Simple and capable
Written: Apr 02 '02
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Pros: Crisp, bright image; clean and unobtrusive flat-screen design.
Cons: "Line" artifacts from the Sony TriniTron tube's horizontal stabilizing wires may annoy purists.
The Bottom Line: Discontinued model; a solid choice for a bargain display from the surplus or refurb markets.
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| bedhead's Full Review: IBM P 92 19 inch CRT Monitor |
A word of caution; I'm not a video purist. I know this because I know people who've claimed to be video purists, and I rarely notice the sorts of minute irregularities they do when evaluating any sort of video display. If you're still interested in reading my monitor review, please continue!
I purchased my P92 for $150 in an asset liquidation sale. It had been used in the network operations center for a failed startup company in New York. It's now the primary monitor in my home office.
I'm completely happy with it. It's been on more or less continuously for about 8 months. It comes out of standby quickly and supports 1280 x 1024 resolution with a crisp, bright image regardless of whether I'm browsing, gaming or writing.
The display controls are accessed via a series of small pushbuttons below the screen. The buttons are marked with symbols that are recessed into the adjacent black plastic. Because the CRT housing juts out above the button area, the buttons are constantly in the shade, making the button markings difficult to see in just about any room lighting. When configuring your display for the first time, you'll need to memorize the button interface or fetch a penlight.
Once you've finished that, though, you shouldn't have to mess with them again. My image has remained fixed on the CRT, with none of the gradual drift or slide that used to plague CRTs over time.
The P92's CRT is the old reliable Sony TriniTron, and as such includes two of the horizontal stabilizing wires that are part of the TriniTron technology. These wires are very dimly visible when looking at a pure white or very lightly-colored display. They appear to divide the screen into horizontal thirds, and there's no getting rid of them.
The P92 is a discontinued model. Its descendant, the P97, is also a TriniTron CRT. IBM markets it as a high-end model. It's essentially the same monitor as the P92, except it sells for over $500.
P92s are still available in the secondhand and refurb market. If you're looking for an inexpensive solution for a child's computer or a second display, and you don't want to sacrifice quality, you could do a lot worse than this model.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
bedhead
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Location: Montclair, NJ, USA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Computer professional living in the NJ suburbs of NYC.
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