Eve Spectrum Gaming Monitor (4K, 144 Hz) First Look

[Redaktion]

Eve's Spectrum gaming monitor has generated a lot of buzz in the gaming community. The gaming monitor aims to bring high resolutions (up to 4K) and high refresh rates (up to 240 Hz) at a reasonable price. While the company has a spotty track record when it comes to final delivery, pre-production units show a lot of promise. Based on early models, the Spectrum could be one of the best gaming monitors in 2021...provided Eve fulfills existing and future orders.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Eve-Spectrum-Gaming-Monitor-4K-144-Hz-First-Look.512013.0.html

[kirkle8]

So this is supposed to be shipping next month and they still don't even have functional units? Aren't units shipped to media supposed to be mostly representative of final hardware?

Seems like Eve is just trying to generate as much PR as possible to push sales instead of actually deliver a working product. Sound a lot like the "V" launch back in 2017.

[Andy C]

February 26 release? LOL

They sent you a unit that has too many issues to list, and they want to say they will be ready to ship to customers on February 26? This gives them 30 days to do EVERYTHING. And Chinese New Year is at the end of the month. This isn't going to ship until April or May at this rate.

I expect this to have more issues than the Samsung G7 during it's launch.

Also, if Konstantinos is not the CEO, why is he handling nearly everything for the company? He still has his dirty hands over everything, and Tuukka Korhonen was involved with Eve-tech as their financial person. Remember what happened with Eve-Tech? They went into restructuring. Same people, different company. They hide as a Hong Kong company so it's easier to scam customers. Same thing they did as Fortress Tech .

[darkguy2]

I think your problem was the APU. To get 4K/144 Hz you need HDMI 2.1 or DP 1.4 with DSC. HDMI 2.0a will limit you to 60 Hz and I assume your APU does not support DSC so you cannot hit 144 Hz on that as well. You would need a current (HDMI & DP) or previous gen (DP) dedicated GPU to get it to work.

[Sam Medley]

Review author here.
After digging through my motherboard manual, reading up on the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H APU I have, and digging through multiple Radeon and display settings, I was able to run the monitor at 1920x1080 @ 120 Hz and 1920x1080 @ 144 Hz.
As darkguy2 pointed out, the problem seems to be the APU. It cannot handle 4K at higher than 60 Hz. I've updated the review to reflect this.
I will say that, as I mentioned in the update in the article, 1920x1080 @ 144 Hz is buttery smooth with no screen tearing (thanks to AMD Freesync), so that's a plus.
Eve also let me know that the display itself is pretty much finalized; the company is primarily working on tweaks to the OSD, firmware, and adding in some ICs for additional features.
Long story short - if you're running a low-end GPU or any AMD APU, you're likely not going to get this to hit 4K/144 Hz, but that goes for any high-refresh-rate monitor.

[thevisi0nary]

Incredibly unprofessional to review a monitor without even knowing if your setup could match the rated spec.

The author really thought that an underpowered APU would run at 4k 144hz? And then initially tried to blame the monitor when it didn't? Give me a break.

[Steven A]

Hi Sam,

Can you confirm that HDMI 2.1 is NOT working on this sample?

Why is there any preview of this monitor when the major selling point (HDMI 2.1) is not working?

I think you have been lied to. With something as unfinished as what you have presented to us, this cannot possibly be ship from a factory in a month.

-Steven

[v0id]

So monitor not working right?
I do not see any photos with it working there.

[J. ANTEN EDILBERT]

This can't get any dumber. Trying to push 4k with vega 8 at 10bit. Even nvidia 1060 struggles at 10bit depth image reproduction. Get that in your head. And the colour change is again your gpu inefficiency. You can't expect so much out of your cheap pc. Though AMD makes best products. You gotta upgrade your brain before reviewing Eve's products. They're really upscale.

[Sam Medley]

Hi Sam,

Can you confirm that HDMI 2.1 is NOT working on this sample?

Why is there any preview of this monitor when the major selling point (HDMI 2.1) is not working?

I think you have been lied to. With something as unfinished as what you have presented to us, this cannot possibly be ship from a factory in a month.

-Steven

Hi Steven,

There is some confusion here. Per Eve's engineers and the spec sheet they sent with the monitor, the HDMI port does not fully support HDMI 2.1 in this sample and is held to HDMI 2.0a. Eve has said that this is due to the need for additional ICs that need to be included in the unit as the LG panel doesn't natively support this.

So to answer your question: no, the HDMI port doesn't support HDMI 2.1 in this sample.

[Rick james]

 :o :o :o do not trust this company. They are a complete joke. Do some research on the laptop they failed at releasing. Never in a billion years would I buy anything from Eve after such a disgusting experience with them. -5000 / 10

[Lolol]

You should take this down as you're not even qualified enough to A) know how to properly review this hardware or B) understand that this monitor/company is in complete shambles and shouldn't be promoted in the slightest as people are going to lose a lot of money on this

Did you need money that bad, like was it hooking or this and you chose this?  That might be the only semi acceptable reason you posted this abortion.

[Steven A]

Thanks for the reply, Sam.

I've done some research on your behalf about the new CEO you mentioned. It looks like Tuukka Korhonen was the CFO of Eve-Tech (the Finnish company) that is now facing restructuring and bankruptcy. This does not seem to be a positive thing if he is CEO of Eve Distribution. Additionally, it looks strange that Konstantinos is not the CEO but he is doing all of the communicating with you and other journalists. What is his role exactly? If he is not management, then certainly he is being paid by Eve Distribution and is not working solely pro bono. Why is it only now that this information has come to light?

This article has raised more questions about this company and its structure. I don't believe the information they have given you about the purpose of $100 reservation cost. They were facing issues with Spectrum refunds in September and some people have reported issues in December, as well. These were posted on their community, but the Eve Community moderators quickly delete any comments about this.

I'm seeing very big red flags about this product and the company. I doubt they are being honest with you and with the customers.

[t4n0n]

Jesus Christ NotebookCheck, you receive a pre-production 4K@144Hz monitor - the first to support HDMI 2.1, no less - to review and then give it to the reviewer who has a pc with integrated graphics only.

And the reviewer doesn't even realise there's an issue with this setup, till it's pointed out to him.

With the greatest respect to both the editors and the reviewer, what the hell has happened to the standards on this site?

People come here looking for expert analysis. When that's not present, they will eventually look elsewhere.

[MT_]

Didn't you test pixel-perfect integer-ratio upscaling (aka integer scaling)? This is the exclusive feature of Eve Spectrum compared with all computer monitors in the world.

Pixel-perfect scaling is enabled by default ("Picture" → "Aspect Ratio" → "Pixel Perfect") and should result in each logical pixel being displayed as a nonblurry square group of integer number of pixels (e.g. 2×2 in case of FHD→4K) of the same color not affected by colors of adjacent logical pixels.

At a non-integer native/logical resolution ratio, there should also be black bars around the scaled image, filling the space corresponding to the fractional part of the pure native/logical resolution ratio: for example, at 1680×1050, scaled pixels are 2×2 as in case of 1920×1080, but there should also be black bars of 240+240 pixels horizontally and 30+30 pixels vertically. Thanks.