Datacolor Spyder5 Elite Monitor Calibrator Review

Rikki Wright / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The Spyder5 Elite doesn’t come in cheap at a hefty €257.04. However, a product like this isn’t for the general consumer, it is for the professionals in the world that require ultra-precise colours. Generally those in the fashion and media sectors require this level of colour calibration.

Overview

As a whole package, the Spyder5 Elite is a great bit of kit for professionals. The general home user could never justify the cost of this just to use once or twice. As someone who will be using this on a regular basis, I love how simple the software is to use; I could even ask my 8-year-old daughter to carry out the process while I sip my coffee.

Everyone’s tolerance to brightness and what is actually white is different. Personally I like a higher than the average brightness of 8000K for me to perceive a blank word document as pure white while others can see white at 6500K. This is where this hardware comes in, it takes out the guess work so the monitor is always set to the best colours, removing the possible human error and providing more true to life recreations. Personally after the calibration, I found the screen to be too warm (orange) for my liking and reverted the settings back almost immediately.

Now everything has a down point and this is no exception. During my testing of the Philips BDM4065UC, I had to completely reconfigure my desk to give the Spyder5 enough slack to comfortably fit on every part of the screen without putting undue stress on the cable.

Pros

Extremely simple to use
Compact size
Simple to use software
Robust device
Continuous light sensor to monitor environment lighting

Cons

Cable could be slightly longer
Expensive
Calibration required manual input

“One of the best calibration tools on the market provided by innovation and over 40 years experience. If you work with colour perfect image, this is a must-have to get the best out of your monitor.”