HP Dreamcolor LP2480ZX: One billion colours!

The generous chaps over at HP have just sent us what they proudly believe is the LCD monitor to end all LCD monitors. The HP Dreamcolor LP2480ZX's claim to fame is that it'll deliver colour reproduction the likes of which was only possible with a CRT display.

Designed in conjunction with movie studio Dreamworks, the LP2480ZX is capable of showing 64 times the colours supported by ordinary LCDs. It has a 30-bit LCD panel and a tri-colour LED backlight, which allows it to display over one billion colours. That's heavily impressive, considering the LCD you're reading this on probably shows just 16.7 million shades.

The HP LP2480ZX has seven colour space presets: full gamut, Rec. 709 (HD television), sRGB, Rec. 601 (YUV 4:2:2), Adobe RGB, a user-defined colour space and a fairly close rendition of DCI-P3 (digital cinema). By HP's own admission this is only 97 per cent perfect, but in most cases it'll be perfectly adequate.

During our time testing it, we were blown away by the image quality. It has, unquestionably, the best picture we've seen on any flat panel display, ever. Its exceptionally wide colour gamut means it can differentiate between even very similar tones with absolute ease.

Obviously, performance like this doesn't come cheap. The HP Dreamcolor LP2480ZX will set you back around £2,000. However, if you're looking for a professional-grade LCD that delivers results on par with a CRT, or you're just filthy rich and want something much better than your mates, this is the very fellow for you.