Mini Review: LG L204WT

[43st]

I spent the last few days doing a ton of research on wide screen LCD monitors. I currently have a Hyundai L90D+ and it's served me well for the most part. It was always clear that it was a step behind the CRT in terms of color and contrast. Not to mention a small quark that required resetting the panel on occasion.

Flash forward to a couple days ago... I saw the new 22" Acer panel and it got me looking. I started doing some research and reading forums. Along the way I came across the LG L204WT (WSG link w/ pics, Hard Forum Link) and it seemed to stand out amongst the others. Here are my initial thoughts...

Good
- Amazing color reproduction and contrast for a TN panel, 2000:1 contrast using it's dynamic feature and 8 bit color , which is only on the latest gen. TN panels.
- Very little backlight bleed. Something that was an issue in the older, and highly rated, VX2025WM.
- F-Engine: A custom brightness, ACE (Adaptive Clarity Enhancer) and RCM (Real Color Management) system. This enables the 2000:1 contrast I believe, it's fairly noticable on it's higher settings but more subtle on lower settings.
- Zero dead pixels
- Extra space while on the desktop. Almost like my dual monitor setup at work, except like 1-1/2 monitors instead of two. Very cool for those used to dual monitors.
- Huge step up from the L90D+ in almost all respects, nice to see the technology improving so much.
- Great price at $340 and 3 year warranty.

Not Good
- At any screen resolution at 1280 X 1024 or lower the panel automatically scales up the image. This is a huge pain as I was hoping to play BF2 with black bars and not stretched-to-fit. Not to mention older games without wide screen support. (Yes, I disabled stretching in my control panel, the LCD is scaling the image)
- The stand is not height adjustable. This seems to be a trend... I don't like it.
- No DVI cable?!?!
- The wide screen gave me a touch of motion sickness.

 

[xtknight]

Thanks for the info. If you have any more thoughts on it I'd love to hear them.

How's the screen door effect? I notice you say 'Huge step up from the L90D+ in almost all respects'. In what ways wasn't it a step-up?

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

I just picked up this monitor last week. Beautiful. Stunning. Nearly flawless.

Everything he said good about this monitor is true.

One thing he left out about the Not Good.
The stand is wobbly and does not support the monitor well. If I type fast or hard enough, the screen shakes.

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Thanks for the info. If you have any more thoughts on it I'd love to hear them.

How's the screen door effect? I notice you say 'Huge step up from the L90D+ in almost all respects'. In what ways wasn't it a step-up?

I'm going through some wide screen growing pains and the 5:4 aspect ratio of the L90D+ didn't have any of those issues, obviously. The L90D+ didn't auto-scale either which was sometimes nice for older games. The L204WT will stretch that image and I don't like that.

Everything else is top notch. I haven't seen the color blue in the past 2 years, it's that drastic. Not to mention the astounding contrast of the panel. It may not be a S-IPS panel but if TN technology continues at this pace it'll certainly give it a good run for the money in the near future.