Verdict: An impressive 30in screen for less than £900.
Hazro may sound like it's a government agency responsible for cleaning up dangerous substances, but it is, in fact, the name of a little-known Birmingham-based monitor manufacturer that focuses on the high end of the TFT business. Originally focused at the Japanese medical market, but now aiming at discerning consumers, its HZ range combines aluminium frames with panels using Super-IPS (S-IPS) technology, and has 23in, 24in, 26in and 30in models available. The 30in HZ30W is the pinnacle of the range, yet it costs less than £880.
One way in which Hazro has reduced the cost is by keeping the internal circuitry to a minimum. Graphics drivers now include a full suite of picture adjustment abilities, and Hazro intends for you to use these rather than an OSD. A mouse-driven Windows graphics driver applet will be easier to use anyway. Apart from the power switch, there are only simple up and down arrows for adjusting brightness on this screen. The HZ30W has no scaling circuitry, so it offers just two resolution options - 2,560 x 1,600 and 1,280 x 800. All other resolutions will be provided by your graphics card performing the scaling, which a modern card will do perfectly well.
Other cost-cutting decisions include the use of a single DVI-D connection, although at least it's HDCP-compliant. However, this means that there's no provision for inputting an analogue signal, such as D-SUB, composite, component or S-Video. Hazro has also chosen to use an external power brick rather than integrating the PSU. This keeps the panel looking very svelte for a 30in model, and introduces the possibility of merely replacing the power brick, rather than the whole screen, should something go awry with the power delivery. However, the large power brick also makes for messy wiring.
None of these omissions has been made in order to create a cheap and nasty panel. Instead, Hazro has focused on keeping the core components as good as possible. The S-IPS panel offers a 92 per cent colour gamut, which is much higher than your average PVA's 72 per cent offering. The contrast ratio of the Hazro panel is a healthy 1,000:1, with 300cd/m2 brightness, which is par for the course for a TFT display of this size. The only blot on its specification copybook is the relatively slow 12ms pixel response - Samsung's SM305T offers 6ms, while Dell's 3007WFP-HC provides 8ms. This drawback shows Hazro's professional origins, where image quality outweighs the fast pixel switching that gamers want.
We ran the HZ30W through a suite of tests, both synthetic and application-based. The TFT was hooked up to a PC equipped with a BFG GeForce 8600 GT OC. We then ran the DisplayMate calibration software to analyse the overall image quality, a number of games including Prey and Need for Speed: Carbon, plus both DVD and Blu-ray video.
In our DisplayMate tests, the HZ30W exhibited superb angles of vision, with very little contrast variation until the viewing angle approached 90 degrees off centre. Contrast for grey tending towards black was good but not outstanding. Performance displaying very light grey tending towards white was more convincing, with only the very lightest shades of grey disappearing. This contrast range promised pleasing results with our test videos. Colours on white backgrounds were excellent - they were visible even when reduced to 2 per cent saturation. We've only seen better performance from high-end S-IPS panels from Eizo, such as the £1,400 24in ColorEdge CG241W, wide-gamut TFTs such as Dell's awesome 2407WFP-HC, and the Samsung SM305T.
In our real-world tests, the good results in DisplayMate translated well into a gaming experience that was good, but not as convincingly detailed as the Samsung. Although we've seen TFTs that provide a little more detail in the darker areas of Prey - particularly wide-gamut monitors - the overall range of colours available from the HZ30W is rich. The neon-lit tracks in Need for Speed: Carbon were also vibrant and satisfying.
DVD playback was lush and well saturated, with wide colour ranges visible in the hazy Battle of Pelennor Fields section of our test DVD 'Lord of the Rings: Return of the King'. The HZ30W had no problem supporting HDCP over dual-link DVI, so we were able to watch HD video at the full 1080p resolution. Our Blu-ray movie, the redoubtable 'S.W.A.T.', was displayed with detail and fidelity. The 12ms response rate certainly wasn't noticeable in any of our multimedia tests, and there was no obvious lag in games, or blurriness or tearing in video playback.
Conclusion
The HZ30W has some undeniably good qualities. Its overall image quality is exceptional, and the cost is kept down by some sensible (if odd, at first glance) exclusions. However, the fly in Hazro's ointment is Samsung's SM305T. The HZ30W's S-IPS panel may be a better choice for professional applications in which colour accuracy is paramount, but the Samsung's wide gamut technology provides brighter, more detailed visuals in games and movies. However, if you're fussy about colour accuracy, but want a large screen that will also handle games and videos well, and you can put up with that slightly messy power brick, then the Hazro HZ30W is worth getting.
