Connectivity

In terms of video inputs, the EIZO FlexScan EV4340X features a pair of HDMI 1.4 ports, a DisplayPort 1.3, and a USB-C port with DisplayPort Alt Mode.


The "main" USB-C port can deliver up to 94 W of charging power to connected mobile devices, such as laptops, smartphones or tablets. That's enough juice to charge most laptops regardless of what you're using them for. To test this, I used a combination of the WITRN C5 USB voltage/current meter - connected directly to the monitor's main USB-C port - and the ATORCH BW150 electronic load with a PD 3.1 trigger module. The two devices were linked using a high-quality ORICO CL32-20 (100 W PD, 20 Gbps) 2-meter USB-C cable.

Under a 20 V/4.7 A load, the monitor delivered a stable 93 W of power through its main USB-C interface. The ATORCH BW150 registered around 88.7 W, with the difference caused by cable losses. I was able to push the load current to 4.8 A, prompting the monitor to output 95.8 W through its USB-C port while remaining completely stable. At that point, 90.43 W of power was available at the other end of the USB-C cable.


The side-mounted USB-C port supports 15 W Power Delivery, but doesn't support DP Alt Mode, so it cannot be used as an additional video input. I was able to push it to 5 V/3 A with no issues, at which point the USB-C port delivered 15.42 W of stable power (13.37 W on the receiving side). The port remained operational with the load current ramped up to 3.3 A, at which point the power output was 16.87 W on the monitor side, and 14.49 W at the receiving end of the cable. Nice!


Of course, the main USB-C port is also used for data transfer between your PC and whichever devices you plugged into the two 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports or the secondar y USB-C port. Thanks to all of this, the EIZO FlexScan EV4340X essentially acts as a docking station. Combining it with a laptop boils down to connecting a single cable, which will extend your desktop, enable the use of any and all peripherals and external drives connected to the monitor, and charge the laptop's battery.

In case your computer doesn't have a USB-C port, you can still use the monitor's integrated USB hub by utilizing its USB Type-B upstream port and connecting it to a regular USB Type-A port on your PC. The two upstream ports (USB-C and USB Type-B) also let you connect the monitor to two computers at once and seamlessly switch between them with a single set of peripherals. Let's say your work machine is a USB-C laptop and you're also using a standard desktop PC for entertainment. You'll connect your laptop to the EIZO FlexScan EV4340X with a USB-C cable and your home PC with a regular USB Type-B to USB Type-A cable, and a DisplayPort or HDMI video cable. Finally, you'll connect your keyboard and mouse to the USB Type-A ports on the monitor. After doing that, all you have to do is switch between the USB-C and DisplayPort/HDMI inputs on the monitor; the built-in KVM switch will swap your peripherals between active video interfaces. Meaning, when you switch to USB-C, your mouse and keyboard will control your laptop. After switching to DisplayPort/HDMI, your peripherals will automatically control your home PC.


Although the monitor is equipped with a 5 Gbps USB hub, the device connected through the USB-C video input will access connected USB devices through a USB 2.0 connection (480 Mbps). This isn't an issue for peripherals, but if you plan to often use external USB drives for data transfer, you might want to unlock the full 5 Gbps bandwidth. That's done in the hidden Administrator Settings OSD menu, accessed by turning the monitor off and then pressing the leaf button and "On" button immediately afterwards. The option you're looking for is found in the Signal Format menu, where you can select "4K 30 Hz / USB 5 Gbps" instead of "4K 60 Hz / USB 2.0". Obviously, that's going to lower the maximum refresh rate over USB-C to a mere 30 Hz, which is a heavy price to pay.


A third option is to connect up to four sources to the monitor and use them in Picture-in-Picture or Picture-by-Picture mode.


The monitor also has a gigabit Ethernet port, which is internally wired to its USB-C interface, so you can enjoy the benefits of a wired connection to your local network without worrying about your laptop being too thin to host an Ethernet port.


The monitor also has a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack.

Power Consumption

The EIZO FlexScan EV4340X gets its power through a beefy integrated power supply. I've used the Meross MSS315 Matter Smart Wi-Fi Plug and the accompanying mobile app to determine the monitor's power consumption at various brightness levels, as well as in Power Saving mode, which it enters as soon as the PC goes to sleep. My power consumption measurements are summed up in the chart below. They were made after resetting the monitor to factory defaults and turning the "Auto EcoView" and "EcoView Optimizer 2" features off, to remove variation from power consumption measurements, which could be caused by alternating ambient light levels in my home office.



The power consumption results are unexpectedly reasonable for a 42.5-inch 4K IPS monitor. It's worth noting that both the brightness and power consumption behave similarly to other EIZO monitors I've tested so far - they raise very slowly from 0 to 75 brightness setting in the OSD, and then in much larger steps from 75 to 100. EIZO is obviously focusing on letting us finely adjust the brightness within the range where we're looking to save our vision and prevent eyestrain. Being able to drop the brightness down to 0.8 cd/m² is another such measure; even most smartphones can't go as low. In case you use either of the USB-C ports to charge your mobile devices, the power consumption will of course rise proportionately. At full charging power, with all signal and USB ports operational, it can reach up to 243 W.


As for the aforementioned "Auto EcoView" feature, it uses a built-in EcoView Sensor to actively measure the level of ambient light and automatically adjust the picture's brightness accordingly. In my home office, the adjustments were slightly too aggressive for my taste. The screen brightness was constantly lower than I would prefer, regularly dipping below 100 cd/m² in a moderately lit room - which I found too dim to use the monitor comfortably. However, I can't argue with the accompanying power savings - the panel's power consumption was regularly below 25 W (with no USB-C devices connected, of course).

The EcoView Sensor is accompanied by the "EcoView Optimizer 2" feature. It aims to further reduce backlight brightness while increasing the gain of darker content, which should result in no perceivable loss of brightness but lower power consumption. My power meter showed very little difference with EcoView Optimizer 2 on or off, but the real-life benefit of such a feature will always be situational, so I can't dismiss it as ineffective.

Having said that, I always resort to manually adjusting the brightness to my preferred level and keeping it constant during the day, thanks to the controlled lighting conditions in my home office. For those without such luxury, the Auto EcoView and EcoView Optimizer 2 features are worth giving a try.