Review: Iiyama 28 inch 4K Vertical Monitor

Four years ago, I got the Iiyama ProLite 24" Vertical Screen. But as my eyes grow dimmer and my hind-brain desires upgrades, I splurged on the (stupidly named) Iiyama ProLite XUB2893UHSU-B5.

It is well lush! Thin bezel around 3 sides. Excellent viewing angle when vertical. A decent array of video ports and USB. And fairly wallet friendly £280. There's a lot of screen for your money.

(Yes, I do have a desk crowded with gadgetry!)

I'm only using this for reading very long (and only slightly boring) documents. I can't tell you if it has the millisecond response you want for gaming. But for watching content, it is superb. The screen isn't reflective and the picture is fabulous.

There are plenty of options if you want to fiddle with your gamma, contrast, brightness, and all the other things which are standard these days.

Downsides

I'm going to start with the slight niggles I found.

First, is the built-in USB hub. You get 4 USB-A sockets - two are USB-3 and have 900mW, two are USB-2 and have 500mW. That's basically fine, but I would have expected at least a couple of USB-C by now. But what's worse is that the hub itself takes the stupid USB-B 3.0 connector. Yeah, the weird double height one. It comes with a cable in the box. But it is a bit daft.

As always, the blue LED for power is too bright - but nothing a bit of tape can't fix.

The speakers are a little tinny. Basically fine for a conference call, but nothing more. There is a headphone socket if you want to route audio to something more substantial.

I think the EDID is a little wonky - see the Linux section below.

On Windows, my laptop sometimes forgot that audio could be routed through the monitor. I restarted my hub and everything worked again. I've no idea if that's the fault of the laptop, hub, or screen.

The settings buttons are a little fiddly. No worse than any other screen - and the sort of thing you play around with once and then never again.

Positives

Great mounting options. As well as boring horizontal, the monitor can be rotate left or right to 90 degrees. The stand is well sprung so the height is easily adjusted. Similarly, it can be tilted back a bit if that's what you want.

Audio quality out of the headphone socket is excellent. No cross-chatter even at high volumes.

The cables which come with it are a decent length (HDMI, DP, Power) and the DP cable has a locking mechanism (squeeze to open).

It uses two build-in thumb-turn screws to connect the stand to the base-plate, and the monitor to the stand. No tools required. Oh, and the base-plate also rotates.

Linux

The USB hub shows up as 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub - nothing remarkable. Just works.

For some reason, I couldn't get my Linux box to drive it at 60Hz without turning on fractional scaling. I think that's a limit of my GPU. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what's the difference between 200% @ 2160p and 100% @ 1080p.

Here's what the monitor reports using sudo get-edid -b 7 | parse-edid (run without -b 7 first to find your bus number).

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier "PL2893UH"

    ModelName "PL2893UH"

    VendorName "IVM"

    # Monitor Manufactured week 33 of 2023

    # EDID version 1.4

    # Digital Display

    DisplaySize 620 340

    Gamma 2.20

    Option "DPMS" "true"

    Horizsync 15-150

    VertRefresh 24-75

    # Maximum pixel clock is 600MHz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1920x1440, 60Hz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1920x1200, 60Hz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1920x1080, 60Hz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1680x1050, 60Hz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1440x900,  60Hz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1400x1050, 60Hz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1280x1024, 60Hz

    #Not giving standard mode: 1280x720,  60Hz



    #Extension block found. Parsing...

#WARNING: I may have missed a mode (CEA mode 95)

#WARNING: I may have missed a mode (CEA mode 94)

#WARNING: I may have missed a mode (CEA mode 93)

    Modeline    "Mode 22" 262.75  3840 3888 3920 4000 2160 2163 2168 2191 +hsync -vsync 

    Modeline     "Mode 0" 533.25  3840 3888 3920 4000 2160 2163 2168 2222 +hsync -vsync 

    Modeline     "Mode 1" 

    Modeline     "Mode 2" 

    Modeline     "Mode 3" 148.500 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync

    Modeline     "Mode 4" 148.500 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync

    Modeline     "Mode 5"  74.250 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1082 1087 1125 +hsync +vsync interlace

    Modeline     "Mode 6"  74.250 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1082 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync interlace

    Modeline     "Mode 7"  74.250 1280 1390 1420 1650  720  725  730  750 +hsync +vsync

    Modeline     "Mode 8"  74.250 1280 1720 1760 1980  720  725  730  750 +hsync +vsync

    Modeline     "Mode 9"  54.000 1440 1464 1592 1728  576  581  586  625 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 10"  54.000 1440 1464 1592 1728  576  581  586  625 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 11"  27.000  720  732  796  864  576  581  586  625 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 12"  27.000  720  732  796  864  576  581  586  625 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 13"  27.000 1440 1464 1590 1728  576  578  581  625 -hsync -vsync interlace

    Modeline    "Mode 14"  27.000 1440 1464 1590 1728  576  578  581  625 -hsync -vsync interlace

    Modeline    "Mode 15"  54.054 1440 1472 1596 1716  480  489  495  525 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 16"  54.054 1440 1472 1596 1716  480  489  495  525 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 17"  27.027  720  736  798  858  480  489  495  525 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 18"  27.027  720  736  798  858  480  489  495  525 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 19"  27.027 1440 1478 1602 1716  480  484  487  525 -hsync -vsync interlace

    Modeline    "Mode 20"  27.027 1440 1478 1602 1716  480  484  487  525 -hsync -vsync interlace

    Modeline    "Mode 21"  25.200  640  656  752  800  480  490  492  525 -hsync -vsync

    Modeline    "Mode 23"  241.50 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync 

    Modeline    "Mode 24"  200.25 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 1474 +hsync -vsync 

    Option "PreferredMode" "Mode 22"

EndSection

But, ultimately, all the functions worked with Linux. The display was crisp, sound was passed over DP or HDMI, the USB port worked flawlessly.

Verdict

Too often "vertical" monitors have crap viewing angles. I'm delighted to say that the PL2893UH is perfect. Even at an oblique angle text remains sharp and colours remain consistent.

If you're going to be staring at a screen all day, it might as well be this one!

You can buy the monitor on Amazon.