I'm a laid back guy that likes electrical gadgets and photography, as well as computers and playing ...
I'm a laid back guy that likes electrical gadgets and photography, as well as computers and playing games
Member since:06.12.2006
Reviews:5
I recently decided to build an entirely new computer after my 3 year old laptop started having problems with the latest games. It was a relatively pain-free experience because I knew a lot about the parts involved, with the exception of a flat-screen monitor! I searched around 4 or 5 different websites looking at 19\" widescreenmonitors and was looking for one with around 1000:1 contrast ratio. In short, the greater the contrast ratio the better generally.
After a lot of hunting around and reading various reviews I decided on the Hyundai ImageQuest N91W as my first flat-screen monitor. The specification is quite high for the price bracket and the design is beautiful too. I expected it to be average when I got it but it took me by surprise in a good way! The picture is very clear, crisp and bright (too bright on the default setting for me) with colours reproduced evenly and well. This monitor in particular has a black surround which I find better than the silver surrounds of other monitors, especially when watching a dark movie or playing a dark game.
The monitor has built-in speakers and while they're ok for basic sounds I wouldn't want to use them to listen to music with. They have a very tinny sound to them and can't match dedicated speakers or headphones. With that said, not many other monitors come with speakers these days and it's fine for normal tasks and alert sounds. The supplied stand clicks into the monitor and feels sturdy enough. It has vertical adjustment but no horizontal adjustment which might put some people off. I didn't find it a big issue though as the monitor isn't overly heavy and can just be turned to get the right angle. You won't necessarily have to do this though as the viewing angle of the monitor is superb!
The specification is what a lot of potential buyers will use when considering their options and I've seen a few websites that haven't got it right for this model. It has a native resolution of 1440x900 with a frequeny of 60Hz via the DVI interface or 75Hz via the VGA interface. On the monitor you have 2x VGA sockets and 1x DVI, you'll also find two DVI-VGA adaptors in the box. The part that I see mislabelled a lot is the response time and this is most important for gamers. Most websites seem to list this as 8ms, which is acceptable for games, but it is in fact 5ms. It might not sound like much but if you're a gamer it is! The 800:1 contrast ratio worried me a little but so far all colours I've noticed have been vibrant and very crisp. I'd easily pick this over a lesser quality 1000:1 contrast monitor.
One thing to note that I saw in the other review of this monitor, the warranty offered by Hyundai is NOT 3 years on-site, it's 3 years collect and return so if you do have problems with it you will have to send it to them. Basically this means they pay for and arrange collection but it also means you will be without the monitor for however long it takes to repair. I've had to deal with the support side once due to a fault with the monitor I have and they are polite and very quick to respond, usually within an hour or two!
Overall I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a 19" widescreen TFT monitor. I'm sure there are better out there but you'd probably pay a lot more, I got mine for £142 from Micro Direct so it pays to shop around.
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Nice review. I'm looking for a new monitor but I've found many wide screens have a max vertical resolution of 900, which seems a bit small for 19 inches - Ian
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