I’ll admit, the first thing that attracted me to this monitor were the specs. I was in the market for replacing my old 19″ 4:3 for something a little.. umm well, BIGGER! The size what just what I was looking for and the specs, well hard to compete with:
Screen Size……………………………….23″
Widescreen………………………………Yes
Recommended Resolution………….1920 x 1080
Viewing Angle…………………………..160°(H) / 160°(V)
Pixel Pitch………………………………..0.266mm
Display Colors……………………………16.7 Million
Brightness…………………………………300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio……………………………20000 :1 (ASCR)
Response Time…………………………..2ms
Horizontal Refresh Rate……………….30~83 KHz
Vertical Refresh Rate…………………..50~75 Hz
Connectors………………………………..D-Sub, DVI, HDMI
Power Consumption…………………….< 55 W
I ordered this product from Newegg as I’ve had no trouble with their service in the past. The packaging was pretty typical of any display device. Custom styrofoam supports and lots of that sticky film over the glossy black exterior. Nothing to complain about here except I would have liked to have seen something, anything protecting the LCD screen.
Included were, the monitor (duh!), power cable, VGA and DVI cables, and an instruction CD (not a driver CD). Assembly was pretty basic; slap the base to the main monitor unit and you are good to go! As you can see from the pic above, the base is pretty solid. Glossy plastic finish with a metal core. I’d say the only real disappointment with the base, would be the lack of support for a decent viewing angle. This doesn’t really bother me as my monitor usually is at eye level anyways.
Just after construction:
The overall appearance of this monitor is very appealing to the eye. All that you see is glossy black with a nice silver “ASUS” logo in the center. The screen is flat black as not to glare which I prefer. Once powered on, just to the right of the power button there is a blue power light which thankfully is not too bright and is hardly noticeable during normal use. The build quality feels solid. I didn’t notice any flexing or strange cracking sounds when handling it. The stand/mount does have a very slight wobble to it. Not extreme, just something I noticed. Overall, this display will surely add the flair any desktop deserves.
Once installed, no problems! Windows 7 detected it, and it’s native resolution and I was good to go! Installation from start to finish only took about 7-10 minutes. The picture quality was obviously better than my last monitor. The first thing I did was pull up some 1080p content to see how it looked. The colors were VERY bright and the detail was amazing. The contrast ratio was no lie as the blacks are VERY deep. The 2ms response time came in handy with fast motion as there was no pixel blurring from what I could tell.The Splendid Video Technology was also included with this monitor and from what I can gather it is basically color correction software built-in. When watching DVDs there was very little ghosting. I believe this to be the outcome of the deep blacks this monitor can produce in Theater mode.
Next, was on to the OSD menu. This took some getting use to, but if you are slightly tech savvy you shouldn’t have any issue with it. It’s stubborn at times as some of the buttons have more than one function. One thing I did find interesting were the different “Modes” in which you could choose from depending on what you were doing at this time. They go as follows: Scenery, Standard, Theater, Game and Night View Mode. Each with a different overall appearance. Some brighter some dimmer. These can be easily selected from the button on the far left. Other than change brightness/contrast, I’m not sure what each of the modes are doing.
Close-up of the OSD controls.
The power button is big and not easily missed. This comes in handy when powering on the monitor in light conditions.
The OSD menus:
For the purposes of this review I tested the built-in speakers. For monitor speakers, I didn’t expect much nor was I impressed. They are about what you would expect. Sound quality is decent at best but lacking the obvious bass. For gaming, music, or video watching, I would not recommend using the built in speakers. If all you do is sit in windows and browse the net, it’s all gravy.
Overall I’m very satisfied with this monitor. It performs like a champ and the picture quality is way above average. If you are a gamer, Video enthusiast, I would highly recommend this monitor. My only gripe is the OSD. It’s not easy to use period, and they could have found a much easier way to use it given there are five buttons to work with.
contrast ratio, dvi cables, lcd screen, lt, m2, pitch, power cable, power consumption, response time, sticky film, styrofoam, vertical refresh rate
Great Review, Bro! Admitedly I’m an AV nut and am always on the watch for new and interesting sites and postings about stylish audio video related stuff… which is what led me here. At any rate i just wanted to check in as I certainly plan on visiting again! See Ya