Big BenQ LCD Disappoints
This 23-inch flat screen comes with cool looks and features, but video and image quality fell short.
Benq's 23-inch wide-screen LCD monitor--the new FP231W--makes an impressive desk trophy. I can't tell you how many coworkers stopped by to cast covetous glances at its business-class beauty. But unfortunately, its performance doesn't live up to its great first impression.
Although the monitor's sedate charcoal-and-matte-silver cabinet looks very professional, the $1999 FP231W is clearly meant for greater things than just spreadsheets. In addition to analog and digital inputs, it includes S-Video and composite inputs. The unit's vast screen, with a 1920 by 1200 native resolution, can display several applications at once--and that isn't counting the picture-in-picture window for watching TV or videos.
However, in my informal tests of a shipping model, regular video seemed to be a little grainy and ghosty. High-definition video was sharper, but still showed some ghosting. In any application, light areas appeared shimmery and washed out, causing black text on a white background to display as less than perfect.
The FP231W offers some nice features. For example, unlike most 23-inch models it can swivel from side to side as well as tilt. Even when I raised the monitor several inches on its base, it felt stable and well balanced. Sadly, such fancy features don't overcome the unit's iffy image quality.
Laura Blackwell
