Spectrum
The crowdsourced Eve Spectrum 4K 144Hz gaming monitor has been around for a while now, and it entered the market late last year to mostly favorable reviews. I’ve finally gotten my hands on a testing sample, and I’ve got to say, this is a seriously nice display. It isn’t without some drawbacks, however. We’ll get into the good, the bad and the ugly, so buckle up.
Priced at $799, the Spectrum is a premium product. If you add an extra $99 for the admittedly excellent metal stand, you’re at around $900 in total before taxes and shipping. I suppose this puts the monitor somewhat in line with other 27-inch 4K gaming displays, and as many PC gamers will bemoan, $800 is not an uncommon asking price for 4K desktop technology in 2022. In fact, when you get into slightly larger screen sizes, prices can easily exceed $1,000.
My review monitor and stand arrived in separate retail boxes, which hints at how Eve has parsed out the two items for customers who may want to use the Spectrum with a VESA mount instead and therefore will only be buying the display itself.
If you do go the mounting route, you’ll be missing out on the excellent stand. It’s very modern in style, with clean lines and a single-footed base that’s nicely weighted. Not really any gamer-y accents to speak of, only minimalistic gray space-age simplicity. The stand allows the monitor to tilt and easily change heights, which all feels solid, though unfortunately, there’s no swivel. This is perhaps the only drawback to the stand, other than a lack of concealed cable management.
The sleek minimalism extends to the display itself, which also doesn’t really sport any outward gamer-esque decorations. The bezel is quite thin and is interrupted by a single LED toward the bottom that’s color-adjustable (or you can turn it off completely).
Beyond that, there’s no typical RGB to be found, not even on the back of the screen like many companies are incorporating these days. A silly addition, when you think about it, because who is looking at the back of their computer monitor?
Spectrum
The Spectrum is practically bursting with connectivity options. The heavy hitters are obviously stuff like the two HDMI 2.1 ports, which make this a solid option for PS5 and Xbox Series X users who want to get the absolute most out of their consoles’ display capabilities. You’ve also got a single DisplayPort 1.4 for standard PC connections and a 100W USB-C port for power laptop users who want to both charge their device and use the Spectrum as an external display simultaneously.
A handy USB-B upstream input rounds out the main ports, which provides juice to a vertical USB hub that adorns the side of the monitor. Here you have two USB-A ports, a single USB-C port, as well as a headphone jack. Really, there’s no lack of options on the Spectrum when it comes to plugging things in.
The only downside to all these extras is that, at least as far as I can tell, Eve doesn’t include any cables in the box. No HDMI, no DP, no USB. Only a rather beefy power brick with accompanying power cable are provided. I’ve got to say that, for $800, this seems like Eve is needlessly cutting corners. Why offer so many connectivity options with no way of utilizing them straight out of the box?
Beyond ports, a single concave OSD joystick sits behind the bottom of the display, and it’s quite satisfying to control and click. The whole monitor simply feels good, from the matte plastic finish to the general weight of the components to the cleverly recessed power button. From a strictly material perspective, the Spectrum comes across as high quality, premium and exclusive. That’s not even mentioning the well-designed packaging.
The Spectrum’s LG Adaptive Sync IPS panel boasts 98% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, and while testing the display with my Spyder X device, this claim seemed to be largely true. I think content creators will be pleased with how color accurate Eve’s monitor is, and this visual brilliance parlays nicely over into gaming.
HDR600 is…okay. At least it’s better than some recent HDR400 panels I’ve tested, which is borderline inexcusable for HDR tech. The Spectrum is plenty bright for most use cases, so the whole HDR nit stuff is kind of nitpicky, if I’m being honest.
Spectrum
I played all manner of titles on the Spectrum, everything from Cyberpunk 2077 to Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, Borderlands 3, Overwatch, Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. In short, the monitor provided 4K at 144Hz gaming goodness. Granted, if you’re on PC, you’ll need a beastly graphics card to drive those kind of visuals, and if you’re on console, you’ll need to own either a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S.
The trusty UFO test didn’t show any noticeable ghosting, nor did I see it while gaming. There’s plenty of overdrive settings to mess with inside the OSD, as well as a framerate counter and crosshair, but I typically keep all those options off or, in the case of overdrive, set to ‘normal’.
Overall, the Eve Spectrum does what it initially set out to do: Display games really well. Modern titles look incredible in 4K at 144Hz, provided you have the hardware to push software that far, and the monitor performs all this while looking aesthetically pleasing for most desk setups. For my personal taste, I think 27 inches is too small, both for productivity and gaming, but your mileage may vary.
I’m not entirely sure that crowdsourcing was necessary for how little the Spectrum ultimately deviates from the pack, nor do I appreciate the high price and how little was included in the box in terms of cables. Eve has created a very solid display, no doubt, and it will meet most gamers’ needs, especially in terms of resolution and refresh rate.
But with how quickly the competition is pumping out rival products that feature the once-rare 2.1 HDMI ports, I’d imagine the Spectrum is quickly becoming a tough sell. At least Eve appears to be keeping the monitor up-to-date with plenty of firmware releases. I’ll hopefully have some hands-on time with the glossy version soon, so stay tuned for that.
Disclosure: Eve provided review product for coverage purposes.