Eve Spectrum bills itself as the first crowd-developed monitor, and it was in the works for quite some time ahead of launch. The Eve Spectrum is now shipping out and available, so we thought we'd test it out to see if it's worth picking up.
There are three versions of the 27-inch Spectrum display. For $459, you can get a Spectrum QHD with a 144Hz refresh rate, while a 240Hz version is available for $609. A 4K version is also available with a 144Hz refresh rate, and this top-of-the-line version costs $799. The Spectrum stand for those who aren't using a VESA mount is an additional $99.
MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera has been testing the 4K 144Hz version, and he found the design to be minimal, clean, and subtle, and for video editing work, it performed well.
Colors were accurate and natural and viewing angles were solid, but there is some light bleed with blacks and contrast doesn't quite measure up to some other displays at this price point.
Gameplay was smooth thanks to the high refresh rate, and the high contrast and peak brightness made games look great. There were times, however, that the video feed would die, and it's unclear if the issue was a cable or a port.
The Eve Spectrum comes equipped with a single DisplayPort port, two HDMI 2.1 ports, two USB-C ports, and one USB-A port, along with an audio port. There's no Thunderbolt support, but with a 100W USB-C port, it can charge even the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
There are few gaming monitors with these specs and HDMI 2.1, so for those who need these features, the Spectrum may be worth checking out. Make sure to watch the full video up above to see it in action.
Update:Those interested in purchasing the Eve Spectrum monitor should know that Eve previously launched preorders for a V laptop and did not deliver the product. There are also complaints on Reddit from users who preordered a Spectrum display and have not yet received it.
Top Rated Comments
macOS HiDPI scaling basically doubles the effective resolution from 2560 x 1440 to 5120 x 2880, and then downscales it to fit the 3840 x 2160 4K resolution of the monitor. It doesn't look blurry at all - in fact, it looks almost as good as it would running on a true 5K monitor. And still better than it would just running 2560 x 1440 resolution on a standard QHD 2560 x 1440 monitor (with no pixel doubling). The only downside to doing it this way is the non-integer scaling reduces GPU performance.
There are very few 5K monitors out there at the 27" size, and so from a budget standpoint, 4K @ 27" can be nice bang-for-buck.
They are still up to a few naughty things too, such as declaring these monitors at 1/4 value to get them through customs cheaper.