Even though these people keep returning like a bad smell congrats to Ciao for a job well done on qui...
Even though these people keep returning like a bad smell congrats to Ciao for a job well done on quickly banning cheating members! BUT the rest of the site is just a nightmare - new layout is terrible & extremely problematic!
Member since:10.10.2002
Reviews:293
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I've been using the AG Neovo F-417 for about 6 months now and have found it to be a fairly average monitor to date. I use it on a daily basis at work spending a good 7-8 hours in front of it so it's worth mentioning that it doesn't seem to give me headaches or sore eyes from looking at it for great lengths of time.
As an entry level TFT LCD (which means "Thin-film transistor liquid crystal display" for those who didn't know that) monitor, The F-417 does actually have a sleek design and is available in black or silver - mine is black to match my keyboard, mouse and headset!
TECHNICAL SPECS
The AG Neovo F-417 is a 17 inchflat screen (TFT LCD) monitor. It comes with a 3 year on site warranty if you purchase it directly from AG-Neovo. Its gross weight is about
7 kilos and the typical brightness is 260cd/m2. The contrast is typically 450:1 with typical horizontal and vertical viewing angles of 150o/135o.
The response time is 4 miliseconds and its dimensions are 377 x 373 x 200mm (if you want that in inches that's 14.9" x 14.7" x 7.9") with a display resolution of SXGA1280 x 1024.
Apparently this screen has a lifetime of 50,000 hours, which means if you left the screen on 24 hours a day it would last you over 5 years. So really, as people tend not to leave their monitors on 24 hours a day 7 days a week, one would expect it to last way more than 5 years don't you agree?
When the monitor is on its power consumption is about 54W, on standby it's about 4W and when off it's 2W; fairly low on the old energy consumption when not in use. The F-417 has a surface treatment of hard coating (3H), anti-glare treatment and it's also anti-static. Not very easy to clean the screen, but using screen wipes usually does the job well enough. Best to avoid fingers touching the screen as it is quite a pain to get marks off.
The input signal for the F-417 is Analog and it has a built in power supply and a cable management organiser with a Kensington security slot - which is small hole apparently found on pretty much every bit of small or portable computer and electronics equipment nowadays which can be locked to prevent theft. There is no audio output from this screen at all; which is a shame as I've got quite spoilt with my monitor at home (the Samsumg SyncMster 713BM) having audio output. I'd also add that the monitor and stand together have a net weight of about 5 kilos.
I have to say that I find the screen controls on the front of the monitor somewhat confusing and try to avoid adjusting any aspect of the screen as much as possible. A couple of my colleagues have this particular screen and I've asked them how they find it and they also say they pretty much ignore the screen menu controls. What is most annoying about these controls is that you can't just exit back to the normal screen by pressing one button, there's a lot of messing around with various buttons which is a real nuisance for me. I want to be able to just press ONE button which gives me my normal screen back, is that too much to ask?
HOW DO I FIND IT?
Now we've got the technical blurb out of the way, let me tell you how I find this monitor.
My first issue is with the stand. It's quite low with the monitor standing just 2 inches off table level when assembled. So you have to make do with lowering your chair or maybe just reading the top part of the screen for eye level reading. I doubt that prolonged use of this monitor with the standard package of monitor and stand would be good for your back or neck. It's a shame it doesn't come with a more sensible stand. Some of my colleagues who have a similar screen use a thick text book to put the stand on to increase the height to eye level, which is what I've done recently too, increasing the height by 4 inches so it's easier to see the full screen without actually looking down.
It's not too bad for looking at from all angles; we work in an open plan office and I can leave something running on my screen whilst I go to a colleague's desk and can just about make out when my reports have finished loading from various other angles which is a plus for me, BUT I would say it's not as good as previous monitors I've used or as good for side angle viewing as my Samsung monitor at home. The technical blurb about viewing angles says you can view it up to 160 degrees horizontal and 130 degrees vertical but I'd sorely disagree with this!
I do find the fact that I can tilt the screen up to 15 degrees forwards and up to 30 degrees backwards quite handy so it scores not too badly on this front. The monitor also has a small enough footprint not to be cumbersome in size and does not take up much in the way of deskspace. It can also be wall mounted if you fancy using it this way.
We had a games day at work recently where we all logged into our server and played online games with each other and I have to say I found the graphics quite powerful on this monitor but within an hour or so I had a headache and logged out. This is not to say it was from the screen itself, but possibly it was rather the fact that I'm not used to playing computer games for such prolonged periods of time. Nonetheless, I would say this aspect of the monitor (prolonged use for gaming) should be looked into if you are thinking of buying this monitor and expect to use it a lot for gaming.
PRICE
If purchased from ag-neovo.oc.uk directly, this monitor can be bought for £116.31 including VAT against a recommended retail price of £186.82 which is a fairly good price. You can buy it with an optional TV tuner box for about £80 or wall mount kit for £14.99 or pivot wall mount for £32.99. You can also buy an LCD display arm for an extra £71.99
OVERALL RATING
Overall I'd give this monitor a fairly average 6 out of 10. I doubt I'd ever buy one for myself for home use, but it's sufficient for my needs at work (for now)!
With a name like F-417 one would expect this to be something whizzy like a fighter plane but it really isn't. It's just about fairly average and nothing to write home about…
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Sounds great, a bit expensive, but a monitor like this for work as freetime suits, technically as optically (remember yr pic) ... Tomas x x
jo145 22.01.2007 08:24
We have the F17 at home and it is a big improvement on our old screen. Fancy having a games day at work! We do't get a minute to anything else but work! But then that's what I'm paid for!LOL. Jo x
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