This is a comparison of the Datacolor Spyder4 Elite and the X-Rite i1Display Pro, both of which I had here at the same time.
First, let's compare the physical devices themselves. The Spyder4 device is purposely designed to look like a "spider" (if spiders had 3 legs) to stay in line with the marketing of the name brand. It's a very large device. It's hung from its own USB cable from the top of the monitor, with a counterweight in the back to keep the device in place. It's very large, which can make it difficult to use on the lower sections of the screen during screen uniformity tests. I have a large-ish 27" monitor, and I had to hold the spider in place at a 90 degree angle with my hands during those parts of screen testing. In addition, the position of the cable on the device means that if you have a screen that sits deep in its bezel, it's physically impossible for the Spyder4 to sit flat against the screen on its own unless you can tilt the monitor way back. Even on my screen with relatively shallow bezels, and with a stand that can tilt back 20 degrees, it was often difficult to get it sitting flat on the screen. This can get frustrating.
On the other hand, the i1Display Pro is a very small device that can easily fit anywhere on your screen. The setup is mostly the same, where you hang the device from its USB cable over the top of your display, with a counterweight to hold it in place. In this case, the cable is positioned so that it contributes towards holding the device flat against the screen, no matter how deep your panel sits compared to the bezels. I never had any trouble getting it to sit flat against my screen, I didn't even need to resort to tilting the screen. And it sat comfortably flat on its own anywhere on the screen, even at the extreme bottom corners where the Spyder4 could not reach.
There are really 2 main performance criteria to consider with these devices: speed and accuracy. I used these devices with their respective software packages, so I'm not sure if they'd work differently in a single profiling software package that supports both of them. However the differences I observed within their own environments were very noticeable. First and foremost, the Spyder4 was clunky and slow, while the i1Display Pro was lightning fast and intuitive. For example, while setting brightness and contrast early on in the profiling process, the Spyder4 would take a reading, ask me to make changes, then wait for me to click the "Update" button to take another reading and update the results. This is slow, tedious and error prone. Meanwhile, the i1Profiler software gave me a constant readout of the screen brightness as I made changes, with results displaying immediately.
Also, during the profiling process, the Spyder4 Elite software frequently paused to wait unnecessarily for my input. For example, after setting the brightness properly, there was another button to proceed with profiling. And when it was done profiling, there was another button to "Finish". And these buttons show up half-hidden under the Spyder4 device itself, with no obvious screen prompts to let you know they're there. So if you're away from your desk and just glancing at the screen once in a while, you might not realize that the profiling process is waiting for your input. It's a very frustrating design.
On the other hand, the i1Profiler software had no such issues. When there were prompts, they were few and far between, and clearly noticeable from anywhere in the room. Most of the process was very automated. The ability of the software to adjust most monitors automatically makes the process even more quick and straightforward.
Patch color reading with the Spyder4 is painfully slow. A patch is displayed, the Spyder4 flashes briefly, then there's an interminable moment before the next patch comes up and the process repeats again. With the i1Display Pro, patch color reading is blazing fast. You can see color patches flying through the display faster than they can be identified by eye. The reading speed for each patch can vary, so I assume the software is waiting for the color to stabilize before accepting the reading from the device. This gives me confidence that the software is performing its job as fast as it can while still being accurate.
The end result with the Spyder 4 was disappointing. I always ended up with a magenta cast on my Dell U2317H. This was true with the monitor in both sRGB and wide-gamut modes. On my super-old Asus V242H, I ended up with a blue cast (this is an sRGB CCFL LCD monitor).
The i1Display Pro is directly supported by my Dell monitor for hardware calibrating, and results were superb. I was able to add a flawless sRGB preset and a full-gamut preset that covered 99.5% AdobeRGB (plus much, much more beyond). Colors are neutral, whites are white, and shadows are crisp and detailed while still reaching pitch black levels. These settings are stored right in my monitor's LUT, so they're not dependent on a software LUT modification in the video card.
I also used the i1Display Pro to calibrate my Asus monitor using software calibration. Results were again superb. My Asus perfectly matches the Dell when I have the latter set to my custom sRGB mode.
As far as software features go, I found the Spyder4 Elite software to be kludgy and clunky. It's mostly geared for consumers, with most of the advanced stuff hidden away. Even then, the advanced stuff isn't very configurable. The different package levels of Spyder4 (Basic, Pro, Elite) don't actually have anything to do with the device. They all come with the exact same device. It's just that certain software features are arbitrarily removed from the software as you go down in tiers. This makes the varying cost of each level kinda suspect. I'm pretty sure they're not making a loss on the Basic version, so they must be more than doubling their profits on the Elite version in comparison. It's not like they developed 3 different versions of the software for each level. They just developed the main one, then hacked away at the good stuff for the other levels.
In contrast, the i1Profiler software is incredibly advanced and can do just about anything... but getting it to perform anything beyond the built-in generic tasks is very difficult. You can build your own workflows from scratch, but this tales knowledge and experience and a lot of manual work. Once the workflow is created and saved, you can run it anytime with just a couple of clicks. There are no different levels of this software, no "Pro" vs "Basic". However there are certain features in the software which are enabled/disabled depending on which device you have plugged in. For the i1Display Pro, only the monitor and projector modules are active. You need different devices to calibrate a scanner or printer, etc, all of which gets done in this exact same software.
I ended up returning the Spyder4. Results were disappointing, and after I got to try the i1Display Pro, the Spyder4 just paled in comparison. It's like comparing a point-and-shoot camera (Spyder4) with a full-featured DSLR (i1Display Pro).
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From the manufacturer
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| i1Display Pro | i1 Photographer Kit | i1 Filmmaker Kit | Feature Detail | |
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| Hardware | i1Display Colorimeter | i1Display Colorimeter | i1Display Colorimeter | Advanced 3-Chip Optical Design for More Accurate Measurements |
| Color Checker Included | - | ColorChecker Passport Photo | ColorChecker Passport Video | Enhancing Color Matching Capabilities for Photographers and Videographers |
| Software | i1Profiler, Pantone Color Manager | i1Profiler, ColorChecker Camera Calibration, Pantone Color Manager | i1Profiler, Pantone Color Manager | Software Tools To Expand Workflow Capabilities Beyond Basic Calibration |
| Dual profiling modes (basic/advanced) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Allows for Fast & Easy Profiling Matched To A Particular Workflow |
| Display Uniformity & Quality Testing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Tools To Check & Verify The Quality Of A Display |
| Multiple Monitor Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Save, Share & Reuse Workflows |
| Advanced & Custom Calibration Settings | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Includes Luminance, White Point, Contrast Ratio, Characterization Target, Image Optimization, & Before/After Comparisons with Pass/Fail Tolerances & Display Trending |
| Ambient Light Measurement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Ambient Light Auto Monitor and Adjust |
| Expanded Device Calibration | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Calibrates Digital Projectors, Monitors, and Mobile Devices (iOS & Android) |
Videos
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Need Correct Display Colors? My thoughts on X-Rite Pro
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X-Rite i1Display Family
MacGroup
Reviews with images
Good colors, glitchy software
It made my display a lot warmer and the results were pretty consistent each time I tried it. I also tried DisplayCAL which gave similar results, just slightly less warm, so I figured this must be pretty accurate. I've run into a number of problems with the software, though. One thing is that the software sometimes doesn't recognize the i1Display device. But it usually works after I click "restart device" in the software. Another thing is that I didn't realize I would not be able to assign the newly calibrated profiles to all users on the computer with the check box at the end, which was an option in the tutorial I used. However, I eventually figured out how to save and load the profile for the other users through the software. After that, I noticed that jumping back and forth between users would sometimes alter the colors to more blue-ish, and I'd have to go in and manually de-select and re-select the i1Profiler profile to get it to work. I restarted, and it's a little bit more reliable, but sometimes for no reason the colors will change. I've also had problems with the color changing for no reason while using the computer, not switching users. The window I'm using will turn blue-ish, and will leave a blue-ish artifact/shadow behind it when I drag it around (see attached photo). I feel like it might have something to do with the auto ambient light detection, so I've turned it off for now. The "tray" software wasn't working well, either. I would open the preferences, try and deselect or select something, and it would immediately revert to the opposite. Or, the tray software wouldn't open, or it would quit on it's own. All in all, I'd say it's been a frustrating and disappointing experience, but I do believe that my monitor colors are probably more accurate now that I've used it. When I toggle the default iMac profile, I notice that my new profile has a lot more information in the shadows, and that the default is very green/blue with super saturated colors. I just hope that turning off the ambient light detection will keep it from glitching. If not, I'll likely return it.Update: It's still doing the blue shadow thing.
Top reviews from the United States
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Top reviews from other countries
RWG
Fast and accurate
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2021Style: i1Display ProVerified Purchase
Bison Tranquille
Enfin l’assurance d’un profil de couleur fiable...
Reviewed in France on September 14, 2019Style: i1Display ProVerified Purchase
Roberto
Muy bueno, el mejor calibrador.
Reviewed in Spain on April 17, 2019Style: i1Display ProVerified Purchase
Roberto
Reviewed in Spain on April 17, 2019
Lo que menos me ha gustado es la construcción un poco plasticosa del cuerpo, es igual al ColorMunki pero de otro color, esperaba algo mejor, lo digo por esperiencia ya que al ColorMunki que tuve se le rajo un poco la cubierta translucida.
Lo que mas me a gustado es la rapidez de calibración y las opciones más profesionales que tienes con su programa de calibración, se consigue una fidelidad de color muy alta a la primera, aunque no perfecta. El software es bueno pero el DisplayCAL es mejor aunque muy lento y seguramente las opciones que tiene son demasiado profesionales para el 90% de los usuarios.
Cuidado los que uséis MAC, no instaleis el programa que viene en el CD, bajaros las últimas versiones de la web de X-rite ya que sino puede que tengáis problemas con la detección del calibrador. Yo uso un MacBook Pro Retina con la última versión de IOS y tras la instalación de la versión 1.8.2 de i1Profiler y Device Services v3.0.11 tuve algunos problemas, el ordenador no reconocía el calibrador. Lo mejor es que os asegureis que instalais las últimas versiones y que encendéis el ordenador con el calibrador conectado.
Images in this review
Macchiavello Carlo
qualità, prezzo semplicità d'uso
Reviewed in Italy on October 25, 2018Style: i1Display ProVerified Purchase
