Iiyama Red Eagle G-MASTER GB2560HSU 24.5in 144Hz Monitor Review

Rating: 8.5.

Iiyama has traditionally been a manufacturer associated with the high end and professional markets. But more recently the company has also developed a sizeable portfolio of gaming screens. The Red Eagle G-MASTER GB2560HSU is still a relatively premium option in terms of features, offering 144Hz and adaptive sync, but it costs a reasonable £220 for a 24.5in Full HD panel.

Unlike some manufacturers targeting the higher end of the gaming market, Iiyama has stuck with TN panel technology. This provides the fastest 1ms pixel response rate, which is optimal for this type of user, albeit usually at the expense of colour fidelity and contrast compared to IPS and VA respectively.

Nevertheless, the brightness specification is high at 400cd/m2, although contrast is the usual 1,000:1 rating found with TN panels. The adaptive sync technology used is AMD's FreeSync rather than NVIDIA's G-Sync, the latter being more expensive to implement. So you'll be confined to Radeon graphics if you want to take advantage of this capability.

Inputs include an adequate pair of digital-only options – HDMI and DisplayPort. There are no legacy video connections available. As a result, no analog minijack audio input is included, just output. There are also stereo 2W speakers available, but more for convenience as a gamer is probably going to plug headphones into the minijack. A USB hub is included, too, but clearly only aimed at making attachment of keyboard and mouse. It only has two ports, and only supports USB 2.0.

There's a solid range of physical adjustment available, including tilt, swivel, and raising, plus portrait mode. So you can get this screen into exactly the position you want. Build quality is solid and the design has a frameless bezel top and sides. So the GB2560HSU is promising on paper. But how does it stack up in the real world?

Specification:

• Screen size: 24.5-inch, 16:9 aspect
• Native resolution: 1,920 x 1,080
• Refresh rate: 144Hz
• Panel type: TN
• Contrast ratio: 1,000:1 (typical)
• Brightness: 400cd/m2
• Response time: 1ms Grey-to-Grey
• Display inputs: HDMI, DisplayPort
• USB hub: Yes, 2 x USB 2.0
• Tilt: 5 degrees forward, 22 degrees backward
• Raise: 130mm
• Swivel: 45 degrees left and right
• Portrait: Yes
• Other: Audio output, 2W stereo speakers, AMD FreeSync

Retail Price: £219.98 (inc. VAT)

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