I have been watching on this monitor since it is available. $639 seems to be the cheapest price ever of this monitor. And it is in stock shipping in 1-2 days. Shipping is $19.71 to Melbourne.
Past deal of this monitor: $669+shipping as pre-order, waiting period was about 3-4 weeks.
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How good is this monitor?
How does it compare to Apple's monitor and to Dell's U2713 for example?
should be a similar panel to the DELL U30xxx series of monitors (not too many different suppliers for WQXGA panels out there) I believe Kogan's 27" monitor is the same panel as the Apple and Dell monitors though, if you want a direct comparison.
My work purchased one of these a few weeks ago. When it arrived, it didn't take long to concluded that it is…
COMPLETE AND UTTER CRAP.
The stand isn't stable.
It regularly blacks out for a second or two.
The power light is so bright that it gets genuinely annoying. Would be unusable in a dark room.
The picture isn't great and it took some time to find colorsync settings that didn't look truly horrible.
The build quality is terrible, the gap between the bezel and the screen varies significantly along the bottom of the screen.
At the same time we bought some 27 inch 2560x1440 ASUS monitors from MSY, which is much nicer (and $100 cheaper than Kogan at the time). The biggest complaint I have with the ASUS is the quality of the plastic along the top of the display, which has some noticeable rough edges.
The 27 inch Dell we have in the office is clearly better made than both. I had an old Apple 30inch, the build quality was great, and the picture was OK (this was 2006) but I would still take it over the Kogan.
Buy something else.
Thanks for your advice. I was about to buy this one…
The power light is so bright that it gets genuinely annoying. Would be unusable in a dark room
I can vouch the same for the new 27" Kogan .. a cree torch would be jealous.
Hi,
You mentioned that you got a 27" Asus for $100 cheaper.
I might just point out that 27" != 30".
In fact, the 27" monitors are usually around half the price of 30" monitors - so either the Kogan is incredibly cheap, or you got ripped off on the Asus. (I suspect a combination of the two.)
For example, I just bought a QNIX IPS-panel 27" for $300 from BigClothCraft (well-known purveyor of Korean monitors).
Their equivalent 30" monitors are around $600+.
I haven't seen a Kogan in person, so I can't comment - I'm surprised it's that bad though. I've never bought a Kogan product before, but I always assumed they were ok.
The terrible stand I can understand - that's common to all the Korean monitors - and most people who buy these mount it on a VESA stand anyhow, so it's a moot point.
The blackouts sounds like either a QC issue with the monitor, or possible an issue with the cable? How was Kogan's customer service when you mentioned these issues to them?
With my monitor, the build quality certainly isn't fantastic - however, with the exception of a single dead pixel in the top-left corner, the picture is otherwise great.
Cheers,
Victor
The 27 inch monitors were 2560x1440, not 1080p so they are a little more expensive than the normal 27 inch. I think Kogan's equivalent 27inch was about $200 cheaper than the 30inch (and $100 cheaper than the ASUS) before shipping when we ordered.
The blackouts might be due to the Mac Mini, I haven't researched it since it isn't my problem (30 inch monitors seem to be a little bit troublesome at times). It isn't the cable since we tested it with a dual link DVI adapter and Display Port (which both go out of the same port on the Mac Mini, but into different ports on the display).
The crappy construction goes beyond the wonky stand, the back of the display bleeds light, and as I said, the gap between the bezel and the screen varies significantly. Further, the ASUS has a matt finish on the bezel, which reduces reflections, where as the Kogan (and a lot of others) have a glossy display (I wish my TV had a matt border :-S).
Anyway, for my money I would much rather the ASUS, even at the cost of 160px of vertical height (which is significant as a developer). This would be the same, even at the same price. Frankly, if I bought the Kogan I would have tried to get a refund and bought something else.
There may be better alternatives out there than the ASUS, honestly I haven't looked that much into it, but I was given a choice of the two, sitting side by side and I chose the ASUS without hesitation…
very nice. though im holding out for the 4k monitors to come down in price