We were excited when LG’s W2452T arrived in the Lab—we had high hopes this monitor would break the streak of middle-of-the-road 24-inch displays we’ve tested lately. And it nearly did. Although the 1920x1200-res screen was able to hit the grayscale extremes on our DisplayMate tests, this functionality came at a horrible price: noticeable compression when given an increased range of grayscales to work with.
And then the LCD monitor turned to mush.
LG’s W2452T suffers from noticeable banding issues—the ugly streaks that disrupt what should be a smooth gradient. It was quite bad on a few of our high-definition photos, but the problem was especially frustrating in our gaming tests. Nothing ruins a good fog effect like large, chunky lines bisecting the image.
The monitor’s coloration is acceptable, but not great. We didn’t expect overwhelming vibrancy from this display, which performs like a 6-bit panel, so we weren’t surprised when the monitor failed to produce images as vivid as those of other displays. Overall, the W2452T’s picture is a bit muted when using the display’s normal settings. Adjusting the settings did little to improve the image, and heaven forbid you use the display’s presets. The movie and demo modes saturated the colors so much that they turned normal video into an acid trip.
LG spent a little too much time on the monitor’s funny features: We see no need for a zoom effect, nor would we ever want to switch our display over to a sepia tone. Instead of these additions, LG should have included more connections on the display, as just a single DVI and VGA port are provided. And be careful adjusting the monitor’s angle, the stand is wobbly.
The W2452T creates a good basic image, but tweaking the monitor to achieve better coloration leaves a little—or in some cases, a lot—to be desired.
Great grayscales and average--not great--coloration.
Banding affects image quality and preset options can completely destroy the picture. So that's nice.
Bagman57
July 26, 2008 at 6:51am
I recently had to replace my 21" Gateway and it was a pretty decent monitor with a lot of useful features. I bought a LG 22" and was very disappointed in its performance. Any movement on the screen was a blurry mess. Video was unwatchable and the cusor had very long trail behind it. Oh, it also had a stuck pixel to top it off. I returned it got a Samsung 22". I too was wondering why anyone would want and/or use the funny features on the LG. Speaking of features, why just tilt to adjust the monitor and just a single DVI and VGA port on the Samsung too. The Samsung performs pretty good dis spite it uses a TN panel. You can see brightness and slight color changes when viewing at an angle. I also have older LG 17' and 19" 4:3 ratio monitors and their performance is very good. I think most manufactures are trying to get by on the cheap side and we the consumers are suffering and paying more for it.
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