Review: Pantone Huey Pro monitor calibration

Get consistent and accurate colour reproduction from your monitor

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Price: £103

Manufacturer: Pantone

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Verdict

Pros: Very easy to use; continuous ambient light compensation
Cons: Software still rather basic; expensive considering the limited new features
Overall: Not a huge upgrade from the previous version, but it's easy to use and works with LCD monitors

Paul Monckton, Personal Computer World 29 May 2007

The new Huey Pro from Pantone, like the original model, is a small USB device that lets you accurately configure the colours displayed on your monitor.

The supplied software, which is impressively easy to use, guides you through the process with simple on-screen instructions.

When placed directly onto your screen, the Huey Pro measures brightness and colour output so that, for any given input from your PC’s graphics card, the exact output on your display can be known.

Even after calibration, the Huey Pro continues to make itself useful by measuring ambient light levels around you and making your display brighter or dimmer in response to changing room brightness. A small desktop cradle is provided so you can keep it on your desk next to your monitor.

Everything described so far about the Huey Pro could be equally attributed to the standard version of the Huey, and this is the problem with this Pro version. The difference between the two is simply the software provided.

The Pro software does contain some new features, but not many. The original Huey used descriptive terms throughout; users would select display options such as Gaming or Web Browsing and Photo Editing. With Huey Pro these are replaced with more technical selections such as standard illuminants and numerical gamma settings, which can be combined according to the user’s own preferences. Individual profiles can now be named and saved by the user for later use.

The Pro version is able to correct brightness and contrast on both CRT and LCD displays, while the standard version can’t do this on LCDs. You also now get multiple monitor support and more advanced help features.

Given that Huey Pro is essentially a relatively minor software upgrade to Huey, the difference in price of £33 seems rather high, but LCD users will certainly benefit from the added correction capabilities – especially when using analogue VGA cables.

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