performs. Calibration and dE measurements were done using ColorEyes Pro and an i1Pro spectrometer, and black and white level measurements were done using an i1DisplayPro and test patterns from CalPC.
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mikato - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link
Different resolutions in LCDs other than the native resolution look so crappy I don't know why you would want to change it. I'm not sure what you're doing in your video work but can't you scale it in the video player instead?For inputs, I think it's important to have one of [DVI, HDMI] and also one DisplayPort. That's because DVI and HDMI are electrically equivalent. converters are cheap and easy to come by. That's why the Dell U2412M has 1 DP, 1 DVI (and 1 VGA). If you want multiple monitors, then DisplayPort is the best way to go. If I was buying new stuff now I'd make sure the monitor had DP.
Just curious, do you remember what Dell monitors you had?
Sub Zero - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
When you want to upload HD to YouTube, you have 1280x720 and 1920x1080. 1280x720 is generally preferred because of bandwidth and playback issues.So, if I want to present in 1280x720, I want to record in 1280x720 for the best quality. So, I set the screen to run 1280x720, and I want it to actually use 1280x720 pixels centered in the screen, as it should be. It works for me on 2 monitors, but not on my 30", even though I'm using the same Win 7 64 bit Nvidia drivers.
You may not see the need to use other than native resolution, but for people that do record often, either video games or tutorial, such variable resolution scenarios are common.
There is an entire industry on YouTube where gamers do playthroughs with commentaries and most do at 1280x720. Most want it to display at 1280x720 at 1:1 pixel ratio while they play it. I see no problem with that.
theoldguy - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
Remember, back in the old days...say mid-1990's you paid $650 for an average 17in CRT with a max resolution of 1600x1200. Back then we had more money to design Good products. It's been downhill ever since. People are spoiled to cheap, cheap, cheap stuff so companies are exploiting it, but as more of a survival tactic than anything else these days. My former co. made some great displays at one time, but nobody wanted to pay for them. They'd rather pay $250 for a cheap piece of crap. You can't convince management to keep making great displays when you can't sell enough to recoup the development costs. It's just simple economics.You can still get a few good displays out there today, but you're going to pay for them. Look at the specs for some of the NEC and HP commercial stuff, especially the Dream Color 24in monitor with the 30bit panel. There's a 47in that can be configured with its own IP address (network control), can daisy-chain 25 of them from one DP output, has VOE (video over ethernet) and has gorilla glass protective screen with a 2mm bezel. Of course you'll pay around $5k for that one!! I saw a wall of six of those doing the AMD Eyefinity 4k resolution thing. Gamer's heaven.
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - link
Once again Anandtech hasn't mentioned PWM backlight flicker, a factor that has been covered in-depth at prad.de and to some extent at tftcentral. Both of those sites now include PWM measurements. Disappointing, Anandtech.Krane1 - Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - link
For some reason the advancement in resolution has come to a complete halt. Even as we speak nearly a half dozen manufacturers have cameras on the market with 4k resolution and beyond. And although it is possible to edit this video on a reasonable budget, there is no way to view the full resolution without move into the cost of a car purchase territory.I've no idea why none of the monitor market haven't brought a reasonably priced 4k or 5k monitor to the market by now. But Apple has stepped in where others fear to tread.
Only Apple has moved past the 1080p wall so far. And although I've never really been a fan, I have to admit that their vision forward in display development is the best in the industry. At the moment, only they offer a laptop with a display greater than 1080p. It's Retina display (2880 X 1800 resolution), puts the Apple Macbook Pro is in a class all by itself.
theoldguy - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
Chris, make sure you turn off the Gamma control if you're going to calibrate.I suspect since this is an IPS panel, they use gamma correction to improve the dark 2.2 gamma (common with IPS/PLS/MVA panels) to around 1.8~2 gamma so people can see the details in dark shading. Also, native panel color temp for HP monitors is the Custom RGB setting. This bypasses what may be a poor factory setup on the color presets.
LEDnoob - Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - link
Chris you mentioned all you did was set the color mode on the 2311xi to sRGB mode where did you set that? I don't see that option on OSD are you talking about setting it using operating system?Also for this monitor has anyone tried sharpness/gamma test on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/sharpness.php
at default factory setting the sharpness test and the viewing angle test doesn't blend in at all. Does these test even work for IPS?
If anyone can help me with these question it would be appreciated or else I probably have to return it again sigh... :(
XchiMeraX - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
I am planning to purchase this product in India (Bangalore). I checked with all HP distributors in Bangalore sadly its not available any where, not even online. So please let me know where can i purchase this monitor in Karnataka?