rgathright's Full Review: Soyo SDYLM1596 15 inch LCD Monitor
I purchased this monitor because of its low price and built in speakers. I built a custom desk which features a 20"x20" box fan and a series of filters. Inside the filtration area is a PC whose sole purpose in life is to send pictures to an attached monitor. The DYLM1596 has given me a cheap small footprint display which can be seen from some rather extreme angles around the house. The following review is a summary of my experiences with this practical monitor.
Case:
The case is all black. The company logo is not visible on the front, huge plus! The entire package is very light for a monitor of this size. The plastic seems thin, thoughts of a fallen broken monitor in a million pieces come to mind. Additionally, the case has large vent slots all around the back, this feature keeps the LCD running cool. The lower the temperature the lower the chance of failure if the monitor is left on for extended periods of time. In fact, in a dark room you can see the circuit board and electronics easily from the backlight of the LCD (when looking behind the monitor)! However, this "feature" could also be considered a bug because dust can easily accumulate on these electronics causing component failure after a prolonged exposure.
The monitor controls are on the bottom of the display, underneath. They are hard to press and use, but get the job done. I found the menu basic and awkward to use. A single LED near the bottom of the display indicates green for on and brown for off.
Monitor/Video:
The DYLM1596 can definitely deliver sharp colors and sharp contrast. The screen is very bright.
I am using this monitor to display images in my digital photo collection. With its 600:1 ratio, the monitor can easily display Cannon SLR digital images in their native wide ratio. Featuring 1280 x 800 maximum resolution, the monitor delivers deep image resolution for its size. I do have one dead pixel in the upper right hand corner. The pixel is now permanently green. The viewing angle for this monitor is good to. I can see it from 25' away with no problems. The response time is not published anywhere for this monitor. From my observations the monitor seems to be in the 16-20ms range, but how can one really tell without test equipment?
Speakers:
I was not impressed with the sound output of the speakers. You cannot hear them more than 6 feet away. I adjusted the volume control in Windows XP to max for both the "Wave" and "Volume Control" sliders, with little effect. I then manually increased the DB for the soundcard to +12 for the entire frequency range. Now the speakers sound very tinny. I had to readjust all the settings lower and just live with my poor speakers. On a side note: a quick review of the company website for this product declares the speaker output as 2x1 watt.
Consumer Protection:
Please beware that Directron.com will not replace this monitor unless it has more than five dead pixels. A "No Damaged Pixel" guarantee can be bought at time of purchase for $19. One could assume that this is a common problem for this monitor, buyer beware.
Summary:
I was amazed at the quality of this monitor for the price. While the speakers are not the best, they still do the job. Overall the monitor is to small to be used on a daily basis in a work environment. You should also consider the thin plastic case and "open venting" electronics on the back of the case. If you just want to display something 24/7 in a fixed location, this does the job nicely.
15.4-inch Soyo MT-NI-DYLM1596 LCD Monitor w/Speakers General Features: Black profile Lightweight, stylish design 15.4-inch color TFT active matrix WXG...More at Amazon Marketplace
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