Mac Creative > All Reviews > Hardware > Displays > Monitors > 19-inch and bigger > LaCie 730 review

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 LaCie 730 review

Probably the best, and most expensive, 30in monitor on the market

Neil Bennett

Manufacturer: LaCie
Pros: Exceptional output quality, huge resolution, excellent software
Cons: Prohibitively expensive, with poor value for money compared to smaller models
Price: £3624.99
We rate this 3 out of 5.Star rating:

Targetting the most demanding graphic design and advertising agencies, the LaCie 730 boasts a superb output quality across a massive desktop resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. This is 78 per cent more than the 1,920 x 1,200 offered by most 23- to 27in displays, so you’ll see far more detail in artwork and layouts.

This resolution alone doesn’t justify the huge price tag though. What the 730 offers that no other 30in display does is both a 14-bit Look-Up Table and 14-bit per colour processing. There’s also an output colour gamut that’s 23 per cent larger than that of the Adobe RGB standard used in applications such as Photoshop.

The 14-bit colour system takes the 8-bit output of your graphics card’s dual-link DVI port and modifies it into the monitor’s output using an overall palette that has 192 times more colour shades than the graphics card’s output. This means the colours displayed will more accurately reflect what’s coming out of the card.

To ensure this works correctly you need to calibrate your monitor, and for this LaCie supplies its Blue Eye Pro Proof Edition software for Mac and Windows. This is a powerful calibration tool that enables you to quickly match the monitor to any desired colour temperature or brightness. It even includes advanced tools for controlling blackpoint, adaptation and profile type. Blue Eye Pro works with the standard set of calibration hardware, and while you can purchase the 730 with a Blue Eye Pro calibrator for £3,390, this is just a rebadged X-rite i1Display2, which you can pick up for £125 from Colour Confidence and save yourself a few pounds.

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