Excellent visual quality, but the speakers are useless
Pros:
1680x1050 widescreen resolution,
Sharp text and crisp colors
Cons:
Speakers are low quality
Volume control is extremely difficult
Menu buttons are difficult to use
The Bottom Line:
Good monitor to buy for the price if you don't care about the built-in speakers. Display quality is really good.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The 1680x1050 resolution is great. I have not yet got around to buying a DVI cable. But even with my analog connection, the color is vivid and crisp, black is really black, the lines are sharp, the viewing angle is not bad. I am not a gamer, nor do I watch movies on my computer - so don't care too much about response times.
But with the analog connection, I did see considerable "shimmer" when displaying a high contrast pattern - especially a fine black and white pattern. (Shimmer is when you see waves on the screen - happens because of back and forth digital to analog conversions). Strangely, this problem went away when I connected the monitor through my KVM switch - so I have not bothered to fix it. But a digital cable (DVI) should fix this problem.
The built-in speakers are completely useless. They sound tinny, are low power and most annoyingly of all, the volume control is hidden away deep in the monitor menu. On top of that, the menu buttons are difficult to use. Volume control should have had a separate knob: this is a stupid design flaw.
The power LED in the front is a bit too bright when blue (i.e whenever the monitor is on). It doesn't bother me too much though.
The height and swivel adjustments are adequate.
The viewing angle is pretty good sideways; but not that great up/down. So, if you try to watch a movie, say, while sitting down on the floor or something when the monitor is on a table, you will see a darkish picture. I have not compared this aspect with other monitors.
