Barking Dogs NEVER Bite!!… How True!!☺
Written: Apr 03 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stunning Aesthetic Appeal, Satisfactory Picture Quality, Good Build Quality
Cons: Everything else
The Bottom Line: The Review tells all.
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| jedi_kickass's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Pavilion M703 17 inch CRT Monitor |
Ever had a hollow Easter Egg that looked beautiful on the outside?. This is just it ! . This is ‘The Hollow Easter egg’. One of my PG roommates bought a HP Home Computer which had this Monitor & attached Harman & Kardon Speakers ( which are as bad as the monitor ). The first time I saw the Monitor with the Sexy Terminator Blue Power indicator I thought ‘ WOWEEE!!! GREAT HP MONITOR’ , but when I worked on it, it turned out to be worse than LG Studioworks 700S Monitor. Have a look down to have a feel of my MISADVENTURE.
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***PICTURE QUALITY. [2/5]***
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Very Disappointing!! The flicker rate of 60Hz though @ 1280 X 1024 Resolution is very irritating to the eyes & quite harmful too. I set the refresh rate to 80 Hz & it worked properly only in 800 X 600 Resolution, Now that’s very very Bad. However the colours are quite bright though not very stunning!! The smoothness was pretty good & detailing was subjective – Like sometimes the picture suddenly achieves a high degree of detail & sometimes as bad, it varies though I don’t know how, like you are playing a game & suddenly the detail is stunning & the next moment it disappears. Looks as if the Monitor is possessed. But the monitor does not glare & brightness is refreshing but only sometimes like I mentioned before. The image sometimes gets a wavy texture as though it is floating on water, but this is only if you are very observant, over all the picture is quite acceptable, but the flicker really KILLS your eyes as soon as 30 mins of continuous usage. This is quite bad as many people sit for hours before their Computers & this is a REAL LETDOWN.
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***SOUND QUALITY. [2/5]***
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Also quite Disappointing. The audio consists of two speakers fitted on the either side of the monitor with volume knob on the side of the speaker on the right of the monitor. They come with a weird looking Subwoofer which is quite thin. The sound quality is quite good with Well Moisturized, Deep Bass which is quite filling & the Treble is quite normal though not very Spine Chilling but sounds melodious & sweet. The Mids hit in the center of a very small soundstage & imaging is quite satisfactory. But all these perks at VERY LOW VOLUME ( What a Hitch , ha ha ). You get good quality sound only at 15 % of the volume & higher volume reveals only junk sound. And the Speaker too are just 3 Watt RMS per channel. Very Very Very……Disappointing. You Just Can’t Show Off its Sound. How Disgraceful!!!!!!!!!
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***EASE OF USE. [2/5]***
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Another department where the M703 has failed miserably!!. The onboard settings are really a letdown. The default screen was heavily crooked & however much I tried the screen shape would just not get corrected, either it gets crooked on top or down though they are perfect on the sides. And what else, switch off the monitor for sometime & then the setting get back to their original shape, whatever you do you can’t just save the settings for a long time. This is really irritating as I am very strict about my screen shape & size. And another problem, When I somehow got the screen size to maximum on an average, horizontal lines appeared on the screen, though they were small they could be visible from a distance of about a foot away from the monitor & the picture resolution would seem as if it were very less. The whole setting would automatically change. I tried around 7 – 8 times to get a perfect screen size & shape & quality, but no the monitor was as stubborn as an ox. An ox would be better I suppose. Chee Chee reallllyyyy baaaad.
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***AESTHETIC APPEAL. [5/5]***
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ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!! With the Sexy Terminator Blue Power indicator & the Harman & Kardon speakers the monitor was quite a feast to stare at. The Grey Metallic finish added to the appeal along with the trendy monitor stand. Anybody could be fooled by the looks & tricked into buying it, but beware!!. The shape is quite aerodynamic & the face of the monitor kinda has a space age look on it. Well HP surely must have invested heavily on its styling rather than on its electronics. FULL MARKS FOR AESTHETICS.
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***BUILD QUALITY. [4/5]***
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The M703 has fared better in the Build Quality Department. The body is made up of a Good Quality polymer which is quite dissipates the heat & this is quite good news cos it increases the monitor life span. The Tap test returned quite a solid response suggesting the hardness of the material. But then again this is not Break Proof or something like that ( so don’t try a Hammer Test ). But still as I mentioned in one of my earlier review, the world is waiting for yet another Wonder Polymer. Any Body Going to Gym ???
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***TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS***
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GENERAL:
Display Type Display / CRT
Width 43.6 cm
Depth 42.9 cm
Height 41.9 cm
Weight 16 kg
Localisation English / United Kingdom
Compatibility PC
DISPLAY:
Diagonal Size 17"
Viewable Size 16"
Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch 0.27 mm
Max Resolution 1280 x 1024 / 60 Hz
Max Sync Rate (V x H) 140 Hz x 70 kHz
Video Bandwidth 108 MHz
Controls / Adjustments Brightness, contrast, H/V position, H/V size, zoom
Display Screen Coating Anti-glare, anti-static
Video Input
Analogue video Signal RGB
Audio Output
Type Speaker(s) - external
Output Power / Channel 3 Watt
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces 1 x VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)
1 x audio line-in - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
MISCELLANEOUS:
Compliant Standards CE, MPR II, TUV GS, EPA Energy Star
Cables Included 1 x VGA cable
POWER:
Power Device Power supply - internal
Voltage Required AC 110/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
Power Consumption Operational 75 Watt
Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep 4 Watt
ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS:
Min Operating Temperature 5 °C
Max Operating Temperature 35 °C
Humidity Range Operating 15 - 80%
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***MY OPINION***
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A User Unfriendly Monitor is what the M703 is. And £126 is quite a huge sum to pay for this monitor. I cannot recommend it to anybody except my enemies. But I feel some may give in to the looks & buy it but that’s not my concern cos, HP’s got to make money somehow if they have to finance an update for this monitor. Maybe I would consider buying only the body of the M703 & put in it better Electronics. That’s what you can consider doing. As I Mentioned before – Barking dogs never Bite. And Stunning Looks Rarely Satisfy……..☺☺☺
Thank You For Reading,
Jedi_kickass ( ‘ _ ‘ )
PS: As usual ‘Please do not forget to rate my Review’ .
If you don’t im gonna Cry ( : _ : ). But I know you will make me smile ( ‘ _ ‘ ). Thank You………..
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 95
Operating System: Windows
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jedi_kickass
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