My short review of the Planar 15 LCD Flat-Panel Monitor

[WalkingDead]

Got it about a week ago for $549 with no tax & shipping from Onvia.com. I'm happy with it but could be better. Here're the goods & the bads:

Goods:

• No dead pixels at all (am I just lucky?)
• Viewing angle is outstanding at 160 deg L-R
• The colors is fine for a LCD
• Self-adjusting, really doesn't needs to reposition anything.
• Fast response time of 10ms-35ms. Faster than many LCDs of the same size under $1000.
• I don't have UT or games like that but it is good enough to play DVD movies.
• The contrast is kick ass at 300:1, also better than many LCDs under $1000.
• Color cases in white, black, clear, blue & red
• 15pin analog interface
• The price

Bads:

• Backlights, not that bad but the top is very slightly darker than bottom. Again not annoying but just noticeable if I turn off all the lights in my room.
• The build-in speakers are crap (just like many othe monitors, LCD or CRT).
• No quick reach speaker volume control or mute.
• The controls buttons are not the best designed but simple enough to use.
• I found the green power-on LED very annoying. Especially the blinking when it's in the sleeping mode.
• No icm or icc color profiles from the manufacture
• Some backlights shine through the right side of the iMac-ish case. Get the solid black or white color case will take care of that.
• No L-R mount adjustment. Up-Down is only 35 deg or so.
• No DVI interface or USB hub options

Conclusion:

Great price. Top quality LCD. The case design could be better.

 

[Double Trouble]

Nice review. I hadn't considered Planar before, but I'm gonna go take a peek at it now. Thanks for the mini-review!

 

[1greatguy]

wow, $550 for 15 inches, i never thought i'd see that referred to as a "good price" again, not after 1990 at least.

let me know when they're 21" lcds for $550, then i'll think about it.

 

[Vinny N]

Are you certain there are no dead pixels?

You'd have to go through it with a fine tooth comb on a solid color screen(of at least, blue, green, red, white, and black) to make that claim. A dead pixel may not show up when it's asked to display certain colors, because it may only be partially dead.

 

[WalkingDead]

No dead pixels.