General Overview:
Typical price: £210
22-inch widescreen display with 5,000:1 contrast ratio
Fantastic image quality, excellent contrast and good value make this a real winner
[Brief Story]
The most ardent peddler of contrast ratio figures is LG. It's impressed us with the 3,000:1 Fantasy and Black Jewel ranges, and now it's about to unleash a 5,000:1 model -- the LG Flatron L226WTQ. It promises brilliant whites, dark blacks and is available to buy for around £210.
That is what bothers reviewers of the new LCD monitor of LG. The LG Flatron L226WTQ-BF is a good-looking piece and has excellent positive aspects in it. Here are the stats:
2) Analog, Digital, VGA PC Interface
3) Native Resolution: 1680 x 1050
What is bothersome though is a minor nitpick: it has no Built-In TV Tuner which I find hard to believe with monitors thiese days. However, it somehow makes up for it with its fast feature enhancers like its OSD(On Screen Display) menu which allows you to navigate several screen properties i.e. color temperature, brightness and contrast.
The catch? It reportedly depends on your video card. Aaarggghh! Still, a good-looking piece that would look great on any place it happens to perch itself.
Weaknesses:
We found it difficult to find any problems with the L226WTQ. If we're nitpicking, we can point out the fact that the 5,000:1 contrast mode is only available in the monitor's 'movie' mode. You have to physically enable this each time you need it, which can be quite annoying.
Also frustrating is the fact it's not height adjustable. You'll have to lower your chair or place it on a pile of books or magazines to get it in the ideal ergonomic position -- with the top of the screen in line with your eyes. The L226WTQ can't be used in portrait mode and doesn't have a built-in USB hub.
The resolution of 1,680x1,050 pixels isn't particularly high considering the size of the panel, but it's the same as the vast majority of rivals so we can't moan too much about it. LG has installed an 'ez Zooming' button to switch to a lower resolution and make icons and text appear larger. It's a nice idea but we hardly ever used this feature. Finally, the silver (or grey depending on who you ask) bezel isn't particularly attractive. Go for the black version if you can, as it's far more attractive.
