Great Affordable 19" LCD Flat Panel Monitor
Written: Sep 28 '04 (Updated Oct 10 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Great picture. Impressive quality. Just plain looks great.
Cons: Internal speakers are no match to standard external PC speakers.
The Bottom Line: A great monitor for the price. Flawless for Internet and business PC applications. I sit almost three feet from the monitor and still see the screen from any angle.
|
|
|
| mainframetopc's Full Review: Xerox XL592DB 19 inch LCD Monitor |
I was not in the market for a new monitor. I had been very satisfied with my three year old KDS-RAD5 15" LCD monitor. The only faults I found were the screen size and viewing angle restrictions.
This all started because CompUSA had the Radeon 7000 AGP Video card on sale for $40 and I was tired of my sluggish on-board video. Not that I'm a game player, but enough was enough. You don't realize that sometimes a slow computer isn't really the fault of the computer, but the video refresh!
I had also installed a board that I was using to copy old VCR tapes to the hard drive and archiving these home movies onto DVD. Unless you had an AGP video card, the audio got out of sync with the video.
The new video card came with a digital output option (DVI-D). At this point my old monitor just seemed too small and only had a standard D-sub 15 Pin VGA analog input.
I began my search on Epinions and found many reviews for 17" LCD monitors and few for 19" monitors.
With this information in hand I went to COSTCO, BJ's, CompUSA, Staples, BestBuy, and OfficeMax.
I was almost decided on a Samsung 17" when my (very patient) wife suggested that it would be foolish to upgrade from 15" to 17" when the more logical step would be to go to a 19" monitor.
The only one under $500 was the Xerox XL592DB(B-black case, S-silver case). This was on sale at OfficeMax for $499 after $30 rebate and there was a 14 day return policy and no rip-off restocking fee. With nothing to lose, I brought it home. (Update October 10, 2004..check MicroCenter, they have it advertised at $389 after rebates).
Upon unpacking the monitor, I found that the real manufacturer was ProView which has a very good reputation.
The base of the monitor snapped into the arm for easy assembly and the monitor came with a VGA cable (but not a DVI-D cable), external power supply, and audio cables for the internal speakers. All of these cables plug neatly into the rear of the monitor and are invisible from the front.
The base is an open and clean looking design and the outside case structure is so thin (3/4 inch top and sides) that the screen gives the impression of floating above the desk. There are also four threaded screw holes in the rear for wall mounting. The monitor tilts from front to back, but does not swivel.
The setup was very easy.
1) Plug the monitor power cable into the DC power jack on the back of the monitor.
2) Connect audio (two RCA connectors on monitor to a standard audio card plug).
3) Connect video D-sub 15 Pin VGA cable to your video card (or optional DVI-D male plug to DVI-D male on digital video card).
4) Turn on computer and monitor..note Windows 98SE did not require any additional drivers. As a matter of fact, I went to the ProView web site and downloaded drivers for their model PL976S (closest to the XL592) to see if I could improve the video. This had no effect and was unnecessary.
The front panel of the monitor has five thin push buttons and two speakers.
From right to left:
The first button is POWER with a built-in mini indicator. The indicator is Green for power on, Amber for power saving mode, and Dark for OFF. Note that OFF is not really power off unless you remove the power plug.
The second button is AUTO which automatically adjusts the display mode to the optimum VGA settings. This also happens every time you restart or when the computer goes from Sleep mode to Wake-up.
The third button is UP which increases the volume on the monitor speakers and also allows navigation in MENU mode.
The fourth button is DOWN which decreases the volume on the monitor speakers and is also used to navigate in the MENU mode.
The fifth button is MENU which gives a very impressive On Screen Display (OSD) with many options.
OSD Menu Options
Picture setting
Auto Adjust..Brightness..Contrast..H Position..V Position..Phase..Clock
Note: Auto Adjust did a perfect job..Phase is really a focus adjustment and Clock is really Horizontal size.
Advanced settings
Sharpness..Color..User Red-Green-Blue
Audio settings
Volume..Mute..Note: Volume is also controlled with the UP/DOWN buttons with no need to go to MENU
Options settings
OSD (move)..OSD H Position..OSD V Position..Language
Utilities settings
OSD timeout..OSD background..Source icon
Reset settings..Factory reset
Note on OSD MENU - the subtle shading is sometimes confusing as to what option you have selected. Not a big deal but still a little hard to get used to.
Technical Specs
I am currently running the monitor at 1024x768 with V-75Hz and H-60.24kHz.
Panel - 19"
Active Display Area - 376+301mm
Dot pitch - 0.294*0.294mm
Number of pixels - 1280*1024
Luminance of White - 250cd/m2
Contrast Ratio - 600:1
View Angle - Horizontal 85/85 Vertical 85/85
Multi-Scanning at Horizontal Frequencies 31kHz to 80kHz
Multi-Scanning at Vertical Frequencies 60Hz to 75Hz
Rear Panel contains:
1-DC IN connector
1-RCA AUDIO IN - Right Connector
1-RCA AUDIO IN - Left Connector
1-VGA D-Sub 15-Pin Signal Connector
1-DVI-D 24-Pin Digital Signal Connector
Note: this is one of the few inexpensive LCD monitors with both Analog and Digital video inputs.
No defective LCD's (dot defects) were found..and believe me I really looked hard!
Just a note on the 3-Year Warranty:
You must ship the monitor back to either California or Texas for service...so save the box and packing material.
The First Year includes all parts and labor.
The Second Year include parts and the LCD/backlight and does not include labor.
The Third Year includes parts only and excludes the LCD/backlight.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 499
Operating System: Windows
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mainframetopc
|
|
Location: Boston MA
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 6 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.