HP z27x Review

The HP z27x offers a feature that no other monitor I have used before does: self-calibration. I’ve used many displays that include calibration software, but that is driven from the PC and not by the display itself. The HP z27x has the ability to directly interface with the Klein K-10A colorimeter. This is a high-end, professional meter that can read faster and more accurately at low light levels than almost any meter out there. Klein Instruments was nice enough to loan me one for an extended period of time to work with the HP.

Usually a colorimeter wouldn’t be the ideal choice because it needs to be profiled from a spectrometer before using it on a display. The Klein is different as it has built-in profiles that you can create and edit to make it work correctly without a meter. One of the internal profiles now is for the HP z27x, so it can be hooked directly up and work.

The self-calibration is very easy. You enable the HP z27x calibration in the menu system, plug in the K-10A, and the process starts. An aiming target is on-screen and you have full control over the settings you want to use. Our normal calibration target at AnandTech is 200 cd/m2 of light, a 2.2 power gamma, and the sRGB color gamut. I can set these all up using the z27x and the K-10A will calibrate a preset to those settings in under 10 minutes. If I want to use an XML file on a USB drive, I can even rename that setting and take that to multiple displays to calibrate them all the same.

A feature like this can be overkill for the home user, to a degree, but can be essential to a company that has a large number of HP z27x displays for production. You can move from display to display with your flash drive and K-10A, quickly calibrating all the presets to the same standards and same name. This removes the PC from the equation as well, so the video card LUT will have no effect on the calibration quality. Using the advanced management features in the HP z27x, an administrator can even tie a color profile to a user. People working on a Blu-ray disc will see the Rec.709 gamut while those working on a theater release will see the DCI gamut. It makes it easy to ensure accurate, consistent color without the ability to make a mistake.