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The XB273U F5 ships in its Standard picture mode and is ready to go out of the box. The only setting you need to address is Max Brightness, which should be switched on.
Grayscale and Gamma Tracking
The XB273U F5’s default grayscale and gamma chart shows no reasons for concern. There are slight errors at 70% brightness and above, but these will be almost invisible in content. Gamma is a tad light at the bottom of the range and slightly dark over the 50% level. Again, you won’t see an issue in real-world content.
Calibration improves grayscale tracking to reference-level with every error below 0.5dE. Gamma is closer to the reference as well, with only that small dip remaining at 10%. This is excellent performance.
I measured the sRGB mode without calibrating to show that it is nearly perfect out of the box. You can tweak the RGB sliders if you wish for even better tracking.
Comparisons
The XB273U F5 snags fourth place in the out of box comparison, putting it in the no calibration required category. An average error of 3dE or more means that you’ll see an issue. 2.90dE is a solid value. After calibration, the XB273U F5 goes into the gold medal position with a pro-level 0.39dE score. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Gamma tracking is a little less tight than the others, but 0.20 is still a good range of values in this test. The average is 1.36% off the 2.2 reference, with an actual value of 2.17. That’s mainly due to the dip I observed at 10% brightness. The rest of the range is spot on.
Color Gamut Accuracy
Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.
The XB273U F5 is a wide-gamut monitor for sure, but it doesn’t cover quite as much of DCI-P3 as its competitors. The default chart is pretty close to spec, but just a little undersaturated across the board. It could also be called oversaturated if you compare it to sRGB. It hits right in the middle between the two gamuts, meaning color looks good regardless of content. And the 2.59dE default error is below the visible threshold.
Calibration tightens up the chart a little, but the visual change is subtle. You can still see a small hue error in magenta, but the other secondaries are right on their targets. Accuracy is excellent, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a little more saturation.
The sRGB mode is very accurate if you want it for color-critical work. Its error of 1.58dE is the default value. Calibration of the RGB sliders would likely lower it a little. This is excellent performance.
Comparisons
All the panels here deliver accurate and saturated color. The XB273U F5’s fourth-place finish is by no means a negative. 1.99dE is among the best you’ll find in the gaming monitor category. And the 1.58dE I measured in the sRGB test puts it ahead of most displays.
In the volume test, the XB273U F5 is a bit below average at 86.26% coverage of DCI-P3. I will speculate that future G-Sync Pulsar screens will include larger gamuts, especially if paired with Quantum Dots or Tandem OLED tech. But for now, the XB273U F5 can be called colorful but not as colorful as some other 27-inch QHD screens. The 96.12% result for sRGB is ideal for color-specific tasks like photo or video editing.
Test Takeaway: The XB273U F5 delivers accurate color that matches the factory data sheet. It doesn’t need calibration, but a few tweaks take it to reference-level. Its only downside is a slightly smaller gamut than other 27-inch QHD gaming screens. But it is still clearly more colorful than an sRGB-only display.
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