Home > Consumer Reviews > AG Neovo X-174 17.4" LCD Monitor

Let's face it, LCD monitors are unbelievably crisp in image quality and detail, but they always lacked in viewing angle and most had motion blur or hesitation when playing fast action games (the new graphics cards have really helped). Well that's not true any more! Before buying a monitor here on Amazon, I recommend you view them in a side-by-side comparison at one of the local retail stores. That is exactly what I did. I was fortunate to have all of the name brands represented; NEC, Samsung, Sony, Viewsonic, Compaq, HP, IBM, Philips, etc.; so doing a side-by-side comparison was easy. I even made sure they were running the same graphics card by recabling my final choices on similar PC's running the same graphics card and displaying the same moving and still images. I was looking for a 17" or 18" monitor (this one is 17.4" viewable and thus it's name of X-174). One monitor stuck out from all the rest with it's crisp color, excellent image reproduction, and unbelievable viewing angles, Neovo. All of this and the monitor was running in analog mode, not digital! One of my primary disappointments with LCD monitors is the viewing angle. Every LCD monitor that I viewed showed dark areas above or below dead center, even when viewed at the optimum angle of straight ahead. The Neovo monitor was the only one that I viewed that performed like a CRT monitor when viewed at less than optimum angles. Yes, their claim of 160 degrees is true! This is a very impressive monitor with an excellent build quality (a three year warranty) from a new subsidary company of AIC (I researced them on the Internet). Setup was a breeze; I replaced the default Windows XP Monitor driver with the one supplied by Neovo (it still worked with the default Windows XP driver, but I wanted to use Neovo's), pressed "Auto Detect" on the monitor, and that was it! Viewing StarWars Episode I showed such vivid colors and detail that my TV can't display and fast movement was not a problem (Pod Race). Now if only I can get a TV with this much quality at a decent price. I highly recommend this Monitor, but don't take my word for it...go out and view it for yourself.

A friend of mine needed a new computer, so I decided to build one for her. After some thought, I figured- hey, why don't I just give her my old computer and build a nice, new one for myself? So that's what I did. Since she had an old Macintosh Performa, I needed to get a new monitor. That's when I started thinking about getting an LCD monitor. There's a lot of opinions out there stating the pros and cons of getting and LCD vs CRT. But the one opinion I found common througout the 'net was that if you are going to get an LCD, get one w/ DVI. Makes sense: Why have a computer translate a digital signal to analog, and then have the LCD monitor take the analog signal back to digital. Not good. So that limits the selection of LCD monitors out there. The next thing is that I didn't want white. Call me picky, but white is boring. I guess that's what happens when you work on Macs alot! I ran into the Neovo X 174, and I was sold. It has 4 signal inputs: DVI, analog VGA, S-video, and regular video (RCA jack). The black glass filter is definitely a plus, but the winner here is the image clarity. It is just awesome. I have the Neovo X-174 plugged into my WinFast GeForce3 via DVI. It's just awesome. Running the Nvidia Chameleon demo proved just how clear and vivid everything was. Keep in mind that the demo's resolution is 1024x768 and the X-174's native resolution is 1280x1024. Image scaling is practically a non issue. Running Microsoft Word in native resolution is crystal clear. Rage's Hostile Waters at native resolution and at 1024x768 is practically identical. As a gamer, I didn't care that it didn't have built in speakers or a USB hub. Speakers should be separate anyways, and your USB ports should be in front of your case, not on a monitor. Viewable is 17.4 inches, but it really looks like a 19 in. monitor, I can't say enough about this thing. DVD playback is just like watching on an expensive gas-plasma panel. Be warned though...once you see it, you'll never want a CRT or white LCD panel ever again!

I just got one of these monitors for my new computer system and it has to be be one of the best monitors I've ever seen. The colors are incredible - bright, crisp and nary a flicker in sight. It's also wall mountable to save even more desk space.

I shopped around quite a bit for the right flat panel monitor before deciding on Neovo. Even though it's a bit more expensive there were several reasons I chose this monitor. First and formost was the color quality - quite a few of the flat panel monitors I looked at has a washed out appearance or the resolution wasn't up to my expectations. Another was the variety of input options - analog, digital (which I use) and S-Video (you can hook it up directly to your dvd player or receiver). The last major reason was the optical glass over the lcd membrane. It's a breeze to clean and I think actually helps the image sharpness. I've always wondered why no one put glass on an lcd panel - the panels are hard to clean and I don't like that if someone touches the screen the picture distorts.

If you're looking for a great flat panel monitor I couldn't recommend this one any more.

I'd been looking a long time for a 1280x1024 LCD monitor with with digital DVI input for around 1000 bucks. A simple request, but impossible to fill! It was worth the wait because AG Neovo's standout 17" monitor has all this and more. Like a hard glass surface that you can actually Windex, and an attractive minimalist black design that looks like it came from a Swedish furniture showcase. The contrast, crispness, and readability from even the most extreme viewing angles can't be beat. When the Matrox G550 Dual-DVI card comes out, I'll consider purchasing one more of these super displays.

I've had this monitor for a little while now and I have to say it's by far the best LCD diplay I've ever laid eyes on (having looked at a few) The colors, sharpness, brightness and contrast are all very good indeed. It does have a stuck pixel, but in normal useage it's less noticeable than the support wires of any Trinitron CRT. Backlight evenness is also very good and the build quality looks excellent. It's also very stylish. The glass panel on the front seems to help visually and adjusting it for color and contrast is fairly easy allowing for very good display gamma settings.

It's a real treat using this in it's digital mode at native resolution. Sharp, precise and very easy on the eyes. When calibrated and given a suitable display profile It's at least as good as any high end CRT I've looked at and better than most, it was important for me to get the best image quality I could find. The X-174 is very impressive and I have ordered a second one after trying a cheaper LCD... it's really not worth the eyeball pain.

I think the only downside is the maximum resolution, 1280 x 1024 can seem small when used to 21" monitors running 1600 x 1200. That isn't a fault in the monitor though, 1600 panels are rare and not necessarily as good as this. I am very happy with this monitor and though it's expensive, it's worth it.