Gadgetory

welcome back to hadron box today we're looking at another monitor from biotech one of our new favorite display companies over the last year or so I've checked out a lot of products from biotech and I've been consistently impressed with their value proposition so I'm hoping today's review of the GFT 27 DB ends up in a similar story so let's get the basics out of the way the biotech GFT 27 DB is aiming to be a flat t inversion of their curved V a GN 27 D so specs are pretty similar we're looking at a 27 inch panel 1440p resolution and 144 Hertz and maximum refresh rate this monitor supports free sync with low frame rate compensation and I can confirm it works perfectly with both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs with this new monitor opting for a TN panel instead of VA gamers are treated to a flat display which I personally prefer at this size but there's a few other key benefits here this is not your standard crappy entry levels here instead this is what appears to be a brand-new high-end TN from AO Optronics it's actually wide gamut via tech claims 115 percent srgb which is very rare for a TN plus it's native 8-bit another rarity for TN panels the goal here is to mitigate some of the known color issues with TN displays while still providing all the speed benefits such as fast response times it's an interesting direction to take TN panels but while it does make sense because the two technologies known for their colors which are IPS and VA are struggling to hit the response times of a good TN so if you can get a TN to the same level of colors as an IPS or VA it brings it back into calculations for a lot of buyers and I'll talk extensively about how this power performs in a moment but before that let's talk about the vo-tech GF t 27 TB in particular it comes in at the same price as the GN 27 D so 330 US dollars which leaves buyers with a choice between TN and VA at that price point the GN 27 D is currently the cheapest monitor in its class but the GMT 27 DB isn't quite the cheapest 27 inch 1440p 144 Hertz t and that crown goes to pick CEO with the PX 276 however the pick CEO option is using an older TN that isn't wide gamut sovietic is essentially offering potentially better color quality for about $20 more so that could be quite an attractive proposition for some people the design like most of our text monitors is pretty simple fairly cheap but minimalist plastic is used for the main monitor section complete with a matte display coating that's slightly grainy but not unusually so for a TN bezels are slim the three prongs stand is built from metal and looks pretty good and aside from a very basic red light on the back there's not a lot of gamer style which I very much appreciate as we thought simple designs there are some limitations the stand only supports tilt adjustment if you need height adjust you'll have to either purchase a base amount or opt for another monitor entirely the stand is also quite wobbly more so than a typical monitor of this size while the general build quality is fine if a bit an amazing the stands instability does make it feel a little bit cheap that said it's not going to move around on your desk once you put it in place especially if you have a sturdy desk for ports all standard Stucky one DisplayPort 1.4 and a generous three HDMI ports including one HDMI 2.0 port plus an audio output jack there are a pair of built in to what speakers but they are well completely rubbish in case you're wondering seriously they are so bad I don't know why via Tech included them the other complaint I have in regards to the design is via Tex continual use of four buttons along the bottom edge to control the on-screen display rather than a much easier direction of toggle combined with the wobble in the stance pretty hard to navigate the OSD while you find features like cheat crosshairs picture-in-picture and color controls and it's worth mentioning that free sync is disabled by default in the settings so make sure you turn that on as for the panel itself well my main concern going into this review was viewing angles as it continues to be the biggest issue for T and monitors particularly at the higher end of the TN scale I've got to say this is one of the better TN displays I've seen in terms of viewing angles especially horizontally where there is some contrast shift but it isn't too bad however vertically yeah there's still a significant change in contrast from viewing it off angles you we'll still want to be dead on and make sure you have it tilted correctly to get the best experience so well it's good for a TN viewing angles are still several steps behind a VA and especially an IPS panel the other area where tiens tend to suffer is in contrast ratio though again the GF t 27 DB is on the upper end of the TN scale here with this new a Optronics panel native contrast ratio is a touch under one thousand to one sitting around the nine seventy to one mark which is pretty much as good as it gets for a TN and this is in line with IPS panels but it does fall well behind a typical VA where you can expect more than double the contrast ratio for something like the GN twenty seventy brightness though it all checks out in fact this monitors significantly exceeds via text claims they list a two hundred and twenty net peak brightness but in reality it performs well above that i recorded a maximum brightness of slightly under three hundred and fifty nets which is pretty bright and a good result for a TN response times they are clearly the big selling point of TN - you buy one because you want to be fast and fast for gaming in particular biotech claims a one millisecond response time with overdrive and a three millisecond standard response which I have to say holds up pretty well with what I found during testing the optimal overdrive setting here is the maximum high mode which does have a small amount of overshoot with some transitions but it was with inner tolerances and shouldn't matter all that much with this mode enabled the average grader grade transition was three point three eight milliseconds and that's a typically fast result for a TN putting it well ahead of VA alternatives with the absolute best VA sitting above five milliseconds on average with eight milliseconds a more realistic figure this TN is noticeably clearer with less blur and less ghosting in fast motion scenes the general behavior of this TN isn't anything unusual either rise times are much slower than fall times with an average rise of 4.91 milliseconds that's impacted by a relatively slow black to white transition fall times are lightning-quick though under two milliseconds with some transitions hitting that one millisecond claimed figure in general the panel is much faster than the needed six point nine four milliseconds for refreshing at 144 Hertz so you are getting the full benefit of the high refresh here combined with good clarity and those things aren't necessarily guaranteed if you go down the VA option input lag is also very good I recorded around 4 milliseconds of latency which when combined with the fast transition time makes the GMT tween 70 be a very fast monitor you'd expect this from a gaming focused TN monitor and via tech is certainly delivered here in terms of color performance this TN really punches above its weight in a few areas we're getting a comfortable 100% srgb coverage but it's the 92% DCI p3 coverage that really impressed me that's not quite at the level I'd expect from a wide gamut professional monitor but it is a few percentage points higher than many of the wider gamut VA panels are tested recently from Samsung those panels typically clock in between 85 and 90 percent DCI p3 so for this TN to beat that is certainly quite impressive as most hands not wide gamut whatsoever native 8-bit support is also great to see considering many TNS and native six bit and news FRC to achieve full 8-bit support unfortunately via tech leaves this wide gamut support unclamped which means that with that calibration the display is oversaturated when viewing srgb content and srgb content is 99 percent of what your view outside of professional workflows if you love or don't mind over saturation and extra vibrant colors well that's great this panel will look amazing and pretty close to what you get from a VA but if you're after accuracy unfortunately out of the box the gft 27 DB won't deliver what I'd really like to see what I recommend for all wide gamut monitors is a simple switch in the on-screen display the toggles between an sRGB and a wide gamut state WyoTech doesn't provide this and the result is a default saturation Delta a average of 3.18 along with the colorchecker delta e of 3.43 grayscale results are a little off as well with my unit having a slight red tint out of the box along with the Delta II average of three point six zero although gamma is pretty good if you're wondering about DCI p3 accuracy biotech doesn't really deliver here with Delta is between 2.5 and 4.0 for the most part again it seems the panel's not really calibrated at all at the factory which is typical for a biotech display and many gaming monitors in general were this for professional work though I'd definitely be expecting better results without the ability to clamp the gamut there's not a whole lot you can do in the on screen display to improve performance aside from some minor tweaks to correct the white point to get accurate results you really need to perform a full calibration which as always I did with the help of my good friend spectral cows Callum and five aside from a couple of outliers this calibration led to good results with Delta averages below 1.0 however like with a typical calibration of a TN or IPS display if contrast ratio did drop to around nine hundred to one minor drop but it is worth mentioning nonetheless patreon members who are interested in the accurate display profile I created for this monitor can download it links to that in the description below lastly we have uniformity performance he is decent better than your average of ei pounds especially those that are curved but it's not perfect we're looking at this chart there's basically two blobs on either side of the panel with a slight dip in the center and around the edges unlike a lot of curvy ice though there's no noticeable vignette effect which is a good thing overall I think the GFT 27 DB is a really interesting product mostly because it's one of those rare TN panels that has a wide color gamut that's why I take even says in their product page tents have this reputation for poor colors but this 10 in particular is probably the best I've seen in terms of its color output the wide gamut does some of the work in its default state it will be oversaturated more so than a typical TN and in line with today's bas which allows for either 92% DCI p3 coverage for those that want it or vibrant srgb if you're into that sort of thing but it's the true 8-bit panel and especially the better than usual viewing angles that contribute a lot as well it's in all three of these areas bit depth viewing angles and gamut the teams usually fall behind but are you optronics and biotech have focused a lot on improving these areas and the results have really paid off and this is without impacting response times we just do as fast as you'd expect for a TN this panel looks pretty close to a mid tier IPS if I'm honest it's really in viewing angles where an IPS pulls ahead noticeably for a 10 I'm genuinely very impressed with the image quality but when you combine the viewing angle issue with a contrast ratio of under one thousand to one is still not going to be getting a VA like experience with those beautiful deep blacks contrast and viewing angles are definitely very good for a TN and I think will be fine for most people but for those who love V A's I guess you probably should still be sticking to UVA the GMT 27 DB also runs into the standard set of issues with fire tech monitors the stand has limited adjustability and is a bit wobbly the on-screen display is hard to control it's not calibrated and there's no srgb mode and it's not available outside of a small handful of countries well I do spend a bit of time on calibration in my reviews most gaming monitors also don't come calibrated so for me that's probably the least important issue I do really wish biotech would expand into the European and Australian markets though so would I recommend this monitor and who would I recommend it to well it's an easy recommendation for those that want a fast gaming monitor it's 1440p and 144 Hertz with free sync which I still feel is the sweet spot for PC gaming in 2019 and because it's a TN ghosting really isn't an issue combined with the best colors I've seen for this type of monitor it's basically the best gaming TN on the market right now so kudos to biotech for that despite being a unique monitor in that no other company is using this panel yet os as far as I can tell I don't feel it's overpriced either at $330 it's the same price as via text equivalent curved VA with both the VA and TN each having strengths and weaknesses the VA still has superior colors in my opinion but the TN is flat and is faster both a fantastic value though so which option is better really depends on what you want out of a display just don't immediately dismiss the GF 227 DB because it's a TN it's definitely a lot better than most TN displays of the past and that's it for this review if you're interested in this monitor or some of the others mentioned throughout this review there are links in the description to check their current prices give this video a like if you enjoyed it or found it interesting and consider subscribing for more monitor reviews plus you can support us on patreon for some cool perks if you want to guess it's really up to you on that one and well I guess I'll catch you in the next one