Eve Spectrum 4K HDMI 2.1 Gaming Monitor: Worth the Wait?

this video is sponsored by owc for the longest time i've been looking for a monitor that i can use for two purposes one for work when i'm at home and one for console gaming that takes advantage of these next-gen consoles 4k 120 hertz feature via hdmi 2.1 obviously the goal is to find something that fits those needs and spend as little money as possible and there really aren't that many options out there i've actually only found two and one of them being the eve spectrum 4k monitor eve is a company that crowdsources its items but in exchange it basically allows for its own customers and you know followers of the company to sort of build its dream device and in this setup it's a relatively affordable monitor with some higher end features the elephant in the room here with most crowd source companies and eve is no different than most of them out there is that they're really not killing it in the shipping department but as of right now monitors are actually starting to finally ship out to people who've placed an order a long time ago and so we're finally going to go hands-on and give you my first initial impressions of this monitor now i know i said this is the 4k eve spectrum monitor but it actually comes in three variations a qhd 144 hertz version for 459 dollars a qhd 240hz version for 609 dollars and then the model that we have here it's the 4k 144 hertz for 7.99 all three options do not include the stand for the monitor which is an additional 99 now i know i'm gonna hear stan jokes about you know like the pro display xdr well that was a thousand dollars and this is only 99 but still the reason behind this is that eve states 46 of its community members wanted to have an option to buy the monitor without the stand and use a vasa arm instead which the amount for that is included fair enough i'll give them a pass if that's actually true i have no way of actually knowing that that's what their community really wanted but that does mean this pushes the price of each monitor in this range here from 550 to 899 plus tax so the one that i have here is pushing nearly a thousand dollars so it's not the cheapest option in the world but when it comes to those specs that i mentioned before specifically hdmi 2.1 there are little to no other options at this price point at the time of filming there is one monitor that i do actually own it's from gigabyte and it is cheaper and we'll get into more of that later but as far as build quality for this specific monitor and the design goes it's actually really nice the stand despite it being an additional 99 is made up of premium materials and metal it's very sturdy very heavy definitely not worried about the stand being too cheap or flimsy it also allows for full rotation and tons of range for height and tilt adjustment now again if you don't want to use a vase amount it might be a bit of a bummer to fork up another 99 the stand is probably worth the price for how good the quality of the stand actually is now the rest of the design is also pretty clean it's very minimal and just all around subtle especially for a gaming monitor that's not something that you'll come across very often it's a sleek monitor it's also 27 inches in size which is of course a good sweet spot for gaming but as well as just getting things done for work now my initial impressions of the display from a work standpoint and i have been using the pro display xdr so i am very spoiled but if i just remove that other monitor from the equation it's actually really good the ips display does lead to some more natural and accurate color accuracy and it's just good for viewing angles and there is going to be a little bit of light bleed with the blacks and the contrast it's just not as good as some of the other monitors at this price point but it's also a bottomlet ips panel so i'm not really expecting a whole lot there in terms of just the contrast and the black levels and you are going to get light bleed from the bottom more you know prominently than any other spot on the monitor you're probably thinking that the light bleed is really bad in this clip i think the camera is not doing it any justice and blowing that out of proportion here where you are seeing that bad light bleed here in the bottom left that is where most of it is at but it's not as bad as this camera is making it seem i have used my macbook pro connected via usbc and i've also used my mac pro but unfortunately it is not thunderbolt so just something to keep in mind here but there are no shortage of ports that's for sure the thing is loaded with one display port two hdmi 2.1 ports two usb c ports two usb type a ports and one usb type b port alongside an auxiliary port for audio the amount of ports available kind of limits the need for having a hub which is nice because even though there isn't thunderbolt usb c port it's still power delivery at 100 watts which is great for charging now most people watching this are probably interested in the gaming aspect because that's what it is heavily marketed towards and so again i wanted it for both work and gaming because i don't game a lot but i do play one game i've mentioned this a lot it's call of duty warzone on my xbox and i really wanted something with hdmi 2.1 so that i could get 4k 120 hertz on my series x and having that option is fantastic it's really good for games like warzone everything is buttery smooth and i think it really takes advantage of the game's hdr capabilities as well as everything is super sharp crisp and extreme high contrast and brightness you know for peak brightness areas you can really really tell that it's doing a great job i was really impressed with just how good everything looked and being able to play with that you know 120 hertz on my xbox is just a really cool experience and about as good as it's gonna get for us you know console gamers as opposed to those on pc who can get those high frame rates uh so if you're into shooter games or anything that needs you know some buttery smooth performance you're gonna like this now the biggest bummer that i've had during testing and again this is just something that i think is hyperspecific to my hardware here is that the monitor kept cutting out the video feed at the worst times i'm not sure if it was the cable or that specific port on the monitor i've tested it with a different xbox and i've tested it with my ps5 and everything worked well but with my series x i've had some issues and i'm going to do a follow-up and play more games i'm going to get a different cable that's going to take advantage of the 4k 120 hertz uh but as of right now it was just absolutely awful anytime somebody approached me and i was about to get into a gunfight it literally would go black and then it would come back and i'm dead and i you know it was awful aside from that issue which is again probably something super specific to me this monitor has been great and while 900 isn't cheap for a monitor again if you look at all the other options that have these specs and specifically hdmi 2.1 um there's not a lot under that 1 000 price point i did mention that there's one from gigabyte that i did purchase a few months ago and that's also a really fantastic monitor but this eve spectrum has a bit more clarity and sharpness and it's much better at 4k hdr compared to the gigabyte monitor now again i really like that monitor and it was only 5.99 so if you don't care about 4k hdr and you don't really care about you know anything else besides getting hdmi 2.1 at the cheapest i'd probably recommend that gigabyte monitor because it's pretty readily available but look at eve as a whole there are you know the qhd models for around the same price if not cheaper than that other one that i just mentioned so it might be worth going that route or checking those out but uh i'd love to know your thoughts in the comments down below if you want to see a full review on this monitor or something specific to console gaming or even games on my mac which i did try out a little bit but you know it's not anything different than any other monitor out there it's still a very good experience let me know in those comments down below and before we end today's video i do want to give you more information about today's sponsor owc owc has tons of products for your mac and earlier this year they launched the incredible owc envoy pro electron ssd this is owc's fastest and toughest mini-sized usbc bus powered drive that the company offers and it's super fast the drive touts incredible real world performance due to it being powered by owc's aura ssd offering users super fast transfer speeds it's incredibly small and can fit in your pocket easily but it's also built like an absolute tank even though it boasts a lot of power it's still really cool under the hood thanks to that aircraft-grade aluminum housing that really helps dissipate the heat and for more information about the new envoy pro electron or anything else that owc has to offer click the link in the description down below this has been dan with mac rumors thanks so much for watching and i hope to see you around in the next video

Channel: MacRumors

Views: 27,482

Rating: 4.784431 out of 5

Keywords: gaming monitor, eve spectrum, 4k gaming monitor, hdmi 2.1 monitor, best monitor for xbox series x, best gaming monitor, xbox series x, hdmi 2.1, eve spectrum monitor, eve spectrum 4k monitor, best hdmi 2.1 monitors, ps5 monitor, xbox series x monitor, eve v, eve devices, 4k 144hz, eve tech, gaming monitor for ps5, eve spectrum 4k, eve spectrum 4k 144hz, eve spectrum 4k 144hz review, eve spectrum 4k review, eve spectrum 4k mac, eve spectrum 240hz, eve spectrum 2.1 hdmi

Id: WYIrx5tKY-8

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021