Verdict
The Lenovo Legion Y34wz-30 is a gaming monitor that struggles to differentiate itself. With OLED gaming displays costing solely slightly extra and the Mini LED competitors utilizing IPS quite than VA panels and extra native space dimming zones, it’s a powerful advice for many. However, a broad choice of ports and robust HDR efficiency could attraction to some.
Professionals
- Complete vary of I/O ports
- Good HDR efficiency
- Easy controls and OSD menu
Cons
- Movement constancy is nothing particular
- Fewer native dimming zones than the competitors
- 180Hz solely in short-term overdrive mode
- Temperamental USB Hub
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Mini LED backlightThe Mini LED backlight generates eyeball-melting ranges of brightness -
Excessive decision curved show3440 x 1440 decision with a 1800R curvature -
Complete connectivityKVM USB hub function has a variety of I/O ports letting you simply swap between sources
Introduction
OLED displays merely can’t generate the identical ranges of whole-screen brightness because the competitors. An entire-screen brightness stage of 300nits is nice for an OLED panel, whereas an LED panel can typically handle 500nits and a Mini LED display twice that. So, Lenovo is having a go on the latter with its new Legion Y34wz-30 gaming monitor.
There are two key options of a great Mini LED monitor. First is the variety of Mini LED zones. The best I’ve ever seen is on a Philips workplace monitor with 2,048 dimming zones, however 1,024 or 512 are extra widespread. The second is the standard of the LED panel itself.
Lenovo’s new Legion Y34wz-30 gaming monitor isn’t taking pictures for the celebs in both of those classes and the worth tag of £899 is near that of some OLED gaming displays. This gaming monitor has a mountain to climb. Right here’s my evaluation.
Design
- 34 inches and a 1500R curve is a near-ideal mixture
- Loads of I/O ports and a couple of.5G Ethernet
- Easy OSD menu format and navigation
The very first thing you discover concerning the Legion Y34wz-30 is the stand. It’s a chunky affair that appears extra like a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge than a monitor base.
The stand measures 350mm from entrance to again, and with 50mm extensive toes with a brace between them, it takes up quite a lot of desk house. Greater than I feel a stand for a 34-inch monitor ought to. It’s not a very adjustable affair both, providing simply 30° of swivel to left or proper, tilt between -5 levels and +22 levels and 135mm of top adjustment.
The cupboard is a solidly constructed black plastic affair with the show surrounded by 9mm extensive bezels on the high and sides and a 27mm chin under. The panel housing is 25mm deep, whereas the central {hardware} hump within the center provides one other 40mm making the Y34wz-30 fairly chunky. Because of the cumbersome stand, the assembled unit is 320mm deep and weighs 10.5kg.
Beneath the cupboard is an RGB LED gentle which could be set to run varied fastened patterns or in a sensible mode that reacts to show color or sound output or mouse motion although I discovered the whole lot to be fairly random regardless of which good mode I chosen.
There’s a wide array of I/O ports with 2 HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 and USB-C DP Alt Mode for video enter and 6 USB information ports; 4 USB-A downstream and a single Sort-B and a second Sort-C for upstream information.
All of the USB ports are 3.2 Gen 1 (or 5Gpbs) spec aside from the DP Alt Mode Sort-C, which additionally helps 10Gpbs information and 140W PD charging. There’s additionally a 2.5G RJ45 LAN port and an audio jack. That’s a wonderful choice.
Some thought has been give to the association of the ports. Most are on the again of the cupboard going through down, however two USB-A ports and the three.5mm audio jack are in a cutout on the left aspect, which is way simpler to entry.
Altering the show settings is finished by way of a joystick and 4 buttons on the again of the cupboard on the suitable aspect, the bigger backside button being a easy On/Off button, the 2 above having devoted enter administration roles, whereas the multi-purpose joystick on the high does the whole lot else.
Lenovo has executed little to make the Y34wz-30 stand out in environmental phrases and makes no claims relating to the quantity of recycled materials used. It additionally has a G score within the EU Vitality Effectivity Class, which is the bottom there’s. At the least the packaging is overwhelmingly cardboard, with just a few skinny strips of styrofoam used to assist the entrance edges of the cupboard.
Picture High quality
- Tremendous-bright in HDR mode
- Movement dealing with is nothing particular
- 180Hz solely in short-term overclock mode
The brand new Legion Legion Y32wz-30 monitor encompasses a 34-inch 3,440 x 1,440 VA panel with a 1500R curvature and a Mini LED backlight. Acer makes use of the identical know-how in its 4K IPS Predator XP32 gaming monitor. There may be, nevertheless, one massive distinction between the Acer and Lenovo implementations: The Acer has 576 native dimming zones, whereas the Lenovo has simply 384.
One other level to make concerning the Legion Y32wz-30 is that the Mini LED backlight solely works in HDR mode. With Home windows in SDR mode, you’re mainly utilizing an ordinary VA show.
The Legion Y34-wz-30 actually doesn’t lack brightness hitting 480nits in SDR and an enormous 1,220nits from a ten% display space in HDR mode, nicely above the 1,000nits essential for the HDR 1000 certification it carries.
Full-screen HDR brightness settled at a quite decrease stage of 802nits, however the distinction had little influence on visible efficiency, and that 802nits quantity is method past even essentially the most fevered imaginings of the typical OLED show. Panel uniformity was wonderful, with little or no brightness or Delta E deviation throughout the display.
The bottom black luminescence I recorded whereas in SDR mode was 0.14 nits, giving a distinction ratio of three,395:1. In HDR mode, that dropped 0.08 nits, and the distinction ratio jumped to a towering 15,500:1.
The distinction is most simply detected in the event you open a full black picture on the display in SDR mode. It appears to be like quite gray, as it will on a standard LED show however swap to HDR, and it appears to be like utterly black, as it will on an OLED panel.
Good HDR efficiency is the Y34wz-30’s important cause for existence, and HDR efficiency is certainly spectacular, with nice distinction and wonderful color saturation. Watching an HDR recording of a fireworks show, the searingly shiny explosions actually jumped out.
The comparatively low variety of native dimming zones does lead to some haloing noticeable when small shiny objects are shifting throughout a darkish display, stated objects having a glow round them as a result of they’re smaller than the dimming zone behind them.
The impact is tough to note in on a regular basis use. Enjoying Returnal in HDR, was a slight situation because of the darkish surroundings, however within the brighter landscapes of Halo Infinite, it was not. I desire an OLED monitor for Returnal, however Halo completely fits a brighter Mini LED panel.
The display has loads of color to point out, with good gamut protection of 99.1% sRGB, 80.1% Adobe RGB and 87.3% DCI-P3. Color accuracy was completely acceptable, too, with the show exhibiting a Delta E variation of two.16 vs. the sRGB profile.
Lenovo payments the Y34wz-30 as a 180Hz refresh price monitor, however it’s truly a 165Hz panel with a 15Hz overclock. Nevertheless, participating the overclock solely lasts half-hour earlier than it reverts to the decrease refresh price. Usefully the monitor helps the utmost refresh price over each DisplayPort and HDMI.
The overclock is definitely of questionable worth as a result of I couldn’t detect any enchancment within the movement dealing with between 165Hz and 180Hz or when altering the overdrive setting. Switching on the MPRT (Transferring Image Response Time) diminished the show brightness with out noticeably bettering the ghosting.
Regardless of the mix of settings I used, there was extra ghosting in proof within the Blurbusters UFO check than the Acer Predator X32FP demonstrated regardless of the Acer having a technically slower 160Hz panel. In fact, darkish artefact trails are a identified weak spot of VA panels, making it all of the extra curious that Lenovo has gone down the VA quite than the IPS path.
The Y34wz-30 is licensed with AMD’s FreeSync Premium Professional but additionally works with Nvidia’s G-Sync system, so display tearing isn’t a problem regardless of which model of GPU you utilize.
Software program and Options
- Audio system are loud however raucous
- Glorious OSD menu design
- Helpful formatting and gaming extras
Buried inside the cupboard are two 5W audio system. They will throw out some severe quantity, 81.5dB(A) measured towards a pink noise supply at a 1m distance, however they lack bass and may turn into slightly raucous at excessive volumes. The sound high quality is on par with the Acer Predator X32, however each fall in need of the standard you get from Philips’s new Evnia-series gaming displays.
The Y34wz-30 is fitted with what, on paper, needs to be the most effective USB hubs and KVM implementations available on the market. Not solely are there loads of connectivity choices with USB-B and USB-C upstream inputs and 5 USB downstream, however the menu system to assign which information inputs ought to work with which video inputs is simplicity itself. And there’s a devoted button on the rear of the cupboard to swap between KVM inputs.
However the USB hub wouldn’t work with my SteelSeries Aerox 3 gaming mouse. I’ve by no means skilled this situation earlier than regardless of utilizing the identical all-SteelSeries keyboard and mouse mixture with quite a few gaming displays. I flagged up my points with Lenovo, who couldn’t replicate them, leaving me to conclude that it should be a problem explicit to the monitor pattern I used to be despatched to check.
The OSD menu system may be very nicely organised, with the whole lot positioned precisely the place you’d count on it to be. If you happen to don’t like utilizing the joystick to navigate the menu system, Lenovo’s Show Management Centre software program helps you to do it by way of the Home windows desktop.
The Port Settings menu hosts a big selection of picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture choices and a TrueSplit mode that fixes a Home windows partition (1:1 or 2:1) in place.
Gaming enhancements embrace a digital gunsight with two types: a timer, body price counter and fundamental {hardware} stats on your GPU and CPU. A 4-level black enhance reveals enemies lurking within the darkness.
Newest offers
Must you purchase it?
Sturdy HDR efficiency and loads of ports
HDR efficiency is the star of the present for Lenovo’s newest gaming monitor, and that’s backed up by a helpful choice of ports.
You need extra native dimming zones and a really high-refresh price
The competitors is robust and the Lenovo falls quick towards rival OLED, Mini LED and gaming-focused choices.
Last Ideas
Nothing is really improper with any a part of the Y34wz-30’s efficiency however, HDR efficiency apart, it’s not that significantly better than some IPS or VA gaming displays costing half the worth, and its movement dealing with can’t contact a number of OLED displays which can be solely slightly costlier.
Translating that into the true world, the award-winning Agon AG405UXC is a superb 40-inch IPS gaming monitor with a refresh price of 144Hz and a price ticket of £529, whereas the 27-inch LG UltraGear 27GR95QE-B is an excellent 240Hz OLED gaming monitor that may be picked for £850.
If you’re ready to pay slightly extra, then £1,150 will get you the Philips Evnia 34-inch 34M2C8600 (the little brother to the Evnia 42M2N900). For that further £250, you get a monitor that blows the Legion into the weeks on each entrance aside from most full-screen brightness. If you happen to want the superb-bright Mini LED backlight, Acer’s 4K X32FP can now be picked up for £950.
How we check
We use each monitor we check for at the very least every week. Throughout that point, we’ll verify it for ease of use and put it by way of its paces by utilizing it for each on a regular basis duties and extra specialist, colour-sensitive work.
We additionally verify its colors and picture high quality with a colorimeter to check its protection and the show’s high quality.
We used it as our important monitor for at the very least every week.
We used a colorimeter to get benchmark outcomes.
We used our personal skilled judgement for picture high quality.
FAQs
The Legion Y34wz-30 has 384 Mini LED zones in comparison with 576 within the Acer Predator X32.
Legion Y34wz-30 makes use of a VA panel. It’s the one VA Mini LED show we now have come throughout.
