Maximum PC planar RSS Feed

Planar PL2210MW

David Murphy — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Planar’s PL2210MW display is a classic representation of your average 22-inch display—a 6-bit TN panel that bears the mediocre image quality of that class. In DisplayMate, the 1680x1050 display’s grayscale range was acceptable, although it fell apart at the light end in both the grayscale test and when the screen was tasked with producing very light colors against a white background.

The bare-bones PL2210MW isn’t much to look at when it’s off. It isn’t much to look at when it’s on, either.

More frustrating, the PL2210MW was unable to produce a solid black or white that wasn’t tinged with gray. The display’s grayscale gradients also feature an unwelcome yellow tint that showed up in the grays of our real-world tests.

We didn’t experience any issues with the PL2210MW in our gaming tests, save for the contrast and saturation lapses previously mentioned. These problems hurt the display as a movie-watching platform, as a number of scenes just couldn’t achieve the true black they demanded. Color reproduction on our high-definition photos was of average quality. While we weren’t unhappy with the results, we’ve tested a number of other monitors that produce more color and vibrancy in our test images.

We were troubled by the display’s anemic speakers and lack of onscreen display options for audio configuration. We’d rather do without the subpar attempt and pay less for the product. With support for only DVI and VGA inputs, the PL2210MW stands solidly in the middle of the pack.

Planar PX2411W

Katherine Stevenson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:43:49 -0600

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.

It’s got the same screen size and resolution as Westy’s LCD, but Planar’s PX2411W is clearly intended strictly for desktop use. Its plain, flat-black aesthetic is very office-appropriate, inputs are limited to DVI and VGA, and HDCP is not available through the digital interface, so you’ll have to watch protected content over VGA.

You can’t even play games on the PX2411W. Well you can, but you might be put off by the periodic hitch in the picture when the screen is displaying motion at a high frame rate. When we saw this issue in an HP LCD (September 2006), it was attributed to the panel’s limited v-sync variance. Whatever the cause, it’s a flaw we can’t ignore. And the same goes for the ghosting we observed in areas of high contrast.

So it’s of little use to us that the PX2411W offers some convenient features, such as a telescoping neck for height adjustment and a variety of OSD options. Or that it performed passably in DisplayMate and functions acceptably for web surfing, movie viewing, and other typical screen tasks. You’re better off with one of the other two LCDs, which happen to cost less.