ViewSonic VP730

I recently purchased this monitor to accompany my new Dell Dimension 9100 (see other review). Unfortunately i don't think the 17" and 19" monitors dell supplies are very good.

I chose black, and damn does it look good sitting on my desk.

Viewsonic are currently producing the best 17" and 19" TFT monitors on the market if you don't want to spend over £300, and why would you when you get all this for around £200.

The viewsonics are superbly designed in every way. They can be rotated by 90 degrees into a portrait alignment, and you get software which can automatically rotate your desktop too, brilliant if you are writing long documents. They have near perfect viewing angles, you can look at them from anywhere and they maintain an incredibly bright and clear image. The monitor can be raised and lowered, and tilted in a large range of motion, so you can adjust to exactly how you want it, without any compromise.

The base is solid and won't take up too much space on your desk.

It has 3 connections, 1xDVI (for the best quality) and two additional VGA ports (for older computers). This allows you to view three computers through the one monitor. Incredibly useful!

There are also lots of options in the menu system, which is very easy to use, allowing you to customise how it cycles through the inputs, and to set up the monitor just how you want it.

The contrast is excellent. Colour reproduction is accurate and vibrant. I have no dead or permanently lit pixels either. It responds fast, even when playing fast paced games, or watching action packed movies, there is no ghosting or lag.

Overall it is an excellent monitor. If you are after a higher resolution than 1280x1024 though, you will have to look at 20"+ monitors, and they cost more than double. Another thing to consider is the excellent and very well priced Viewsonic VA1912W 19" widescreen monitor. It has all the quality and excellence of normal Viewsonic monitors, but is widescreen, and amazingly, doesn't cost any more (see separate review)

I highly recommend this product, but if you like movies and games, the widescreen viewsonic makes more sense, especially given the price.

You should be able to pick one of these up for less than £200 from companies like savastore.com or ebuyer.com