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OSD, Speakers, Scaling

The X270W’s OSD is relatively utilitarian. I feel like I’ve seen this OSD style on other monitors as well - there isn’t anything wrong with it, it’s just a bit basic and sometimes cumbersome to get used to [1] being exit and [2] being select, with up and down in-between.

There are settings like you’d expect for contrast, brightness, color temperature, dynamic contrast ratio (DCR), an “Eco mode” that boosts contrast way up and brightness way down, and “opticolor” settings for some presets if you so choose. The full walkthrough is in the gallery below if you’re so inclined.

My only main gripe is that it takes 6-7 button presses to change the volume level on the X270W if you’re using the internal speakers. This is just way too many steps to do something simple, and it’s frustrating. I guess that segues me into the next section.

Speakers

Which is, the speakers. There are two speakers at the top, hidden discretely under the vented slots on the top of the bezel. I’m torn about the inclusion of speakers inside monitors. On one hand, if you’re just using the computer for productivity, it’s nice to have the speakers taken care of, since all you need them for are audio prompts and alerts from the OS. On the other hand, if you’re serious about hearing your game (those ever-telling footsteps) or your music, in-monitor speakers are never ever going to suffice.

The speakers are right there under the grille - you can see a sliver of one under the left grille.

I measured the X270W’s speakers using an Extech 407760 USB datalogger in a room with ambient relative noise level of 51 dBA. At 6 inches away, the sound level was 83.5 dBA listening to music at maximum volume on the PC and the monitor. So they go reasonably loud, but the quality leaves much to be desired. It’s a very tinny lifeless sound lacking most of the mid and low frequencies - passable for those OS alerts, but not much more.

The speakers also are default on when using an HDMI connection, albeit even quieter because the HDMI audio is ostensibly normalized. You can watch a movie on them, but hearing quieter dialogue and enjoying the full dynamic range of the audio is obviously far out of the question, and since there aren’t any audio out options, using the monitor with some stereo headsets is also out of the question unless you bring your own HDMI audio splitter.

Avatar Blu-Ray over HDMI: Flawless as expected

While we’re on the HDMI port, everything here worked flawelessly. The display works fine with the HDCP chain tested on the desktop and a Samsung Blu-Ray player.

Scaling

Thankfully, the X207W includes options for aspect ratio aware stretching, overscanning, and full screen stretching. We tested a number of different resolutions and were pleased with the output of the aspect-aware stretching as well as full screen stretching. Overscanning could be useful for HDMI input, but in practice just use 1080P and avoid any issues.

Trying 1280x720 did result in black squares along the edges despite aspect aware stretching being selected. It’d be nice to see a 1:1 option, as that currently only truly exists for 1080P inputs at native panel resolution.

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