Home > Consumer Reviews > HP 2009M 20-Inch HD LCD Monitor

This monitor has a great picture and works flawlessly with my MacBook. The 16:9 aspect is perfect for watching DVDs and hulu.com. The design is slick and modern, and the glossy screen is vibrant. For under $150.00 how can you go wrong?

The built in speakers are a little quiet, but better than my notebook's built in speakers.

When connecting with a Mac, I recommend turning the monitor's auto sleep function off, as it would sleep before I could get my Mac to output video.

i had a 21" CRT for 10 yrs. it was fine, just starting to flicker, but was old tech and weighed 50lbs. i looked for a year for a reasonable flat panel (hoping for a 22" under $200). never did find one with speakers that i liked. then volla! here comes an hp and not just under $200, but $50 less and with speakers. looks great! nice design and nice picture. hp designs, to me, are the pc version of mac. found this at my local ODepot for the same as amazon, without the wait of course.

it truly is a plug and play. it came with a cd and i was about to stick it in, when i looked up and everything was working just fine. what a relief! i have xp. the directions say native resolution is 1600x900, but everything was too small. i wanted icons and text sized like my old CRT. so after finally figuring out exactly what 'native resolution' is i tried setting it at the same ratio, but less than the recommended (1280x720). that worked just fine, icons and text are larger; i really don't know what 1600x900 does besides make things smaller. nothing is distorted, so i'm happy.

i like the 16:9 ratio, double windows is a plus that i wasn't looking for, but programs like photoshop do allow for more room without the menus getting in the way of the work screen. may have to reconfigure your tool bars on some programs since u will lose height while gaining width.

the speakers are fine with me, just what i was looking for. wasnt planning on watching a movie anyways. just wanted to get rid of the external speakers i had to use. the screen is glossy, so the glare can be an issue if your lights reflect at the wrong angles.

after using it for a month now, i really dont need a larger screen. i might go up to the 21.5 version if i did. it is so much clearer than the CRT that i guess that makes up for the reduced height, because i see everything fine.

a great deal! buy it before hp figures that out and raises the price to $180. which is probably where it could be since the price jumps between the 21.5 and the 23 is only $30, but $80 between the 20" and 21.5".

better than anticipated.

I was in the market for a monitor to replace my 17in LCD that came with my desktop, and although there was nothing wrong with mine, I wanted to have a bigger screen to be able to have two word documents open side by side for school and work purposes. I also wanted something that was reasonably priced, and also have the flexibility of playing games and watching movies from time to time, and this monitor by far meets all my requirements.
The wide screen is perfect for viewing documents without having to change the settings on the resolution in which the letters would be so small to read, and for this price I was not able to pass it up.
The build in speakers are adequate, however when I am listening to music or doing anything related to media I enjoy the full sound that my logitech speakers provide, needless to say I was not interested on the sound the speakers provided, only on the image the monitor has.
The monitor comes with the software and drives on a CD, but I did not even open the package, I just pluged it in and I let Vista find the latest drivers for it and I had no issues updating the latest drivers and installing them (although it was not necessary).
Overall I am happy with the purchase and I would recommend this monitor to anyone looking into upgrading without having to spend too much money. The case of the monitor itself is sleek and looks really good, and if it was not because of the HP logo, I would confuse it with the Samsung brands cause it looks like my plasma TV.

Pros:
Very clear image, thanks to DVI.
Sound quality from speakers is much better compared to others I've owned.
The screen itself is quite eye appealing, sleek and glossy.
The resolution is not so bad.
The wide screen is wider than most (16:9 vs. 16:10).
Works right out of the package.
Works very well with video games and movies.
Great when two applications need to be open at the same time.
Great cable management via an opening in the base of the monitor.

Cons:
Glossy screen oftentimes reflect objects anytime a light source is present.

Summary:
Great screen, great quality, great image, but, as all products come with something to dislike, I disliked the reflections on the glossy screen.

I waited and waited to replace my old ball and chain monitor. Purchasing the hp 2009m has made the wait well worth it, and was very affordable. The speakers are on the quiet side, but I just use my own desktop speakers anyways. And every time the monitor starts up there is this annoying little box that tells you what your settings are, it doesn't stay up long, but it gets in the way of the windows start up password enter screen. Again pretty minor stuff given this brilliant picture quality, energy star rated, money, and space saving product. It easily holds its own against most 200-300 dollar priced monitors. Overall great value and performance!