The L1710s is a stylish monitor that produces excellent images at a low cost.

I settled on the L1710s after many hours spent reading reviews but my decision became easier once I read where PC World had rated it number #1 for best value with outstanding ratings for text and graphics. I was also torn between a 17" or 19" monitor but settled on this model due to its excellent image quality and relatively low cost for such a highly rated monitor.

The most important thing to me was how the screen displayed digital photographs and the picture quality is excellent. The colors are accurate, bright and razor sharp. Be advised that this model only comes with an analog connection so if you need a digital connection then go with the slightly more expensive L1710b.

Build quality is excellent. A thin black frame surrounds the screen that doesn't divert attention from the screen. It has 8 small buttons along the bottom that offer a comprehensive selection of adjustments. One interesting feature is a button that has pre-sets for daylight and nighttime movie and picture viewing but I found it easier to find a good setting and leave it alone. The stand is sturdy and the cables fit through a hole in the back so it has a nice clean look. The software includes a driver my graphics card recognized and also a program for calibrating the monitor for best viewing and printing that I found confusing.

Screen resolution is 1280x1024 which is a standard for most LCD panels. Most text looks better than my CRT and the higher resolution means you can see a whole lot more content. Some sites like www.cnn.com look small since they aren't designed for the higher resolutions.

Now to mention a few small gripes and one is brightness. Even after turning it down it's still pretty bright making it hard to see the key board in dim rooms. Also something I discovered after looking at my photographs is many flat screen have a 5:4 aspect ratio which means your photos may have a black stripe across the top and bottom of the screen. The only solution I came up with to keep the monitor at the native resolution of 1280x1024 was to crop my photos to fit the ratio so they would fill the entire screen. Also a word of caution is beware of dead or stuck pixels when buying a LCD monitor. My first unit came with a big red stuck pixel that looked like Venus so it was a defective screen. Some manufactures will argue this so make sure to buy from a store who offers exchanges for any reason and if you buy online be advised you may end up paying to ship it back if you get a bad unit.