Westinghouse L2410NM

It’s easy to be seduced by the sheer size of a 24-inch LCD screen—any display that big just looks like it means business. And there was a time when large LCD panels were almost exclusively high-performance parts. That’s no longer the case. As the 24-inch LCDs reviewed here demonstrate, large screens are just as varied and prone to flaws as their smaller counterparts. 

At 24 inches, an LCD can easily serve as an entertainment display, and the L2410NM encourages that thinking: It has a showy but tasteful bezel made of shiny black and clear acrylic, and it sits upon a clear acrylic base. Inputs for HDMI, VGA, Component, S-Video, and Composite let you connect the L2410NM to devices other than a PC, such as a DVD player or game console. The inclusion of HDCP lets you play any of today’s copy-protected high-def content on the 1920x1200-resolution screen.

But the L2410NM isn’t accommodating in all ways. The screen can’t be raised or lowered and it doesn’t swivel or pivot. And while you can tilt it to and fro, the hinge is so stiff that you must firmly hold down the base to do so. You can adjust the screen’s image only by choosing from Text, Picture, or Economy modes for a slight change in backlight and contrast. Not even brightness can be altered independently.

The L2410NM fared well in DisplayMate, its only notable flaws being a less-than-rich black and some loss of detail at the far light and dark ends of grayscales. And in our estimation, it’s perfectly serviceable for gaming. But the screen lacks vividness, making the picture as mediocre as the rest of the product.