How do calibration profiles work?

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

I like cheap hardware but hate spending time twisting knobs. So I only buy factory-overclocked stuff and now I want to buy a factory-calibrated monitor. However I don't know how these work and how calibration profiles can be used. I'm new to all this so I have a few questions:

• I understood that "factory-calibrated monitors" are tweaked individually at the factory by engineers. I don't get how this works. Do they really play with the brightness and contrast settings of each monitor and enter the same values? Why isn't there an automatic way to do it, and why are others sold "non-calibrated"?
• Can calibration profiles be applied on any monitor or must they be compatible or something? How do they differ from the actual settings in the monitor's menu? I know that my current monitor is poorly calibrated because the colors look a bit different from my tablet. Would it be possible for me to just load a calibration profile and fix the issue?
• Online retailers usually don't mention whether a monitor is factory calibrated or not, so how do I check it and does it even matter?

Thanks