This monitor has no digital input and no speaker. For the same price I could have bought a Sony, or for less I could have bought Viewsonic, KDS, GEM, and many other no name brands that have more features. So why I am such a sucker for NEC LCD1850E? Read on.

Color/contrast/brightness/tones:
I work with photography so tone, shade, accurate color rendition, contrast, and brightness is a serious consideration for me. The no name cheap monitors do not satisfy my requirements, even though they seem to have better spec numbers than NEC LCD1850E. One important thing to remember when shopping for LCDs is that specs are meaningful only to a certain extent. Spec number that is close will be negligible and should not be used as a sole basis for comparison. For example judgement that is based on 350:1 vs 400:1 contrast level is highly questionable. There are many many many factors besides the backlight/contrast, and other spec numbers to consider. Personally I've seen KDS and GEM with better specs (higher contrast, brigher backlight), but they simply don't look as crisp and bright as this LCD. Also the other brands don't display midtones as well as this monitor (you can actually see the subtle contrasts in gray shades with this LCD). If you're buying an LCD, you must check out and play with the monitors in person. My advice is to go to Micro Center, Best Buys, or a quality store on a weekday or a day that is not busy so that you will not conflict with other people who may disrupt your evaluation. And I hope a serious evaluation is what you'll make when you purchase your LCD.

Do NOT go to Fry's Electronics to make a comparison! 3 of the 4 Fry's Electronics I went to (Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Fremont) configured this LCD incorrectly and it simply looked AWFUL. The resolution they configured on this LCD was 1024x768 and the input had so much noise that *all* the nice LCDs looked fuzzy and shakey at best.

Multi-monitor setup:
I have Windows XP which has a built in multimonitor feature. You simply plug in an extra AGP or PCI graphics card and the OS will automatically detect it and allow you to drag windows from one window to another. Yes, it is that easy! Having that said, this monitor has an ultra thin bezel all around (.75 inch), so that you can stack up 2 or more monitors without being bothered by the thick borders that all the other monitors have. Alternatively imagine buying a really nice 22" Apple Cinema display for $2500, not to mention the expensive PC-to-Mac, DVI-to-ADC adaptor, you'll have 1600x1024 resolution or 1638400 total pixels. But if you get 2 NEC LCD1850E, it would cost you $800 each at 1280x1024, or $1600, and the total work space will be 1280x1024x2 or 2621440 total pixels. Hence buying 2 NEC 1850Es over a 22" Apple Cinema display will give you 64% more real estate for 60% less cost. Pay less, get more-- that makes perfect financial sense to me. Even if you don't get the second monitor right away, you'll still have room for expansion in the future, and when the price of LCDs go down next year it'll make even more financial sense. For more info on thin bezel profile, check out the following web site: www.necmitsubishi.com/products/downloads/NEC/Thin_Frame_specsheet.pdf

By the way multimonitor OS include Windows 98, Windows ME, Linux, and perhaps others. NT and 2000 may or may not include this feature. Please check out the specs on your OS before trying to setup a multimonitor environment.

2 inputs:
There are 2 analog inputs so you can plug one to the desktop and the other one to your laptop. Alternatively you can get a TV to VGA signal converter for less than $100 and switch between your computer and the TV. That is the setup I have. Switching between the two inputs is easy, it is done with one touch.

As for the refresh rate and the lack of a digital input, here is my two cents. Refresh rates are meaningless on all LCDs because most LCD pixels have a 50ms (a few have 30ms) delay in between fully lit and fully unlit, too slow to be affected by anything higher than 60Hz refresh rate, so it is not possible to see the flickers regardless of your refresh rate, unless of course the connection is bad or has serious interference which can be corrected easily. Regarding a lack of digital input, I encourage everyone to visually inspect the difference between an LCD that has a digital input and an LCD that has an analog input. If both are setup correctly (e.g. decent card, good connection, etc), both are indistinguishable to the naked eyes, unless of course you have superhuman bionic eyes.

Of course if you're picky you can get the digital model (the NEC X series) for an extra couple hundred bucks. But seriously, if you're that rich, you probably already have the expensive 22" Apple Cinema display.

Pedestal/mounting:
You can easily unmount the pedestal and install in on another platform (did you read about the multimonitor setup?). Or you can keep the pedestal, which has a hidden swivel on the bottom. I use the swivel when I'm on the bed watching TV. It is simply an elegant design. The U.S. model doesn't have an adjustable height feature, but it is not a big deal for me.

Built in AC adapter:
Fed up with cheap, no name brand LCDs that use a huge AC adapter and takes up a lot of space? The adapter/power-supply for this LCD is built in.

Fully auto adjustments:
If your work requires you to have accurate color renditions you can setup the temperature, tones, etc manually. But for most people, you can use the auto contrast, "no-touch auto adjust" brightness, contrast, and image size and centering. It can be fully automatic or fully manual. It all depends on whether you want to be a pro or not.

Nice expansion ratio:
"Expansion ratios" refers to the display's default behavior of blowing up resolutions below 1,280 by 1,024 instead of centering them on a black background. When setting to 1024x768 or 640x480, there is a slight jagged text and edges, but it is much much better rendered than the other cheap brands out there. With this LCD, the letters in the expanded resolution are perfectly legible. When I play PS/2 games (with a RCA to VGA converter box) it looks beautiful.

Kensington lock:
The LCD has a little vertical hole that is compatible with laptop locks. Just buy a Notebook Security Cable and you can lock it up easily.

No dead pixels:
When you buy your LCD, make sure that the store you bought it from has a dead-pixel return policy. My store has a 30 day guarantee regardless of the reason. But I've not had to return my LCD because it's perfect, and the good news is that in general the pixels (transisters/capacitors) do not generally go bad in time so if you've owned the LCD for a few weeks and it still looks good, chances are it will still be good for several years. For more info on dead pixels look at support.necmitsubishi.com/nec/common/library/NMDA_dead_pixel_wp.pdf

Specs and more specs:
As I said before specs are meaningless. Go see the display for yourself! Here are more links on this monitor's specs:

www.necmitsubishi.com/products/home/ProductDetail.cfm?product_id=143&division=NEC
www.nmvap.com.sg/product/nec/mslcd/mslcd1850e.htm (a bit slow, be patient)

The software, LiquidView that came with the monitor is not very usable (it enlarges Windows font which you can already do using the Display Properties panel). Also the monitor GUI called the OSM is a little bit confusing at first. But considering the visual quality of this monitor, these are minor issues.

Near perfection is how I describe this monitor. Now you know why I'm such a sucker for perfection, I encourage you to check out this monitor and the other thin frame models at your local store and decide for yourself!


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 790
Operating System: Windows