LCDs show sharp text, bright graphics

Kalpana Ettenson and Roy Santos

HP's third-place LP1965 earned the highest PCW Rating, due to strong text and graphics scores. The Dell UltraSharp 1907FP and the ViewSonic VG930m delivered strong image quality, too, though they displayed text better than graphics. Two other newcomers--the Asus PG191 and the Eizo FlexScan S1921--finished eighth and ninth, mostly because of higher-than-average prices. The Eizo has a staid design, but the Asus is unique: Its touch-activated on-screen controls can make a musical sound when you change a setting. It has numerous screen modes for watching movies or playing games, and a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera.
   
   Dell UltraSharp 1707FP
   It is a monitor for the ergonomically minded can tilt, swivel, pivot, rise, and lower. Dell's UltraSharp 1707FP is a nicely designed, easy-to-use display that comes with several extra features. The 17-inch unit costs an affordable $299 (as of 2/16/06); however, its image quality falls a bit short of that offered by other better-performing units.
   I enjoyed the Dell's clean design--the display, with its thin black bezel, sits atop a sturdy, silvery-pronged foot that prevents wobbling. In addition to smooth tilt, pivot, and height mechanisms, the monitor swivels. But unlike other models that allow just the panel to swivel, this one swivels at its base, making the movements much more stable. A cable holder at the back of the stand enables you to thread cables easily through a small opening.
   Four USB 2.0 ports--two downstream ports on the back as well as two upstream ports on the side--let you easily connect USB devices. I found the monitor's on-screen controls--located on the front--to be fairly easy to use, and the simple interface helped me navigate the adjustments. While the Dell's design won raves from our judges, its image quality failed to impress them. Text on our test screen of a Microsoft Word document was easy to read, but colors in our test image of a fruit tart looked muted. Nevertheless, the unit is sufficient for displaying most basic documents and images.
   The 1707FP comes with a thorough, easy-to-follow CD-based manual. A quick setup guide helps you handle basic issues, such as how to set up and position the display.
   Specifications: Size (inches): 17 o Resolution (pixels): 1280 by 1024 o Contrast Ratio: 600:1 o Adjustments: Multiple adjustments o Weight (pounds): 9.13 o Interfaces: Analog and digital o Price: $245.
   Pivots and rotates easily. Two USB ports on the side are a useful e
   Cons Top 5 17-Inch LCD Monitors. Top 10 19-Inch LCD Monitors.
   
   NEC MultiSync 70GX2
   This attractive, expensive monitor has impressive image quality. Despite its high price, this monitor's sharp text, bright graphics, and clean design make it a standout. I loved the 70GX2's subtle silvery-colored bezel, and I became particularly enamored with the NaviKey, a small joystick on the front of the display that lets you access screen modes and adjustments. Using the NaviKey was easy and intuitive, and helped me access many of the 70GX2's sophisticated controls, including modes that adjusted the screen brightness to optimize it for photos, text, movies or games. A nice extra: Included NaviSet software lets you make screen adjustments using your mouse and keyboard.
   If our tests are any indication, however, the display won't require much adjusting. The NEC performed the best among the 17-inch models in its test group, showing sharp, well-defined text in a Microsoft Word document. It fared well with our judges in the graphics tests, too. Particularly impressive was the rich, vibrant color it rendered in both our test photo of a fruit tart and a color scale.
   Though the 70GX2 can tilt and swivel, it can't pivot or be height-adjusted. Despite those limitations, it's easy to adjust, and keeps its position without wobbling.
   Most great screens come at a price, and the 70GX2 is no exception. Its $399 price is one of the highest in our test group. Most other 17-inch displays cost on average $50 to $75 less. Nevertheless, for many people its excellent image quality and wealth of settings make it worth the higher cost.
   Specifications: Size (inches): 17. Resolution (pixels): 1280 by 1024.
   Contrast Ratio: 700:1. Adjustments: Tilt and swivel adjustments. Weight (pounds): 12.6
   Interfaces: Analog and digital. Price: $295
   NEC MultiSync 70GX2
   
   ViewSonic VP720b
   This 17-incher displays better graphics than text. ViewSonic's VP720b is well suited for an office, offering various ergonomic adjustments and the option of wall mounting. Its image quality, however, was a mixed bag.
   The VP720b performed better in our graphics tests than it did in our text tests. Judges noted the display's impressive rendering of fine colors in our test color scale and our photo of a fruit tart. But in a Microsoft Word document, judges found that the VP720b seemed inconsistent--letters lacked crispness, though icons looked sharp.
   A solid-footed monitor is always a plus in my book, and the $369 (as of 2/16/06) VP720b delivers in spades in that regard. It can tilt, swivel, height-adjust, and pivot with the best of them, while the steady base keeping the screen firmly in place.
   The VP720b claims a 4-millisecond response time. Screens with lower response times should in theory deliver smoother movement with less motion artifacting, but our real-world motion tests detected no discernable difference in motion quality between this display and products with 8ms or even 12ms response times.
   You access a fairly straightforward set of screen adjustments via the display's front-mounted buttons. Software drivers and documentation are included on a CD. The monitor's manual installs itself on your PC as an Adobe Acrobat file.
   The VP720b shines when displaying graphics, and a wealth of adjustments add to its appeal.

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Manek Dubash

Most of the focus on potential rivals to Microsoft, understandably, has been on Google, which is seen as one of the few companies with the cash and media-fueled mojo to rival the king in Redmond. It offers a reminder that the media forest has a lot of trees - and many of them cast large shadows in their particular neck of the woods.
   A case in point can be found in the example of storage giant EMC, which is set to offer an IPO for its server software subsidiary, the red-hot VMware. Complete with an accompanying article in The New York Times, the software company has released a white paper laying into Microsoft with a litany of complaints, according to the Register, which gives the dust-up significant attention.
   It gets right to the point on its summary page: Microsoft is trying to restrict customers' flexibility and freedom to choose Virtualization software by limiting who can run their software and how they can run it. Some see the broadside by VMware as off-putting, however. After all, the server software company has an 80 percent market share, according to Techworld, and should focus on making increasingly better products rather than picking fights with Microsoft, says writer.

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