I recently found myself in the market for a new monitor after having enjoyed my LG Studioworks 995E for the last 6 years. One day about a month ago, it started flickering and then, 3 days later, it was no more. I can't complain it was a wonderful monitor throughout its whole life. But at that point, I came upon the difficult task of replacing my screen. I'm a firm believer in the whole "Monitor is the most important thing because it's what you look at" philosphy, so I went into the process with two considerations: quality & cost.
After buying a crappy CRT from my local Staples in the hope of replacing my old monitor and being wholly unsatisfied, I took up the internet research quest and started my first foyer into the LCD market. I considered the Hyundai 4ms (90u ?) and the Dell 2005FP and found both to be with weaknesses, at least for me. So I went further and looked for reviews on the highest quality reasonably priced 19" LCD. I found the Viewsonic 191b as a clear winner in many reviewers minds. So I looked for pricing and happened upon its replacement, the VP930b.
Now for the Review
Packaging --- 9/10 --- The box was strong and well balanced. It came with both DVI and VGA cables. The screen was protected by a thin, easily removable film. The monitor was easy to take out of the box and it was tastefully harbored there, with plastic bags and twist ties where appropriate.
Physical Build --- 8/10 --- The stand is really well designed, its small enough to not be in the way and has places to put things strategically near the base of your monitor (for example, I have my front Center speaker right between the 'spokes' on the front, my volume control 'remote' stradelling another, and my mouse cradel right behind another). The cable management works well, making the back of the monitor look neat and clean, while keeping the clutter of cables behind the monitor to a minimum. The screen lifts and tilts very nicely. The pivot function is really cool, especially when considered alongside the software auto-pivot. My only complaint in this area is that if I shake my desk (vigorous typing!), I can see the monitor shake slightly.
Also, while others have complained about backlight bleedthrough, I have found this is only a problem when viewing a near black screen in a pitch dark room.
Color Representation --- 9/10 --- Everything looks like it should. Clear and beautiful and much better than most LCDs I've used. My blues screens look truly blue and my red screens look convincingly red. For me, an 8-bit panel was a must.
Brightness/Contrast --- 7/10 --- White level is great! Black level... well, it's an LCD. But generally not bad, especially when compared to other LCDs. Given a cross-LCd comparison, the quality of this black is great. Contrast still falls far short of my CRT - that's a tough bar to meet.
Software --- 9/10 --- The Perfect View suite was really cool - it comes with a color configuration utility which in itself is pretty fun to play with to properly calibrate your monitor. I found the brightness and contrast portion of the setup procedure to be a little difficult, but otherwise, it works great and is really easy to use.
Specific Use Categories:
Gaming --- 8/10 --- slight ghosting in frantic FPS combat, but excellent for an 8ms screen. It's basically never gotten in the way of any game I played. I can get the green FreeCell screen to ghost like crazy if I quickly move it around, but I'm not sure that's a monitor limitation.
Windows General Productivity --- 10/10 --- 1280x1024 is a great resolution for desktops (though I might have liked a 1600x1200 better), and this screen delivers desktop productivity with perfection. All my office programs look and work fabulously. Crisp clear distinctions between subtle greyed-out items and active ones, nice looking background picture. If this is your thing, this is your monitor.
Digital Imaging --- 9/10 --- Color representation is king here and this monitor really delivers. It's clear and beautiful and I can distinguish subtle color differences. Contrast limitations can make dark areas more difficult to edit.
Movies and video --- 7/10 --- The aspect ratio really hurts here and interpolation that happens on an LCD really hinders movie scaling. This would be where a wide screen/native resolution LCD TV would leave this thing in the dust, especially when viewing Widescreen movies. To its credit however, I just watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on it (extended edition, of course) and it looked mostly fabulous. Again, interpolation can be a deal-breaker, so if you're really concerned about perfect movie quality, buy a native DVD or HDTV resolution LCD. One other comment: the limitations in black level can make some dark parts of movies hard to see.
Viewing Angle/Versatility --- 9/10 --- The viewing angle is generally incredible. There is only a slight darkening when looking from about 40 degrees above the monitor, but generally, the only way you'll see it that was is if you're standing right above the monitor. Also, see the limitations about widescreen aspect movies.
Cost --- 7/10 --- This is definitely a more expensive LCD. Though I have to say, I think the price is justified for the nice quality and performance of this monitor. I paid $420, shipped, from ZipZoomFly.
Caveats: When you switch resolutions, there is a notifier that informs you that you aren't running in the native resolution - this can be extremely irritating when entering a new program or windows. Even though you can disable it, any time you turn the monitor off (even a soft-power off (this monitor has two power buttons)), this setting is restored. This coupled with the message being displayed in an opaque blue box in the center of your screen makes it doubly annoying (again, you can make the box transparent, but that too is reset any time it goes off). This is annoying and should be fixed.
Overall --- 8.5/10 --- This is a wonderful monitor which I would recommend for anyone who can afford it. The benefits far outweigh the cost and only good future technology will be able to displace this monitor from my mind as a top choice.
I hope you enjoyed my review - if you have any questions or comments.. well, post them here or email me - dwingard@hotmail.com
After buying a crappy CRT from my local Staples in the hope of replacing my old monitor and being wholly unsatisfied, I took up the internet research quest and started my first foyer into the LCD market. I considered the Hyundai 4ms (90u ?) and the Dell 2005FP and found both to be with weaknesses, at least for me. So I went further and looked for reviews on the highest quality reasonably priced 19" LCD. I found the Viewsonic 191b as a clear winner in many reviewers minds. So I looked for pricing and happened upon its replacement, the VP930b.
Now for the Review
Packaging --- 9/10 --- The box was strong and well balanced. It came with both DVI and VGA cables. The screen was protected by a thin, easily removable film. The monitor was easy to take out of the box and it was tastefully harbored there, with plastic bags and twist ties where appropriate.
Physical Build --- 8/10 --- The stand is really well designed, its small enough to not be in the way and has places to put things strategically near the base of your monitor (for example, I have my front Center speaker right between the 'spokes' on the front, my volume control 'remote' stradelling another, and my mouse cradel right behind another). The cable management works well, making the back of the monitor look neat and clean, while keeping the clutter of cables behind the monitor to a minimum. The screen lifts and tilts very nicely. The pivot function is really cool, especially when considered alongside the software auto-pivot. My only complaint in this area is that if I shake my desk (vigorous typing!), I can see the monitor shake slightly.
Also, while others have complained about backlight bleedthrough, I have found this is only a problem when viewing a near black screen in a pitch dark room.
Color Representation --- 9/10 --- Everything looks like it should. Clear and beautiful and much better than most LCDs I've used. My blues screens look truly blue and my red screens look convincingly red. For me, an 8-bit panel was a must.
Brightness/Contrast --- 7/10 --- White level is great! Black level... well, it's an LCD. But generally not bad, especially when compared to other LCDs. Given a cross-LCd comparison, the quality of this black is great. Contrast still falls far short of my CRT - that's a tough bar to meet.
Software --- 9/10 --- The Perfect View suite was really cool - it comes with a color configuration utility which in itself is pretty fun to play with to properly calibrate your monitor. I found the brightness and contrast portion of the setup procedure to be a little difficult, but otherwise, it works great and is really easy to use.
Specific Use Categories:
Gaming --- 8/10 --- slight ghosting in frantic FPS combat, but excellent for an 8ms screen. It's basically never gotten in the way of any game I played. I can get the green FreeCell screen to ghost like crazy if I quickly move it around, but I'm not sure that's a monitor limitation.
Windows General Productivity --- 10/10 --- 1280x1024 is a great resolution for desktops (though I might have liked a 1600x1200 better), and this screen delivers desktop productivity with perfection. All my office programs look and work fabulously. Crisp clear distinctions between subtle greyed-out items and active ones, nice looking background picture. If this is your thing, this is your monitor.
Digital Imaging --- 9/10 --- Color representation is king here and this monitor really delivers. It's clear and beautiful and I can distinguish subtle color differences. Contrast limitations can make dark areas more difficult to edit.
Movies and video --- 7/10 --- The aspect ratio really hurts here and interpolation that happens on an LCD really hinders movie scaling. This would be where a wide screen/native resolution LCD TV would leave this thing in the dust, especially when viewing Widescreen movies. To its credit however, I just watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on it (extended edition, of course) and it looked mostly fabulous. Again, interpolation can be a deal-breaker, so if you're really concerned about perfect movie quality, buy a native DVD or HDTV resolution LCD. One other comment: the limitations in black level can make some dark parts of movies hard to see.
Viewing Angle/Versatility --- 9/10 --- The viewing angle is generally incredible. There is only a slight darkening when looking from about 40 degrees above the monitor, but generally, the only way you'll see it that was is if you're standing right above the monitor. Also, see the limitations about widescreen aspect movies.
Cost --- 7/10 --- This is definitely a more expensive LCD. Though I have to say, I think the price is justified for the nice quality and performance of this monitor. I paid $420, shipped, from ZipZoomFly.
Caveats: When you switch resolutions, there is a notifier that informs you that you aren't running in the native resolution - this can be extremely irritating when entering a new program or windows. Even though you can disable it, any time you turn the monitor off (even a soft-power off (this monitor has two power buttons)), this setting is restored. This coupled with the message being displayed in an opaque blue box in the center of your screen makes it doubly annoying (again, you can make the box transparent, but that too is reset any time it goes off). This is annoying and should be fixed.
Overall --- 8.5/10 --- This is a wonderful monitor which I would recommend for anyone who can afford it. The benefits far outweigh the cost and only good future technology will be able to displace this monitor from my mind as a top choice.
I hope you enjoyed my review - if you have any questions or comments.. well, post them here or email me - dwingard@hotmail.com
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