Picture Quality

The RCA Evolution M27PG135F features a 27-inch widescreen 8-bit Fast IPS panel, with a native resolution of 2560x1440, giving it a dot pitch of 0.2335 mm (108.79 PPI), and a 240 Hz refresh rate. For the longest time 27-inch 1440p monitors were considered to offer an ideal balance of image sharpness, screen real estate, and "manageability" of the resolution when it came to gaming; there are drastically fewer pixels to push compared to 4K resolution, and the image is noticeably sharper than in Full HD. To anyone with limited desk space, I'd still recommend getting a 27-inch 1440p monitor over pretty much anything else, especially if you're into gaming. For content creation and other types of work, you might see it beneficial to opt for a 4K monitor, although then you have to swallow a noticeable price hike compared to 1440p models.

The screen uses a White-LED (W-LED) backlight unit. It's controlled by direct current (DC), which makes it flicker-free at any given brightness level. The screen coating on the RCA Evolution M27PG135F is light anti-glare (AG). The screen is decently resistant to reflecting its surroundings even when used in a room with a lot of natural or artificial light, and the picture isn't perceived as grainy or dirty from a normal sitting distance, which can be the case with heavier AG coatings. The maximum specified brightness of the panel is 250 cd/m², accompanied by a static contrast ratio of 1,000:1.

Picture Quality at Factory Settings

I tested the picture quality of the RCA Evolution M27PG135F at its factory defaults right after plugging the monitor in and allowing the panel to warm up for about an hour.


The brightness of the panel is set to 90 out of the box, which is definitely higher than necessary, but the uninitiated will find such a bright picture instantly appealing. The initial set of tests revealed that the brightness is set to 326 cd/m² by default, boosted by a very high white point, measuring 8,038 K. The contrast ratio of 935:1 is typical for a regular gaming IPS panel, and the out-of-the-box color accuracy is mediocre. The average ∆E is 3.14, but the colorimeter picked up several substantial deviations in various shades of red, green, and blue. Some of them are quite severe, going as high as ∆E 6.23. The gamma curve looks underwhelming. Brightness tracking is tolerable at lower levels, but from 30% onwards the curve drifts away from the target. The gamma measures lower than expected, which means that all content is being displayed brighter than necessary, resulting in a loss of detail in brighter scenes. Gamma tracking is notoriously hard to fix without calibration, but the good news is that OSD offers gamma controls. With that in mind, the first order of business was to check what can be achieved by setting the gamma value to 2.4 to tackle the brightness tracking issues, and to try to fix that high white point. Oddly enough, my subjective impression of RCA Evolution M27PG135F's out-of-the-box picture quality was quite a bit better than what the instruments showed. That's not unusual when the brightness and white point are adjusted to high values, because such a combination gives the picture sort of a smartphone-like quality, which our eyes are very used to.

To fix the white balance, lower the brightness to a more comfortable 250 cd/m² level, and attempt to tackle the less-than-stellar gamma tracking, I had to lower the brightness (Display > Brightness) to 75, set the gamma (Color > Gamma) to 2.4, and adjust the color channel gain individually. The latter is done in the Color > Color Temperature menu, where you have to select User and then balance the channels while measuring the changes with a colorimeter in real time. I achieved that goal by lowering the red channel (R) to 48, green (G) to 44, and blue (B) to 43. The experience wasn't very pleasant, primarily because small changes to color channel gain result in substantial changes to the actual color temperature. There are also these weird, hidden half-steps, where the gain value stays the same numerically, but in fact changes and alters the white balance. Let's compare the measurements before and after doing the OSD tweaks.



After adjusting the settings as described, we see massive improvements to the white balance, which we've successfully lowered from over 8,000 K to very close to 6,500 K. The average color accuracy also improved slightly, while the static contrast ratio took a plunge to 840:1. IPS panels aren't what you'll look for if you're after an impressive contrast, so I see this as an acceptable compromise to getting other aspects of the monitor in order. With the gamma set to 2.4, gamma tracking is better than before, but still far from perfect. Now we get lower brightness than required by the input signal at levels below 50%, and slightly higher brightness past 50%. However, between gamma 2.2 and 2.4, I'd rather opt for the latter, simply because the deviation, when averaged, is less than at the default 2.2 value. In this state the overall picture quality of the RCA Evolution M27PG135F is solid.


This is what the CIE diagram looks like. I measured a 99.8% coverage of the sRGB and 92.7% coverage of the DCI-P3 color spaces. The gamut volume equals 148.1% for sRGB and 104.9% for DCI-P3 color spaces, respectively. The measured Adobe RGB coverage is 90.8%, with Adobe RGB gamut volume reaching 102.1%.


This is what the luminance and color uniformity of the RCA Evolution M27PG135F look like when measured at 25 different patches across the panel. Please click on the image to see it in high resolution and examine the data in greater detail. The brightness uniformity is good overall, mostly staying below -8% across the panel, which is impossible to spot with the naked eye. The contrast deviation is great, staying within 5% on the entire screen. The color uniformity is acceptable. The deviations stay within ∆E 4 on average. This is of course an issue if you plan to use the RCA Evolution M27PG135F for professional graphics, but that's not what the monitor is intended for. Given its gaming-first nature, there's really not much to complain about in terms of panel uniformity.

Picture Quality After Calibration

I calibrated the display using the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and the DisplayCAL software solution.

Here's what we get after calibrating the monitor.



Now that's more like it. After calibration, the RCA Evolution M27PG135F shows excellent color accuracy and almost perfect gamma tracking, proving that its panel has a lot of potential, and it's up to the user to bring it to the front. That unfortunately means you'll have to obtain a calibration device to get the most out of this monitor in terms of color performance, but if you can get your hands on one, it will be hugely beneficial. I got much better results when calibrating the monitor with gamma set to 2.2 instead of 2.4, so make sure to change that option back to 2.2, if you end up calibrating the RCA Evolution M27PG135F.

Backlight Uniformity

To give you an idea of the backlight's uniformity, I set the monitor's brightness to 250 cd/m² before taking a photo of the panel in a completely dark room. I did my best to find a combination of the ISO value and shutter speed that would capture the screen in a way that made it look as close to what my eyes were seeing in real life.



We can see several bright spots on the bottom edge of the panel, where backlight bleed is most obvious. Luckily, they're not visible when displaying any kind of brighter content, but if you're playing a darker game or watching a movie with black bars, you'll be able to spot them with the naked eye.

Viewing Angles

The viewing angles of the Fast IPS panel built into the RCA Evolution M27PG135F are very good. There's no visible shift in colors when you change your sitting position.