Are you looking for a good 17’ monitor that will last you many years? Here at work, we buy new PCs and keep the old monitors. I am happy to report that the company buys always Sony because I am a big fan of their Trinitron technology.

Here in my office are 3 PCs, the one I am typing on has the old Sony Multiscan 200sf monitor. This model has been discontinued and replaced by the E200 model. When an old monitor failed they replaced it with a E200 model.


Picture Quality – Colors

Both monitors have excellent picture quality. I don’t know how many years this 200SF model has been in use but it is still great (could use some Windex glass cleaner though). Hopefully that the new fellow (E200 model) lasts as long.

What is Trinitron?

Sony invented Trinitron monitor technology and had a patent on it. The patent expired and nowadays you can get Trinitron monitors from other companies e.g. Siemens Fujitsu and there are also Trinitron clones such as “ChromaClear” and “SonicTron”.
Sometimes I see people ask “Why are there 2 thin black lines across my monitor?”. Answer: That is because of the Triniton technology. So what is Trinitron besides a white background with two horizontal black lines?

Most monitors display pixels through round masks for the color dots. There are thousands of triangles of green blue and red dots. This type of tube is called “Invar tube”. In Trinitron (and clone) tubes, the light sensitive dots on the tube are positioned in a vertical grid. The vertical alignment allows to put more pixels per inch (higher density) – and thus the image is sharper and more color saturated.

So obviously Trinitron is superior to traditional monitor technology and manufacturers tend to add better control electronics to Trinitron-based products. The result is a better monitor.


Picture Quality - Resolution/ Refresh rate

When I started to work here, I had to adjust my monitor because the previous owner had operated it with a different graphics card / in a different resolution. Both computers have a NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Pro (one from Compaq) card and I run a resolution of 1152 x 864 pixels in high-color mode (16 bits/ pixel). The beauty of this resolution is that it is still the 4:3 resolution ratio while the next larger one – 1280 x 1024 has a 5:4 ratio. Almost all lower resolutions have the 4:3 ratio (640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768) and most software seems to be designed for a 4:3 ratio.
For test purposes and the benefit of this review, I just switched to 1280 x 1024 and the picture was just as perfect. (Tested both on the old 200SF and the new E200 models.)
Again, I do not recommend the 1280 x 1024 because of its uncommon ratio and it’s just a little too small for me on a 17 inch screen.
The refresh rate is 85Hz by the way. The vertical aligned pixel columns (as described previously) are only 0.25mm wide. The manual says that the E200 comes with a antireflection coating which makes the image even better. We’ll see how it handles my finger prints.


Picture Quality - Geometry

The geometry both of the old and the new monitor is great. I had to adjust it when it came out of the box but now it shows perfect corners on its 15.9-inch viewing area. Great geometry means perfect corners that are not bent. 90degree angles look like 90degree angles and there are no large black unused areas on the edges no funny color spots.


Control Electronics

Here is where the old 200SF is a little better than the new model. Or let’s say different. The 200SF has all switches nicely accessible on the front. The new E200 model offers the same functionality but the control buttons are in an awkward position almost under the screen. They call it “Display Mouse OSD Menu Control” and since I don’t use it actively much, it will remain awkward to me. I don’t use it much since once I had made my settings, I was content.
This “Display Mouse” is the only imaginable downside of the monitor. Some people may find the missing buttons actually to be an advantage – it looks better.

My graphics card’s drivers for Windows 2000 allow to choose color profiles but that’s from the graphics card’s side, not the monitor. It should not be confused with software control over the monitor as some LCD flatpanels offer it.


Other

The monitor is compliant with all relevant norms (MPR II Sweden, UL1950 for Safety, EPA Energy Star). My computer turns it off after inactivity for 10 minutes to conserve energy. In normal operation it consumes 120 Watts, which seems a little high to me. To put 120 Watts in perspective, 20 years ago already larger TV sets became available that consumed only 40 Watts; maybe there is a reason in the tube technology.

The new E200 model comes with a headphone jack that my old 200sf does not have; this is something that I won’t use in the office.


Conclusion

This monitor does not have a USB connection for perfect software side control but you can set it up fine with the “Display Mouse”. The picture quality is close to what I would call perfection and the monitor is well worth its price.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 300
Operating System: Windows