Digimate L-1531W

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Excellent
Colour sensitivity	Excellent
Design	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Low purchase price, superb after sales
Disadvantages:	Not widely available

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is not going to be a long winded review as after all, monitors to a certain degree are very much of a muchness. My perspective on this product focuses more on the after sales experience.

I purchased my monitor from ebay nine months ago for just UNDER £100. I was to say the least a little bit sceptical of the brand having never heard of them, and even more sceptical of the warranty claims (3 years warranty offered). Having said that I decided that I would take a gamble as the price was around £40 - 50 cheaper than I could have bought a similar product from the likes of PC World.

What do you get?
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In a nutshell a 15" TFT Wide screen monitor for your PC.
As stated above, for the price I wasn't exactly expecting a fat lot, merely a cheap monitor with average picture quality that simply did a job.
In reality, my expectations were very very pleasantly exceeded. To start with the actual picture quality is nothing less than superb!! The picture quality is superbly crisp and vibrant, I would even go as far as to say it can give the likes of Sony a run for their money but for less than half the price!
The monitor has its own built in speakers, which again are quite reasonable in quality. Although not by any means a substitute for a decent set of multimedia speakers, the sound quality is more than acceptable.
The actual design of the monitor is good in respect that it does not take up loads of space. The plastic surrounds around the screen are kept to a minimum making the monitor look quite stylish without the bulky look associated with others.

After sales service
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This to my mind has proven to be (in a roundabout way) the most satisfying part of my purchase. About three weeks ago, my monitor developed a fault in that the bottom 2-3 inches had been transformed into a solid grey block. I must say at this point that this fault only occurred after I had dropped the monitor whilst moving it. (this bit of information completely slipped my mind when phoning up to report the problem). Again I was sceptical to start and thinking "Here goes nothing". Although when I purchased the monitor, it came with a 3 year manufacturers warranty, I had thought it was "Too good to be true offer" especially from a previously unheard of brand.
When i called I was very pleasantly surprised and greatly impressed by the standard of customer service. To start with I was given a date for a courier to come and pick the monitor up from me. This I was impressed with as it saved me any hassle taking it to the post office or local service centre. I explained that I was at work and it would be difficult to arrange for someone to stay in. To my amazement I was told "Not a problem" and collection was arranged from my workplace.
For the next part I had expected to be chasing up three to four weeks after collection. Once again the reality was in total contrast to this. I had the monitor picked up from myself on a Wednesday. The following Thursday, I had a call to say would it be possible to arrange delivery for the next day. Again this made back to my workplace causing me no hassle or inconvenience what soever.
To summarise I found Digimate's level of after sales care to be nothing short of first class. My only slight quibble is the 0870 number you have to call to get in touch. Having said that the overall lack of hassle and inconvenience to me personally, more than made up for this.

Recommendation?
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The only place I have ever seen this brand is actually on ebay. I have never yet seen the same in any of the major PC retailers. Prices are very very competitive with the big names, and the after sales care, I would say exceeds expectations.
If I was asked would I recommend this product before purchase, I would have probably said NO. However having now had the experience of ownership, I would 110% say yes, go for it.
To summarise, when buying this product, you are buying more than a monitor, you are buying piece of mind for the next three years!
Specifications
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1. Panel Size : 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD
2. Resolution :1280 x 800(WXGA)
3. Pixel Pitch :0.2588 x 0.2588 mm
4. Display Colors :262K
5. Brightness (cd/m2) :220cd/m2
6. Contrast Ratio :600:1
7. Scan Frequency :H:30-62KHz V:56-75Hz
8. Response time : 28ms
9. Viewing Angle, H/V :130 degree(H) / 100 degree(V)
10. OSD language :English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Simplified / Traditional Chinese
11. Input Signal :VGA ( D-sub 15pin)
12. Internal Speaker :Built-in stereo speakers
13. Power Supply :AC 100~240V 50/60Hz
14. Power Consumption :MAX 40W,Standby 2W
15. Net Weight :2.2Kg
16. Monitor Dimension (W*H*D mm) :357 x 324 x 170mm