My question: would the bottom of the barrel X rite do as good as Spyder 5.
I'd love Adrew to post data of results , numbers, which match, each X rite product, including the $80 one, and well as the Sypder result. Then all decide best on needs and budget in bank.
You get the products, I'll test them. As you can see, such tests were done in the past, the Spyder's failed pretty poorly while X-rite's correlated with a reference Spectrophotometer quite well. You think since then, something changed? Perhaps but that doesn't aid DataColor's awful results in the past so why take a chance today?
Now in terms of hardware, I'll speak about X-rite and one colorimeter that is found in 3 packages. It is IDENTICAL. The difference is the software packages used to drive the hardware. You're paying more for additional functionality in the software. Which is why I asked if matching a print to a display is the goal and got a somewhat snarky answer. Not everyone has this goal. Now why is the distinction important. Let's say you have a crippled software product that only provides 4 or 8 presets for white balance of the backlight. #3 is too warm, #4 is too cool. YOUR SCREWED. You paid for the same hardware but can't use it fully. Had you paid for the more expensive bundle, you'd have the ability to enter any CCT value, or x/y (should you wish to alter the color calibration of the green/magenta 'axis'.)
Does it make sense to me, that companies supply identical hardware but make you pay more to use it fully? Yes it does. But that's all marketing.
So, going full circle, if someone's goal is to match a display and print with as full control as possible, outside of a color reference display system like SpectraView, my recommendations is to get an X-rite i1 Display Pro package. Same hardware as the lesser expensive offerings but far more control over using that hardware. Oh, it's faster at measuring too, no big deal and yet another marketing created 'feature' (slow down the instrument expect for the top of the line product). Dumb. But then I don't run either X-rite or DataColor thankfully. But now some here know why I'd skip the Spyder based on it's colored history and go with the most expensive
package offered by X-rite.
