New monitor checklist: what to test in the first week

How this is calculated

Order matters more than people think. Start with settings, because most problems found in the first hour are settings, not hardware. Install the monitor at its native resolution, pick the highest refresh rate in your operating system's display settings, and check that the cable is the one the maker recommends. Set browser zoom to 100% and let the screen warm up for 15 to 30 minutes, since brightness and color drift a little while the panel heats up. Then go through the patterns. The five solid colors come first because pixel faults are the easiest to spot and the hardest to argue with. Gray and dark gray come next for uniformity, then gradients and gray steps for banding, near-black and near-white patches for shadow and highlight handling, the sharpness tiles for scaling blur, and the moving target last. Take notes on paper or your phone if you like. The tool doesn't save what you saw, and a shared link only carries the setup. If something looks wrong, write down the pattern, where on the screen, and the room light, so you can repeat the same check later.

Verdict

Do the full pass once on day one and again a few days later, at your normal brightness and seat. Real faults stay put between sessions. Things that come and go with room light, viewing angle or a setting change usually aren't faults. If a problem survives both passes and shows in games, video or documents, contact the seller while you can still return it, and check the maker's pixel and uniformity policy.