Planar 1904Z : Good value for your money if you need an LCD monitor
Written: Sep 10 '02 (Updated Sep 11 '02)
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Pros: Excellent cost, good quality, high resolution for size in an LCD monitor
Cons: More expensive than CRT monitors, LCD monitor, weak menu and slightly unresponsive buttons
The Bottom Line: For $660, this is hard to beat! Bright picture with limited menu options, decent stereo speakers, and 2-port USB hub add even more value to a solid LCD monitor
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| yusakugo's Full Review: Planar CT1904Z 19 inch LCD Monitor |
When Dell had a 25% coupon off any Dell branded accessory, the price of this particular monitor fell to $659 and change. Now this isn't Dell branded monitor per say but it counted for any promotions for Dell branded peripherals... hey, I'm not complaining. I got a solid LCD monitor for a great price and didn't have any dead pixels on the screen!
The Short Take
Considering I got a 19 inch LCD monitor for roughly $660, the price alone is an excellent deal. An 18 inch Samsung LCD monitor without speakers or and USB hub would cost $700-800 at Best Buy when on sales and promotions. I couldn't pass this deal up.
You get a bright LCD monitor that weighs less than 29 lbs while in the plain brown box and packing. You get the a power cable, a USB cable for the integrated 2 port USB 1.1 hub on the monitor, a dual sided male prong stereo input cable for the speakers to a line out, and the cables for a analog and digital out connection from a video card. If you needed S-Video and a 4 port USB 1.1 hub with stereo speakers integrated into a 19 inch LCD monitor, look at the 1904N model!
Considering I upgraded from a 17 inch CRT monitor weighing 35+ lbs, there were considerable differences. The LCD monitor (Notebook screen technology) take up less desk space, had slightly worse colour definition (although not by much in my use), handled very fast graphics with a slight ghost or blur effect (playing fast paced first person shooters like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament), and used significantly less power than my old CRT monitor (technology similar to just about all current TVs except plasmas and other flat panel technologies.).
Pros:
1) Excellent price
2) 19 inch screen
3) up to 1280x1024 resolution
4) integrated basic stereo speakers to help save space
5) integrated 2 port USB 1.1 hub
6) Both analog and digital inputs for video cards
7) can attach two different computers via the analog and digital imputs and switch between the two through the monitor
8) No dead pixels on arrival
9) 3-year "customer first" warranty. If more than 7 pixels dead, Planar will replace the monitor at their charge... including shipping and handling via 2 day air!
10) Low power consumption
Cons:
1) Price versus same screen sized CRT monitor (3-4 times more!)
2) Limited menu options
3) Slow response to the 5 buttons on the Planar monitor
4) Stereo speakers basic
5) Would have liked to see a 4 port USB 1.1 hub at least.
How did it ship to me
The Planar 1904Z shipped in a fairly nondescript light brown box with a small sticker identifying the contents as a 19 inch LCD monitor from Planar. There is not a lot of packing and the box is fairly light at 29 lbs with the monitor and cables inside. At least it was double boxed (well, the boxes were glued together. I received a black cased monitor with the screen covered by a thin plastic film loosely taped on both sides of the film. A huge number of cables and a basic instruction guide came with the package as well as a CD-ROM for people who both touch screen capable LCD screens.
The monitor itself is about 21 pounds in weight and dimensions of 18.4-in x 17.5-in x 9.5-in. The difference in desk space was quickly and noticably apparent! I could fit three of these monitors in the same basic space as my older Dell branded 17 inch monitor (3 1/2 years old). All the cables to connect all the features of the monitor were included (although you may need to buy longer versions of some of these cables according to your particular computer setup. 6 foot cables were usually provided in the package. You got the power cables, the USB cable to connect the USB hub to the computer, both analog and digital video connection cables, and a male sterio audio input cable.
Display
For the most part, colours are fairly accurate on the Planar. I noticed very little difference in my everyday wordprocessing, web surfing, and the such... even playing WarCraft III! However, fast paced movement sometimes shows blurring or ghosting of the graphics on the screen... Image definition and clarity are quite good. One of the most useful features was being able to switch from the analog video input port and digital video input port... I could hook up two computers. One ran a GeForce2GTS and a Pentium III 650MHz and the other ran a GeForce4 Ti4200 with 128MB or RAM and a Pentium 4 2.26GHz processor with a digital video out. Both worked well with the Planar monitor. The computer connected via the digital video input will be the defaulted computer using the monitor.
Sound
Basically a decent stereo speaker set that you could get anywhere else. It's a nice feature but not for those users who are sticklers for excellent sound or surround sound.
USB hub
It's a two port USB hub... what are you expecting? It is only USB 1.1 compliant as far as my use went.
Menu... some weaknesses
There are two different menu sets for the monitor depending on analog and digital input. The analog connection had a good number of options. The digital connection is more streamlined with only a few options on the on-screen menus. In digital mode, you can slightly adjust the brightness of the monitor so if you want to really darken the screen, the brightness controls really don't do the job. You need to lower the contrast to lower the screen brightness. Analog allowed a ton more features through the USB display.
The buttons on the monitor are not extremely responsive. You have to hold or press the buttons frequently to use the features accessed through the menu. A quick button press frequently isn't registered by the monitor!
Miscellaneous Details
Power consumption is 65 Watts versus 100+Watts for most 17 inch monitors. Standby modes use 5 Watts versus 3-5 on most CRT 17 inch monitors. Pixel pitch is 0.294x0.294. The monitor is capable of 1280x1024 maximum resolution. The Refresh Rate was between 50-75Hz. Brightness is 250 cd/m2 and Contrast was 500:1. The screen has a 170 decree vieweing angle as well. There is a very limited tilt range to this screen (I'd say about 0 to 15 degrees tilt range).
By the way, monitor is made in Taiwan... which can explain the low price against other LCD monitors.
Final Thoughts
Excellent overall monitor especially with adding a 2 port USB hub and a stereo speaker into a space saving package. It may be overkill for several people because of its size and price point... those of you on a budget may not need a 19 inch monitor or to spend $660 for just a monitor.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 659
Operating System: Windows
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yusakugo
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