Acer AL2051W

[Martel]

Anyone got any information on these. I'm planning on getting a new monitor and was thinking a 20 inch would be nice. However, being from Ireland there is little choice, and what monitors there are can be very dear (20 inch money here is around 23-24 inch money in the States).

The BenQ 202 and the Acer 2051 are the real contenders, most everything else (short of getting a deal on a Dell) is too dear and simply not easily available (e.g. Viewsonic).

I just want a monitor, built in usb ports, speakers, cameras etc are not of much use. I'm a programmer by profession, plus I spend alot of time browsing online and like to play games, mainly RTS games. Movies aren't that big a thing for me, but I do use my PC for viewing movies. I'd also like to use the monitor with a PS3 when it is released.

Any advice is welcome .

 

[-Sean Casey]

I can't speak for the AL2051 directly, but I use quite a few Acer's at work (I have and Acer AL1912 and a AL1914 next to each other on my workstation), and mix of 15, 17, and 19's. they are good monitors for general work, but I can not say I would use them for gaming. For our graphics department and for home I tend to look at Samsung, Viewsonic, Apple and Dell.

 

[Martel]

I can't speak for the AL2051 directly, but I use quite a few Acer's at work (I have and Acer AL1912 and a AL1914 next to each other on my workstation), and mix of 15, 17, and 19's. they are good monitors for general work, but I can not say I would use them for gaming. For our graphics department and for home I tend to look at Samsung, Viewsonic, Apple and Dell.

Thanks for the reply. May I ask why wouldn't you use them for gaming? If it is repsonse time based, the 2051 is 8ms, compared with 16ms and 12ms for the monitors you mentioned, plus I rarely notice ghosting anyway.

All the companies you mentioned I had looked at, and they make some great monitors, but:

Dells are dearer, and have banding (2007) or backlight bleeding (2005).

The Viewsonics are difficult to get in Ireland, and very expensive where available.

Samsung are Dell prices here, and often use dithering to compensate for 6 bit colour (such as on the 204B).

Apple are way to dear and a white monitor wouldn't suit my black and silver setup ;-).

Cheers for the feedback.

 

[-Sean Casey]

In a few "tests' that I have performed they seems to ghost more than their paper specs would indicate, though again, I have never used the AL2051.

Dithering or not I am really happy with my Samsung 214T, but that is some $$$ even here in the USA.

Since you mainly play RTS games you probably would not notice it too much. FPS's like Doom3 or HL2 or BF2 might be a problem, but RTS and RPG games are usally better about it.

See if you can find a local store with a 30 day return policy, but the AL2051 and try it out, if it works out then you are set, and if not, you can simply return it. I do think that Acer has pretty good quality overall.

 

[Varmint]

I've not seen any reviews, but it appears to be a newer version of the Acer AL2032/F-20. Since those models get pretty good reviews from gamers, I think the 2051 is a safe bet, but I'd wait to see a review.