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Introduction
You've probably never heard of Eve before, but you should take notice.
They're a new company that was birthed out of the world of Kickstarter, have been embroiled in some controversy, and come out as a champion -- a new gaming monitor brand that is hopefully here to stay. It's changing the game in a big way starting as one of the first 4K 144Hz capable HDMI 2.1 gaming monitors and man, it is kickass.
The company took to Kickstarter, and with the help of 4053 gamers, coders, and designers the Eve Spectrum was born -- the ultimate 27-inch IPS gaming monitor.
Eve promised its 27-inch 4K 144Hz gaming monitor with HDMI 2.1 for $799 that would've blown the world away. But then COVID hit, and we've seen a few other companies -- big ones like ASUS, pushing out their HDMI 2.1-powered 4K 144Hz gaming monitors.
They were on my radar but then because I had so much stuff flying through my doors, I put it on the backburner to get through a million and one other things -- and these stupid ridiculous "snap lockdowns" that we keep going through here in Australia.
Well, the monitor arrived and I can safely say I've never been so surprised with a new company.
From the packaging through to putting the monitor together, I don't think I've ever reviewed a monitor that was so beautifully presented, and so easily put together and turned on. It took less than 5 minutes for that process, it was that easy.
Hats off to the team at Eve that made this feel like a totally different experience, with a beautiful design and seamless bezels that just melt off the sides of the Spectrum gaming monitor. The stand is another thing on its own, which gives me the same chills as the iconic Samsung 172X monitor from back in the day.
Eve has everything here: 4K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 connectivity, DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity, USB ports, USB-C, an optional (yes, optional) stand with height adjustment, vertical adjustment, and more. There's AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility, and of course: a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Eve is selling the Spectrum gaming monitor for $799 while the stand will cost an additional $99. This is on the more expensive side of things, considering you can buy a far bigger and better LG CX 48-inch 4K 120Hz OLED TV for around $1300.
Detailed Look
Eve Spectrum Retail Packaging
Eve Spectrum Monitor
After over 10 years in IT retail selling computer parts, I'm a huge fan of retail packaging. It's the first thing that catches your eye on the shelf -- if the pandemic didn't ruin everything -- and it's the first thing you see once you've got the product in your hands.
Eve has some of the best retail packaging for a gaming monitor that I've seen, it's effective, simple, eye-catching. This goes for both the monitor, which doesn't come with the stand in the box -- and the stand, which is sold separately.
Right out of the box, the Eve Spectrum is sleek as fuck -- normally I'd censor the profanity, but this deserves it. Eve, you are fucking ROCKING in the style department. I don't think -- no, I've never been this impressed with a monitor company that upon the release of its first monitor, has impressed me this much from the retail packaging through to the actual design and aesthetic of the display itself.
Thin bezels, slick style... you can ask for no more.
Remember, Eve crowdsourced this Spectrum ES07D03 monitor -- and it comes with no stand in the retail packaging. This is a good thing or a bad thing depending on which side of the fence you are on -- but Eve is listening to its customers like NO OTHER COMPANY ON THE PLANET -- in caps, for emphasis.
They didn't want the stand as 46.6% of users didn't want to have a stand with the new Eve Spectrum gaming monitor.
Connectivity-wise, Eve impresses beyond words with its new Spectrum monitor. Not only is it offering 4K 120Hz out of the box thanks to its next-gen HDMI 2.1 connectivity, but you have 2 x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 connector to the left, and the DC power input, USB-C, and USB 3.0 hub on the right.
On the left of the monitor, we have another 2 x USB 3.0 ports and another USB-C port as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. The USB-C ports are incredibly useful, as they offer up to 100W of charging... which let me use the USB-C ports to charge up my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra smartphone and Apple 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
The USB ports also give you the ability of charging up your other devices, like wireless headphones, keyboards, mice, cameras, and everything in between.
Now, the stand -- this is completely optional. I used it for the purposes of the review, but I also purchased myself a new Ergotron monitor stand that I will be using the Eve Spectrum on very soon -- but for the purposes of the review, I used the stand.
The stand is impressive as I used it in portrait mode for half of my 3-4 weeks with the Eve Spectrum, I came to truly love having a 4K 120Hz monitor in portrait mode next to my 32-inch 4K 144Hz monitor (that I will have my full review available on next week).
Getting the Eve Spectrum onto the stand is easier than popping open a beer... which I might have done during this review. Just sayin'.
Connectivity, Specs, Marketing
Eve's marketing is on point here, they're doing a better job than some of the much, much bigger companies out there selling gaming monitors for the same, if not higher prices. I just had to point that out -- it's an impressive thing to see.
Eve ticks all of the right boxes with Spectrum -- if you're looking for a 27-inch panel, then it literally ticks every box you can imagine. 4K resolution, 144Hz refresh, HDMI 2.1, USB connectivity, USB fast-charge technology, optional stand, and more.
It all starts with the 27-inch IPS panel that rolls out with a native 4K resolution, so we have 3840 x 2160 rocking out at up to 144Hz if you have the PC hardware chops to handle that. You would need an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or Radeon RX 6900 XT, or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, or GeForce RTX 3090 for 4K 120FPS+ gaming.
All of the new Radeon RX 6000 series and GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs have HDMI 2.1 connectivity, so you can handle the 4K 120/144Hz over the HDMI 2.1 cable -- along with a next-gen Microsoft Xbox Series X/S or Sony PlayStation 5 console over the HDMI 2.1 cable and enjoy 4K120.
If you've got a USB-C powered smartphone, tablet, iPad, Nintendo Switch, or anything requiring up to 100W charging over USB-C then Eve has your back with the Spectrum offering a USB-C port with 100W of charging, video, audio, or data -- all over a single cable.
The stand... OMG the stand, I could gush over this. It was so easy to build, and can be put into a 90-degree rotation which I used for the most part. It was to the side of another monitor I was reviewing at the time -- a 32-inch 4K 144Hz Mini-LED gaming monitor. It was used for my Twitter feed, my Gmail, and keeping an eye outside my house with my Logitech Arlo cameras.
I loved the 90-degree rotation on the stand, but you've also got height adjustment and tilt... you truly can't complain. The stand is awesome.
But the thing is, the stand is completely optional -- 46% of Eve's users said they didn't care if it came with a stand as they'd put it on a VESA mount (which I plan to do). This means the Eve Spectrum is actually cheaper as a result, which is great for you -- the consumer.
However, if you aren't putting it on a VESA mount then the optional stand that Eve sells is fantastic and I highly suggest buying it.
Test System Specs
I recently built a new system in a collaboration build with MSI which is detailed in length here, where I compared the flagship MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X and MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X graphics cards against each other at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K.
I've used the same system for 8K benchmarking, ensuring we have enough CPU grunt to handle it.
Workstation & Gaming Use
I used the Eve Spectrum for over two weeks in workstation and gaming use like I do all of my monitor reviews, it gives me a good time with the monitor using it how I would in my day-to-day use with my many duties and far too many hours working for TweakTown.
I used the Spectrum over HDMI 2.1 as that is a major selling point of it, and in both vertical for around a week and then in its regular horizontal mode for another week. At first, I used the Spectrum to my left and had my Twitter and a few cryptocurrencies that I keep an eye on -- Dogecoin, XRP.
Eve Spectrum packs 2 x USB-C ports and I made good use of those, plugging up and charging my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra smartphone and Apple's new 12.9-inch iPad Pro -- man, the Mini LED display on the new iPad Pro is fantastic, by the way.
The IPS panel is gorgeous to look at for hours and hours at a time, with colors and sharpness very impressive. It's one of the best IPS displays that I've laid my eyes on, right out of the box too I might add. I did nothing to the Eve Spectrum, and it was just fantastic.
It comes quite close to the impressive Mini LED panel that I'm using to the right of the Eve Spectrum, the new ASUS ROG Swift PG32UQX monitor -- a 32-inch Mini LED monitor with 4K 144Hz and also, HDMI 2.1 connectivity. Eve's new Spectrum is still impressive, damn impressive, even literally next to the Mini LED display next to it.
However, I did personally purchase myself LG's mammoth 77-inch OLED TV, with 4K 120Hz offered over HDMI 2.1 and it is utterly amazing. Of course, the OLED panel blows the IPS and Mini LED displays away, but not everyone has thousands to spend on a TV. The reason I'm mentioning this is that the Eve Spectrum is still impressive and in those leagues of the OLED.
Where I'm happy to recommend the Eve Spectrum for workstation use for the sub $1000 price, up against even an OLED monitor. You can get the last-gen LG CX series 48-inch 4K 120Hz OLED TV for $1300 right now, which is an absolute steal -- but sometimes, 48 inches of TV is just too much for a gaming PC -- and that's where the 27-inch Eve Spectrum comes into play.
I also watched a bunch of content on the Eve Spectrum while I was working, including Zack Snyder's Justice League, Brave New World, American Gods -- all of which I recommend, but man did the third season of American Gods turn into a huge disappointment.
They all looked fantastic on the Eve Spectrum, including anything you put through it with Netflix, YouTube, etc.
Now, when it comes to the gaming side of things I put at least 50-60 hours of gaming into Call of Duty: Warzone, cranking along at 4K 120FPS and looking, and running so smoothly. I'm using a GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card for the Eve Spectrum monitor review, giving me enough power to drive HDMI 2.1 and its new 4K 120Hz powers.
I also got some time in with Back 4 Blood, which looked great on the Eve Spectrum -- nice and gory, with great amounts of detail when things were getting hectic.
Warzone on the other hand, the screen quality is crisp AF and truly did help me game a little better than a lower-end gaming monitor would. How? The image quality is beautiful, and the 120FPS+ frame rate on the monitor makes enemy acquisition faster.
Running as fast as I can in Warzone and diving through windows like a 90s action star felt awesome on the Eve Spectrum -- again, keeping an eye to the very sides of the panel to look for enemies and the response time on the Spectrum is great.
What's Hot & What's Not
What's Hot
- Made by 4053 gamers, coders and designers: I love this... it's not made by suits sitting around a board table making a monitor that they think looks cool, but doesn't. The Eve Spectrum was born from over 4000 people collaborating and spit-balling, until the final design was decided upon.
- Very slick design: Speaking of that design, I love it -- it's sleek as hell. It looks fantastic on a VESA mount or on the optional stand. The optional stand is like a super-power for the Eve Spectrum, so if you're not putting it on a VESA mount you're going to need the stand.
- 4K 144Hz: 4K resolution out of the box at a blistering 144Hz, you'd better hope you've got the GPU horsepower to run the Eve Spectrum.
- 1ms response time: Not only do you have 4K 144Hz, but you've got an insane-fast 1ms response time for even the twitchiest of twitch shooters. You'd have to be on a handful of Adderall to move faster than the Eve Spectrum at 144FPS and 1ms response time.
- HDMI 2.1 connectivity: HDMI 2.1 is vital these days, I don't think you should be buying a new gaming monitor without it. You might not have HDMI 2.1 connectivity on the GPU you own today, but any new GPU you buy in the future will have it. Alternatively, you can plug in a next-gen console like the Xbox Series X/S or PlayStation 5 into the Eve Spectrum through HDMI 2.1 and enjoy 4K 120FPS gaming.
- USB-C connectivity with up to 100W charging: USB-C connectivity is another nice touch here on the Eve Spectrum, with up to 100W of charging for even laptops and high-end smartphones and everything in between.
- Super-thin bezels: I'm a huge fan of the thin bezels on the Eve Spectrum... it makes me want to try out 3 of them in 90-degree vertical mode... hey Eve... wanna send me 2 more Spectrum monitors?
- 90-degree vertical use with stand: LOVE LOVE LOVE this with the stand.
What's Not
There's not much to not like about the Eve Spectrum, it's a tour de force of gaming monitor -- you'll love it.
Final Thoughts
I've walked away from the Eve Spectrum more impressed than I thought I'd be, and I love that -- it is infused with the energy of the consumers who put their money where their mouth is -- literally, with Kickstarter... through to the Spectrum now shipping to gamers across the world.
There are critics that thought this would bomb, but it definitely hasn't -- quite the opposite. I want to see what Eve can do with larger displays, and then UltraWide gaming monitors -- it would be nice to see a 32-inch and 43-inch Eve Spectrum gaming monitor, both with HDMI 2.1 and 4K 144Hz ready to go.
I'd love to see a high-end 21:9 and 32:9 aspect UltraWide gaming monitor, with the super-thin bezels that Eve has used here on the Spectrum it would be so nice to see in the future. I'm hoping that's where we're headed, and if the first monitor out of Eve's hands is this good... then sign me up, I want to see the company grow over the coming years.
Eve -- you've impressed me with the Spectrum, which has become a staple of my workstation PC. But oh man, would 3 of these side-by-side look fantastic in portrait mode... maybe that's something I need to do. I mean, the Eve Spectrum feels built for that -- either with or without the stands.