My behemoth of a 24-inch Gateway CRT monitor finally conked out about a year or so ago, after rewarding me with many years of flawless service.  I thought it was time to join the 21st-century with a flat-screen LCD. After much research, I took advantage of a sale at Fry's Electronics to buy this model.

Description

The screen measures 24" diagonally, and 22" wide by 14" high. A detachable stand raises it by almost three inches. The stand itself is an oblong measuring about 10.1" wide by 6.5 inches deep with a rising support toward the back half. The cabinet measures 6.8" deep at the thickest part. However, the rear bottom half is inset about an inch: the protruding shelf somewhat inconveniently contains the downward facing HDMI, DVI (HDCP), and VGA ports, audio jack, and AC connector.  The black on black labels for these ports are unreadable. I use the VGA port to connect to my Dell Studio XP system.

Controls

The bottom right of the front frame contains the following lighted touch-sensitive buttons, which are flush with the frame:

Input. Changes inputs if you have more than one source connected.

E. Empowering button lets you choose among five preset color display modes including user-defined, text, standard, graphic and movie. I set mine on movie because it shows the clearest details.

Auto. Optimizes display position, focus and clock.

Menu. Controls such settings as brightness, contrast, focus, clock, color temperature and language.

Left/Right Arrows. Selects options within each menu.

Power. Turns the monitor off and on.

Display

The 32-bit display has a native widescreen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at 96 dots-per-inch (DPI), an aspect ratio of 1.78, and a refresh rate of 60 Hertz. I used ATI Radeon HD 5700 graphics card with this device. Text, as well as still and color images are bright and sharp, with good contrast.

My brightness level  is set at 77, with a contrast of 56, for work under a single compact fluorescent bulb with 825 lumens (60W incandescent equivalent). My 50-year-old eyes also require1.25-power eyeglasses for viewing. Those with younger eyes can do with lower brightness and contrast settings.

Performance Tests

I ran the Passmark Performance Monitor Test, which subjects the screen to 14 tests (not including a touch test, which the monitor does not support). The display passed all of them easily. When the screen showed just one primary color, the hue, intensity or brightness did not vary in any area. Gradations and shadings were also gradual and smooth. No moire patterns showed themselves, and grids of white lines and white dots on black backgrounds proved solid and unwavering, with no fringes of color and no convex or concave distortions. 

Even at a drawing speed of 800 pixels per second, moving objects did not leave trails of persistent pixels behind them. This, combined with a 2ms response time, provides for smooth movement. I have not tested this monitor with first-person shooters or racing games. But  I've viewed high-def action movies and MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft with no issues.

Font resolution is sharp as small as 7-point Arial, making word processing and business applications comfortable to view. The 6-point size is still readable but the letters are not as clear. I suspect this is already at or below the 96 DPI resolution of the screen.

My Take

I very much like this monitor for text displays, game playing and movie watching. It's worked with no problems from the beginning and I'm looking forward to many years of service from it.

Specifications

Size: 24-inch widescreen TN (twisted nematic) LCD
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels (60Hz)
Dynamic contrast ratio: 40,000:1
Viewing angles: 160 degrees horizontal; 160 degrees vertical
Brightness: 300 cd/m2 (candela per square meter)
Dot pitch/Grill pitch: 0.011 inches
Response time: 2ms gray-to-gray
Color support: 16.7 million
Color saturation: 72 percent NTSC
Video inputs: HDMI, DVI (HDCP), VGA
Speakers: Two 1W integrated speakers (2W total power)
Tilting stand: 5 to 15 degrees
Dimensions: 22.6" wide x 16.7" high x 6.8" deep. Height includes the detachable stand. Without the stand, the screen is 14 inches high.
Weight: 11.7 pounds
Energy Star: Yes
Warranty: Three-year parts and labor limited warranty

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 199.95
Operating System: Windows