NEC MultiSync LCD1560NX

I bought my NEC 1560NX second hand off a popular auction site for the knockdown sum of £50. It arrived shortly afterward in brilliant condition, alas without the stand which I shall not review. It is a second monitor, standing alongside an excellent Philips 150S.

On the back of the monitor you have the standard four screw connections for a TFT stand. Easily attach the monitor to a stand you might think. But no, the thread of the screws ...
...downloading the manual from the NEC Mitsubishi web-site to have any chance of using it. That said, once you've worked out how to use it is has all the options available, auto-adjust and even temperature changing for different types of graphic work.

Once big tip I would give you... this monitor is very picky on the cable you use to connect it to the computer. I purchased a cheap cable and the picture quality dropped dramatically, with ... more

I bought my NEC 1560NX second hand off a popular auction site for the knockdown sum of £50. It arrived shortly afterward in brilliant condition, alas without the stand which I shall not review. It is a second monitor, standing alongside an excellent Philips 150S.

On the back of the monitor you have the standard four screw connections for a TFT stand. Easily attach the monitor to a stand you might think. But no, the thread of the screws is slightly different to standard making it difficult to find anything that will fit without cross-threading!

Pleasingly the monitor has both VGA and DVI inputs, meaning you can easily hook it up to a G5 or PC that only provides DVI output. Whether you choose the VGA or DVI option, the picture quality is amazing. The colours are very bright and there is no ghosting or blurring on the pixel edges leaving photographs particularly well defined.

Another neat feature is that the transformer for the monitor is built into the monitor itself. This means you don't need a big "brick" on the floor to tangle cables around and eventually lose. You plug a standard kettle lead straight into the monitor and off it goes. Why don't more manufacturers take this approach?

Despite having a built in transformer, the unit is still barely 3 inches thick. The frame around the picture is small as well, only about half an inch in a pleasant silver colour. Whilst this silver bezel is pleasing to the eye, it is very easily scratched off and with any transportation this is bound to happen. The design looks particular pleasant, however it has been at the expense of functionality.

The small bezels leave very little room for control buttons for contrast and brightness etc. These are squeezed into the edge of the bezel and are particularly difficult to press. Once you have found them, you will be stuck working out how to use them. For example, pressing "Exit" brings up the menu system. Confused? Pressing "Exit" again then takes you to the main menu. This has to be the most confusing menu system ever compared to the one on my Philips! I would recommend downloading the manual from the NEC Mitsubishi web-site to have any chance of using it. That said, once you've worked out how to use it is has all the options available, auto-adjust and even temperature changing for different types of graphic work.

Once big tip I would give you... this monitor is very picky on the cable you use to connect it to the computer. I purchased a cheap cable and the picture quality dropped dramatically, with ghosting around windows and icons plus a dimming of the picture. Investing in a quality cable for a few pounds more makes a huge difference on picture quality. Something definitely well worth investing in.

This monitors native resolution, like most 15" TFT's is 1024x768 which I find pleasant, giving you enough space for all those desktop icons without making font sizing too small. It's standard refresh rate is 75Hz which eliminates blurring when scrolling up and down web pages in particular.

Overall, I think this monitor is of a high quality and even if you aren't lucky enough to get it at a knock-down price is well worth the list price. It's picture quality and dual inputs are great, and the small bezels and thin unit are pleasing on the eye. The only things that let it down are the small buttons and hard to use menu system. But once you've set up the monitor, chances are you'll seldom use this anyhow. 

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