Nix Spectro 2 Spectrophotometer - Professional and Portable Color Measurement for Print, Packaging, Paint, Coatings and More

Product: Nix Spectro 2tl;dr: Recommended for lab grade accuracy scanning of reflective surfaces.Overview:In the box… is a box. 😊 Actually, it’s a good quality carry case. This is an excellent sign, products that are good quality also deserve a safe storage solution.Opening the carry case reveals the measuring device, a few accessories (a carry pouch, charge cable, etc.) and two critical items: the inspection and accuracy certification, and the reference tile.I have some audio industry lab experience, and one of the signs of a high grade unit is it can be calibrated to a NIST traceable standard, and it has a self-test or verification process to ensure it is meeting spec. This device meets that criteria for accuracy.But is it indeed “correct”? As a pro photographer, I also own calibration cards for my camera (and a colorimeter for my display monitor). I used my readily available DataColor SpyderCheckr as a test card. The SpyderCheckr has a variety of carefully created color patches with both D50 and D65 RGB color values provided. Based on my limited testing so far, the Nix Spectro 2 is indeed quite accurate, scanning within a couple of digits of the theoretical standard values. As a sanity test, it also matched up well with the readings my my low cost Datacolor ColorReader EZ provided.My primary intended use case is to “tune” my Windows color inkjet and laser printers to yield more accurate print colors from Lightroom and Photoshop via tweaked ICC color profiles.I was hoping for a turnkey app, but the creating & editing of ICC color profiles appears to be a more opaque process than expected. I will follow up on this review as I get more into that topic.Pro’s:- This is an easy to use, accurate, rugged, lab grade Spectrophotometer that has good consistency from scan to scan.- Includes a self test and a reference tile to ensure continued accuracy.- Use of the USB C style charging connector means no flipping the USB A plug over 3 times to plug it in for charging.Con’s:- The software support is a little rough yet. For example, I use a white point of 6500K, or D65 in my workflow. The Nix toolkit app doesn’t remember my preference for that setting so I have to remember to go into the utility menu and reset it each time.- The device lacks a “quickstart” card that reminds you to charge the device, install the app, pair/connect, check the app settings, and (critically) run the “white tile normalization” before using the device for real work. I initially got some divergent values before I ran the cal process.- The price is not out of line for a quality lab standard for the serious user, but it will preclude use by the average hobbyist. I see Nix also has a few lower cost units, I would look at those if this unit is too pricey for your application.Summary:A quality, solid unit. Sets up easily, yields consistent accurate results.

First thing you're going to want to do is install the nix toolkit. I can't link that here directly, but just search your app store for Nix toolkit and it'll come right up.Now you can either create an account or just go straight into the app. I like that you don't have to create an account before you can even use the app.After that, it's time to connect your Spectro 2. Easy. It will find it for you. You just select your device right from the menu. Now you can immediately use it. It's so easy to use that I am absolutely shocked. I mean, shocked. I was using it literally seconds after I took it out of the box. You just point it at what you want, press whichever button you want in the app, and you're done. It's really that simple.My favorite feature is that you can match whatever you are pointing it at to all kinds of different paint samples. So, if you have old paint in your house but you don't want to repaint the entire room, just aim this at your wall and it will tell you what to buy. It will tell you the brand , and then even take you straight to the store locator for the brand you chose! I really can't believe how easy this thing is to use. I want to give it six stars under easy to use. I swear it's harder to use a spoon than it is to use this.So, it seems extremely accurate, but there is one tiny issue. The colors it suggests are interesting sometimes. I'll post a picture of what I'm talking about. Look at the color I scanned, and then look at what it suggested. It's not exactly that close. So, if it doesn't find a near perfect match, you may be taking your phone to the store to show them what you need. With this, you can give them some exact numbers for mixing though.There are also paint libraries that you can buy, which I'm sure will be useful for a professional. You will need an account to buy stuff, obviously. You also need an account to save things and to QC checks.I am also planning to use this to calibrate my monitors since it should work great for that. I can display an HTML color, and then check to see if it is actually displaying that color. This is a whole lot more accurate than my eyes would be.Overall, this thing is great. I still can't believe how easy it is to use.

As a sign professional, this has never given a correct result.