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

prior computer was an iMac G5. current one is an HP Pavilion Elite e9220y

monitor is adequate for the price. wish monitors were cheaper/included anyway but compared to others it's probably a decent value. nothing to write home about but not terrible

what i didn't like:
1. power cord kept disconnecting. had to return it & replacement monitor was fine (but found other user complaints about this). problem is, because of power cord's placement, if you use wired keyboard and mouse, sometimes just moving the wire inadvertently disconnected the power cord and turned the monitor off, as did placement of the on/off switch on the bottom right of the monitor or even moving the monitor over a bit to adjust your view. considering how long power cords/cables have existed. can't understand how they screwed that up.
2. speakers are not great. bad bass, and just not enuf sound even jacked up for some videos online. you'll probably want to pay more for external speakers to amp up the sound
3. resolution/picture quality not very good compared to my old imac. really surprised at how much worse the picture quality was. using the same background photo for my desktop, it was sharp on the imac and is fuzzy and slightly distorted (noisy) on the HP (as are other picture files stored on photobucket/shutterfly). i'll have to do more tweaking to see if i can improve this at all

what i liked:
1. monitor looks nice and is decently thin.
2. appreciate being able to tilt the screen up or down a little (tho that mechanism is a bit stiff)
3. considering how absolutely expensive monitors are, this is reasonable.

if you love digital photography/videography and really care about picture quality, tho, you'll probably want a better monitor. you're sacrificing much desired picture quality in favor of lower cost. i'm an amateur photog yet i noticed the quality issues, so a more advanced photog would probably be disappointed.

I had a perfectly good working 17" Gateway Flatscreen which came with the system, but somehow I couldn't get the screen bright enough to be able to watch movies or play games that are shot in the dark (night or dark scenes)without getting my rear-end shot to shreds!

I won't repeat what good things others have already said about this monitor, but with me ... the difference is between night and day. Like I said ... I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW!

I also love the fact that the screen is wide enough that I can display two things at once (side by side) and still be able to work comfortably.

Some examples of what you can do with displaying things side by side:

1) Cut or Copy and paste: You want to copy something from your email, web page ... etc. You can easily flip from one side to the other and accomplish that function.

2) There are times when I'm composing something in my word processor and have to reference something in my bank account. By displaying both side by side, I can do it easily without having to rely on my memory to remember the data that I need to include in the document I am composing. Eliminates a lot of errors!

3) How about just re-arranging things in your computer: i.e. dragging things from one file folder/drive to another? The drag and drop method works well for this!

4) BEST OF ALL !! I can watch a movie on one side of my screen while I work on the other side ... Way Cool!

The monitor is near perfect, not too wide that it takes up the whole desk and not too small where I have to squint to see things.

One IMPORTANT thing to remember though before purchasing this MONITOR (or any other NEW monitor) if you have an old system. Make sure that the video/graphics card you have in your system is CAPABLE of taking advantage of what this monitor has to offer. An example of this is being able to view the screen in the 1600 x 900 mode or using the digital DVI connector.

There's an old saying in the copy industry "Garbage in Garbage out!", Which means that if you are trying to copy illegible material, don't expect the copier to suddenly make it legible. So if you have a crummy graphics card to begin with, don't expect this monitor to greatly enhance your viewing pleasure. And of course visa versa. i.e. if you have a crummy monitor and buy the greatest super duper video card. You'll just be wasting your money!

I have loved this monitor since I saw it in the box. Widescreen, HD, great picture, can't be beat for the price. I haven't used the speakers, but who really uses speakers that come with their monitor? I mean, it has speakers if you are one of those people, I guess. Just another reason to get it if you're looking to upgrade your monitor. Don't know how I lived w/out this before I got it.

I am very satisfied with the monitor. I have an older computer and I did not know that I would have to upgrade my video card. Once I upgraded everything works perfect.

I had searched a lot of other same-sized monitors and this was the best in its class rating and price range. The auto set-up is great and my computer had no problem recognizing either Digital or Analog connections and the same with the monitor. Yes, it came with both connection cables! The speakers are typical of built-ins but, I don't really use them as I have a full surround system.

I do a lot of graphic design and, for the money, the color temperature of this monitor rivals some well-known others for my needs. I would highly recommend this HP product.

The Amazon price was equal to some sale prices which are just now coming out of the "office-type" stores but, I already have mine and it works great!