ViewSonic VP191B

ViewSonic VP191B

ViewSonic's venerable VP191b, retested for PC World's July 2005 issue, continues to hold its own against newer models. Its image quality is competent but not extraordinarily good, falling into the middle ranks of current models. We found the display's balance generally pleasing, though the screen seemed slightly dim at the default settings.

All recently reviewed 19-inch LCDs, including the VP191b, received a rating of Average in our motion tests. Vendors report response time in different ways. Some clock the intergray (also called gray-to-gray) response time, while others record the white-to-black-to-white (also called rise-and-fall) response time. The VP191b's reported response time of 8 milliseconds refers to its intergray response time. Its black-to-white response time runs 20 milliseconds.

A few features set the VP191b apart from other monitors in its price range and help make it a good choice for an office setting. This monitor includes ports for one digital and two analog inputs, giving you options for sharing the monitor between two PCs. You can lock the on-screen display controls, ensuring that other users can't fiddle with the monitor's settings. In addition to tilt, swivel, and height adjustments, the VP191b has the ability to pivot from landscape to portrait mode (a boon for viewing long documents or Web pages). On an accompanying CD, ViewSonic adds PerfectPortrait pivoting software, ViewSonic's version of Portrait Displays' $40 Pivot Pro; this bonus makes the monitor's moderate price--$469 at time of testing--an even better deal.

Upshot: The ViewSonic VP191b's image quality is sufficient for basic office tasks, and it offers software and physical adjustments that are unexpected at this price.

LG Electronics L1981Q

LG Electronics L1981Q

LG's $499 Flatron L1981Q refines the design of the Flatron L1980U while retaining the auto-pivot and auto-mirror functions that made its predecessor unique. The screens received very similar scores on our tests, with the L1981Q earning a rating of Very Good for text and Good for graphics.

The L1981Q's bezel is smooth and flat on all sides, enabling it to line up with an adjacent monitor whether they're in portrait mode or in landscape mode--something the L1980U's downward-hanging power button wouldn't allow. My woes with accidentally turning off the L1980U continued with the L1981Q. With the L1980U, I blamed the problem on the protruding power button--but since the same thing happened with the L1981Q, it seems more likely that I gripped the bezel too close to the heat-sensitive control buttons. It seems odd that I didn't need to press the buttons very hard to make them work.

More-successful examples of the L1981Q's hands-off philosophy lie in the automatic pivot and automatic mirror functions of the included ForteManager software. With these functions enabled, the screen image automatically pivots or flips to match the orientation of the screen when you switch it to and from portrait or landscape mode, or even when you bend it backward on its stand. Like the MagicTune software that ships with some Samsung monitors, ForteManager also lets you adjust screen settings with a mouse instead of with buttons. Though the L1981Q is one of the lightest 19-inch monitors we've seen lately, it feels sturdy and well-rooted, even when you tilt or pivot the screen.

Upshot: LG's Flatron L1981Q is one of a few monitors with button-free image tuning, and it's the only current 19-incher with automatic pivot and automatic mirroring.

Dell ULTRASHARP1905FP

Dell ULTRASHARP1905FP

Dell's full-featured UltraSharp 1901FP is a tough act to follow, but the UltraSharp 1905FP replaces it ably. Like its predecessor, the 1905FP includes four UBS 2.0 ports (two on the side of the bezel, and two in the back). It also follows its sibling's lead in allowing you to tilt the screen, pivot it, swivel it on its base, and adjust its height.

With the second-highest test scores for text quality that we've seen lately, the 1905FP received a Very Good rating for text. Slightly ruddy flesh tones in our photo of people contributed to graphics scores that were middling among recently tested 19-inch LCDs but were strong enough overall to earn a rating of Very Good for graphics as well.

The 1905FP's pixel redraw rate of 20ms is an improvement on the 1901fp's 25ms, but it's hardly ground-breaking--and we couldn't detect any improvement in how games and movies looked. Still, this monitor's excellent image quality, great array of features, and competitive price combined to help it capture Best Buy honors on our January 2005 chart.

Upshot: The Dell UltraSharp 1905FP covers all the bases: screen quality, physical adjustability, and extras features.

ViewSonic VP231WB 23

ViewSonic VP231WB 23

Switched off, the ViewSonic VP231wb looks businesslike and understated, thanks to its thin bezel and monochromatic, two-footed design. But once you fire up the 23-inch wide screen, you'll discover that vivid color reproduction and sharp text are the VP231wb's business. It nearly matched the Samsung SyncMaster 243t's stellar performance on text, and finished a solid second in both text and graphics. Like all the other 23- and 24-inch wide-screen monitors we tested for our July 2005 chart, the VP231wb has a native resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels.

The overall scores are only part of the story. The $1749 VP231wb outperformed every other recently tested large wide-screen monitors on our real-world text screen of a Microsoft Word document, and its clean lines on an Excel spreadsheet rivaled that of the reigning Samsung. On our photo test screens of a group portrait and a fruit tart, the ViewSonic beat all the other contenders, showing vivid colors and natural-looking flesh tones with equal aplomb.

One clear business advantage is that the screen can pivot on its axis. Portrait viewing yields a better picture of full document pages, Web sites, and some specialized business applications. Pivoting the screen also makes it easier to reach the four USB 2.0 ports in the back. The VP231wb comes with Perfect Pivot, ViewSonic's version of Portrait Displays' $40 Pivot Pro software; if you're bargain-shopping for a large wide-screen monitor and plan to use pivot, take this add-on into account.

The VP231wb has only analog and digital PC inputs--no composite, component, or S-Video inputs--so we tested it with its digital input. When we watched a scene from our test movie DVD in full-screen mode, images looked sharp and colors rich, but subtle shadows and highlights in a black velvet cloak didn't come through. Video quality improved at the smaller sizes of picture-in-picture displays; but even at these small sizes, a little motion artifacting was evident. ViewSonic rates the VP231wb's response time at 12 milliseconds, which is its intergray (also called gray-to-gray) response time; its rise-and-fall (or black-to-white) response time is 16 milliseconds. In any case, the monitor displayed smoother video than did the Samsung 243t (its closest LCD competitor for overall image quality), though it couldn't match the motion display quality of a good CRT.

Upshot: The ViewSonic VP231wb displays gorgeous still images and reasonably good moving images; the pivoting screen and included pivot software could tip the balance in this wide-screen monitor's favor.

Dell Ultrasharp 2405FPW

Dell Ultrasharp 2405FPW

At its native resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels, the $1199 Dell 2405FPW showed remarkable color and clarity. On test screens, text looked sharp, and images looked crisp and saturated. The 24-inch wide screen performed particularly well on our Web page test screen, displaying highly legible text and subtle distinctions in shading. On the other hand, the brightness--specified by the vendor at 500 nits (units of luminance)--seemed excessive at the monitor's default settings, causing our test screen of a brilliantly colored fruit to look a little washed out.

Dell sensibly placed two of the monitor's four USB 2.0 ports on the left side of the bezel, where they're readily accessible. The 2405FPW's nine-in-one media-card reader, situated next to the bezel-mounted ports, would be a boon for a digital photographer.

The 2405FPW includes height, pivot, swivel, and tilt adjustments for comfortable viewing. It lacks pivoting software, however.

The Dell's numerous inputs should endear it to entertainment-minded buyers. The 2405FPW accepts not only analog and digital output from a PC, but also composite, component, and S-Video from consumer electronic devices such as DVD players and camcorders. Each input is clearly labeled and numbered on the back, and the corresponding numbers on the front bezel light up as you select the input.

The existence of inputs does not translate into excellent output, however. When we played our test DVD movie through our PC's digital output, the 2405FPW showed fuzzy images and somewhat dull colors. When we connected a high-quality DVD player to the monitor via its component inputs, the colors improved, but the image still lacked crispness. Details did look impressive in dark areas, though, particularly in the highlights on a black velvet cloak.

Dell rates the 2405FPW's response time at 12 milliseconds, which is its intergray (or gray-to-gray) response time; its rise-and-fall (or black-to-white) response time is 16 milliseconds. These match the response time specs of the ViewSonic VP231wb.

Overall, moving images looked best when played at small size in a picture-in-picture window. Despite this 24-inch wide-screen monitor appeal when used for office tasks, it won't replace a TV for full-screen DVD viewing.

Upshot: The Dell 2405PCW includes great still-image quality and several entertainment inputs at a category-busting price.

Apple iMac

Apple iMac

Photos, movies, games, videos, and applications with palettes. Anything you see on the 20- or 24-inch glossy widescreen display will be a pixel-perfect experience. iMac features a flat-panel LCD screen with 1680-by-1050 resolution (20-inch) or 1920-by-1200 resolution (24-inch), giving you vivid colors and breathtaking high-definition clarity. And there’s nothing quite like seeing your life’s events on the big screen, thanks to the new iLife ’09 built into every iMac. Even more eye opening, the 24-inch iMac starts at just $1499.

Every new iMac includes high-performance NVIDIA graphics standard. Now games run smoother, photos load faster, and pro applications have even more power. The 20-inch iMac with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor delivers up to 2.3x faster graphics performance.¹ The 24-inch iMac gives you even more graphics options. The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor makes viewing web pages and searching through your iPhoto library smoother and more efficient. Or you can choose NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 discrete graphics to take 3D graphics up a notch. For 3D graphics-intensive games or pro applications like Aperture and Motion, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 and ATI Radeon HD 4850 processors deliver the fastest graphics performance yet.

The latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors run at speeds starting at 2.66GHz with options up to 3.06GHz. And they include 6MB of shared L2 cache. Translation: iMac runs your applications