At A Glance: NEC MultiSync EA271F-BK Review

In many ways, NEC can be considered Japan’s Dell or IBM. The company has a long history in the tech world and has been known for making a wide-range of products from processors and high-end business equipment to PCs and home game consoles. The company is also known for making business displays such as the NEC MultiSync EA271F-BK, which will be the subject of today’s review, but this product gives an impression that the company is a bit out of touch with the modern market.

Design

Our sister site, PCMag, received one of these monitors for testing purposes and tested its color accuracy using a Klein K10-A colorimeter and the SpectraCAL CalMan 5 software utility. These tests showed that panel was actually able to reproduce 96.3 percent of the sRGB color spectrum, which exceeds NEC’s rating of 95 percent and sets the MultiSync EA271F-BK above the average 1080p display in terms of color accuracy.

The MultiSync EA271F-BK also features an ergonomic stand that permits you to turn the display into portrait mode, landscape mode or somewhere between the two. There are also two USB 3.0 ports and audio connections on this display that makes it easy to connect headphones and USB devices.

This display comes with a pair of built-in speakers that PCMag reported as being reasonably loud but slightly distorted at high volume levels. These should be sufficient for most tasks, but if you really need to clearly hear something it’s best that you turn to a pair of headphones or dedicated speakers for better audio quality.

Conclusion

All things considered, NEC’s MultiSync EA271F-BK appears to be a solid and well rounded 1080p 27-inch monitor, and if it was 2008 I’d probably give it a near perfect rating. As it’s 2019 and NEC placed the MSRP on this display at $419, however, that’s just not going to happen. The street price for this display is actually even higher at the moment at $549.09. The current market is flooded with 2K and 4K displays that offer better features and competitive prices that NEC’s MultiSync EA271F-BK simply can’t compete with.

Samsung’s 27-inch GHG70 for example is curved with a resolution of 2,560×1440 and it features both HDR and Quantum Dot technology that enable it to reproduce up to 125 percent of the sRGB color gamut and 92 percent of the Adobe RGB color space. This Samsung display is slightly more expensive at $469.99, but it offers significantly better value for the price. There is also Dell’s 27-inch S2719DC display that also has a resolution of 2,560×1440 and the ability to display 99 percent of the sRGB color spectrum, and it currently costs less than the NEC at just $399.99.

Due in large to its noncompetitive price tag, I’d rate this display a mere 2.5 out of 5. NEC simply can’t expect it to compete with the other displays in this price range with lower-end specs.