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Westinghouse L2610NM

David Murphy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Taking a cue from ViewSonic’s playbook, Westinghouse’s L2610NM produces a crappy image out of the box. We haven’t seen a display ship with such a whited-out picture in a long time.

And unlike ViewSonic’s VX2240w, adjusting the L2610NM’s brightness and contrast settings does little to help matters.

More of this sin against nature after the jump.

Hannspree HF289HJB

David Murphy — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0500

Size is important, but so is quality. Hannspree’s 27.5-inch HF289HJB fits the former just fine, but its average performance makes us yearn for a better-quality picture to fill the massive screen.

Dim news after the jump.

Dell 2408WFP

David Murphy — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Dell’s 2408WFP is the latest in the company’s line of 24-inch panels, following on the heels of the much-beloved Dell 2407WFP (reviewed September 2006). Unfortunately for Dell, improving upon its predecessor isn’t enough to push the 2408WFP above other tested displays.

That said, there's much to like about the 2408WFP after the jump.

Acer P244w

David Murphy — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0500

Acer’s native-1080p display wins points for hitting the widescreen 16:9 formfactor, but the P244w treats its colors with the same unpleasantness it treats its grayscales. The monitor’s color saturation suffers from a reduced range on both the top and bottom ends of the spectrum: Colors lose their vibrancy as they get darker and become washed out as they get lighter.

Hit the jump for the full scoop on this mediocre monitor.

Gateway FHD2401

David Murphy — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

The Gateway FHD2401 hits a ball or two out of the park, but we’re not terribly impressed by this 24-inch panel’s overall performance.

The display’s grayscale performance favors the darker side of the spectrum. The FHD2401 is able to distinguish among shades of gray against a black background, but a below-average showing in lighter grayscales hurts overall performance.

Hit 'Read More' for the full review.

ViewSonic VX2240w

David Murphy — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0500

ViewSonic’s VX2240w is unwatchable at its factory default setting—the screen’s brightness is cranked beyond the point of acceptable image quality. Fortunately, we were able to tweak the display’s settings to produce an image that was at least similar in quality to the Gateway HD2201’s. While the VX2240 matched the HD2201 tit for tat in its ability to produce lighter shades of gray on a solid white background, the former exhibited better color saturation in the lighter shade levels.

We control the horizontal; we control the vertical after the jump.

Envision G2219w1

David Murphy — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

We are ashamed to have mentally cast off Envision’s G2219w1 at first glance because it looked like a budget monitor. It’s budget in price only, for this 22-inch display offers exceptional picture quality for its class.

It wasn’t perfect, though—Envision’s display didn’t reach the same level of gray detail at the dark end of the grayscale as Gateway’s, but it was extremely close. Envision’s display beat out Gateway’s at the light end of the spectrum by, again, a very close margin.

Full rejump after the view. Or something.

Gateway HD2201

David Murphy — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0500

We want to like this monitor, but too many issues stand in the way.

In DisplayMate, Gateway’s HD2201 consistently reproduced dark grayscale values, pushing out more dark shades of gray against a black background than we typically find from monitors of its class. The same can’t be said of the HD2201’s merely average ability to reproduce light shades of gray against white.

What's standing in this monitor's way? Find out after the cut.