Hi everyone,
Let me first start of by saying it was very tough deciding on which 24" LCD to choose. VERY tough. I did in-depth research for 3 days straight before I decided to get this LCD. At first, I was going to get a Dell 2407 24" but I heard about some of the problems it was having.. and decided to dig deeper.
That's what eventually brought me to NewEgg.com to look at this monitor. It had everything. 1000:1 contrast, 500 cd/m2 brightness (MUCH brigter than most LCD monitors) and a great price tag of $699 for a back-to-scool special.
I made a detailed post about all of the monitor's specifics at Widescreengamingforum.com (http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5568) and I will quote myself, no need to re-type the details:
So, my research and all the reviews I could find told me that this monitor is S-MVA meaning great blacks, great veiwing angles, and excellent full 24-bit color. All wrapped in a nice package with no input lag. True? Well, keep reading...
Well, upon recieving the box I kept saying "Thank god for protective packaging!" because my box was full of dents thanks to UPS
Outside box pictures
pictures of packaging
the box could certainly use a little bit more packing. Maybe something like bubble wrap to take shock when the LCD bounces.. because that styrafoam is hard and the monitor feels whatever hits it because the energy travels straight through (You know, kind of like those swinging gray orbs that nock on each other and swing ).
One think I want to mention, like many of ohers have said. This thing is HUGE! I'm upgrading from a 19" 5:4 LCD to this 16:9 24" LCD. It looks amazing in comparison! The pictures on the internet do not show what this thing really looks like. I need to mention that the bezel looks nearly as thin as the Dell ones when you actually see it. It's got a nice matte off-silver color to it. The screen is matte also (Not reflective!)
Pictures of monitor completley unvelied
Okay, now here's the good nitty-gritty stuff you've been waiting to hear. Is everything true about this monitor? What's it like? Here's the scoop.
Upon connecting it and turning it on, I noticed NO dead pixels. Thank goodness! I still have yet to recieve one PC monitor that has dead pixels (I've bought 3). Although, I did notice some strange shape on the size of the screen near the corner where the pixels were pink and made a round shape similar to a hand. I absolutley freaked out when I saw this! No worries, though. It went away after ~20-30 minutes of use.
Comparing this LCD to my previous Sony SDM-HS94P 19" (400 cd/m2, 500:1, 12ms) I noticed the ghosting was MUCH better. Now, I never really cared about ghosting that much at all... but it is nice to see a little less blur in the desktop. Even though this monitor had double the contrast, and 100 cdm2 more brightness, i only noticed a slight improvment on brightness. I don't know whether my old Sony is actually brighter than the specs say, or this monitors specs are exaderated I don't know.
What about the 1920x1200 resolution you ask? AMAZING to see that much desktop space. I'm still using my old Sony with this for a dual-monitor setup... but I rareley need it because of how much space I get on this monitor. I feel so much more immersed looking at a widescreen monitor because it actually fills up my perhabrial (SP?) vision. The stand of this monitor is great, as someone else here on this forum once mentioned.. "it looks like a stealth aircraft!" And... The stand is completley adjustable... including rotation and height which is great. Although, the stand sticks out in the back a bit so I can't tuck my monitor as far back as i'd like to.
Pictures of the monitor's height-adjustable stand
Now for a few very inportant key points:
-Black Levels: VERY good. As a matter of fact... this monitor probably has better black levels than any LCD i've seen... inlcuding the TN Sony panel sitting right next to me.
-Overall Image Quality: This is also very good. On the "cool" color preset, colors are inviting, rich, and white looks like pure white (Not tan or blue). There is a strange effect, though, a little bit of sparkling / grid effect on the monitor that I didn't expect. BUT, it's not very noticable and it could just be a charactaristic of this type of LCD panel.
-What panel type is this?: It is a P-MVA panel; look at my quote above if you want to see what those panels are like. It is a good "all around use" LCD.
-Is this panel true 8-bit (24-bit) color?: YES! That means no wierd shades of gray or pink mixed with dots on certain colors - like TN panels that are 6-bit tend to do.
-WHAT ABOUT INPUT LAG?: This was probably my #1 concern about this monitor. I was concerned that the 20MS input lag (NOT the same as pixel response time) rated on Here (dutch page translated to english) would cause bad enough mouse lag to use this monitor. And to my pleasent suprise It's barley noticable! My mouse doesn't feel quite as snappy as on my older 19" LCD, but it's barley noticable like I just said. This is one of the key points about this monitor, most 24" LCD's have 35-60ms input lag! This monitor only has 20!
-How is ghosting?: Although you LCD users might prefer no ghosting at all, this LCD gets pretty close with only 6ms. I can tell you it's an excellent improvment over the 12ms 19" Sony TN monitor I previously owned. You will really only notice it when dragging white objects on a black background (Like on the desktop).
-And viewing angles: This is another very impressive aspect about this monitor. The colors barley change at all when moving around the monitor... at nearly 180 degress to the right or left, I can still easily make out what colors are on the screen.
As you can see in the last two pictures, the 19" Sony gets pink and discolored at extreme angles, where th Acer AL2423W stays crisp
I've gotta say that the research I put into this monitor was well worth it. With no dead pixels, minimal input lag, great color reproduction, and deep blacks... it's all around great. Good for movies, gaming (yet to be tested) and desktop. The thing that probably bothered me the most was the "twinking" or "sparkling I noticed earler... but I still am getting used to the fact this monitor had no glossy finish. Pros and cons:
Pros
- Great, deep blacks
-Cool, adjustable colors
-Wonderful veiwing angles
-Minimal mouse (input) lag
-Completley adjustable stand.
-Very bright (500 cdm/2 monitor)
-High-res of 1920x1200
-Nice looking outer bezel.
-Even backlight.
Cons
-"Overdrive" may cause "persistant" or "burnt-in" images after a displaying a static picture for a long period of time.
- Monitor slightly titled (crooked) on stand...
-A slight twinkling effect noticable across the screen.
My bottom line: This is probably the BEST 24" monitor available on the market today. It is very evenly lit, consistant color, and does not have the problems that plauge the Dell 2407 and input lag is hardly noticable... where input lag in the Samsung 244t can ruin your computing experience.
I will be constantly updating this thread, with more pictures and info! Suggestions are welcome!
-Cornflake (Adam of Denver, CO USA 17yrs of age).
I've taken some comparison pictures between my 19" Sony TN 6-bit display and the 24" Acer 8-bit display to try and guage color quality. I must say this monitor is a massive improvment.
If you take a look at the following screenshot, you can tell how Sam is pink, and sometimes green in areas compared the the 24" acer to the right:
Now let's compare the dark color areas of Sam's outfit to see how the dark color shades look:
19" 6-bit panel picture to the right, Acer 24" to the left
Notice that? For those of you who have never seen it, there are color bands of odd colours in the screenshot if the 19" monitor's image. Even though you still see bands with the Acer, they are even and not odd shades of green / or pink. No video card is yet capable of creating an image completley band-free.
Acer 24" gradients on the left, 19" Sony on the right
As you can clearly see in those gradient pictures above, the Acer generates clean, clear, pink / green free dark colors which look much better. This is because it is an 8-bit P-MVA panel as opposed to the Sony which is a 6-bit TN. The acer can accuratly re-produce all needed colors.
Here's a few screenshots of Doom 3, Far Cry, and Raven Shield running in different resolutions scaled to the monitor's size. NOTE Your video card drives scale up the pictures to full panel size by default. The monitor DOES NOT effect wehter images are left in a letterbox, or scaled. It only effects the quality of the scaling.
Raven shield in 1920x1200 mode (left) and 1024x768 (right).
Far Cry in 1920x1200 and 1024x768. Notice how Far Cry reduces your vertical viewing angle in widescreen mode
Doom 3 in 1600x1200 (it does not support widescreen) and 1024x768 from left to right
Didn't notice much difference between them? Well, there is a much larger difference than those pictures show. After testing different screen sizes, I've come to the conclusion that anything below the 1280x1024 level starts to look VERY pixelated in many games. It's a good idea to at leat run at 1280x1024 for a non-widescreen game, and 1280x768 for a wide-angle one. **Remember, unless specified differently by your drivers, a standard 4:3 resolution will be streteched full-screen making objects look slightly fat.
And, as a final touch, i've included some info abot the On-screen Display (OSD). I actually find the button layout pretty easy to work with (although not the best). The options available in the OSD in DVI mode are: Brightness, Contrast, Color Temp [warm, cool, user], Language, OSD position, VGA or DVI input, Info, Reset, and Exit. This is a fairly complete OSD, but it lacks options such as Sharpness, White level, Gamma, etc. Even though I miss the Gamma option on the monitor (Now I would have to change gamma through my driver's control panel) it isn't a big deal.
Picture of the color adjust screen in the OSD
Let me first start of by saying it was very tough deciding on which 24" LCD to choose. VERY tough. I did in-depth research for 3 days straight before I decided to get this LCD. At first, I was going to get a Dell 2407 24" but I heard about some of the problems it was having.. and decided to dig deeper.
That's what eventually brought me to NewEgg.com to look at this monitor. It had everything. 1000:1 contrast, 500 cd/m2 brightness (MUCH brigter than most LCD monitors) and a great price tag of $699 for a back-to-scool special.
Monitor Specs
I made a detailed post about all of the monitor's specifics at Widescreengamingforum.com (http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5568) and I will quote myself, no need to re-type the details:
Cornflake said:After extensive comparison between this monitor, and others like the Dell 2407WFP, I've decided to order this from NewEgg.com. I hope people will spread the word about this monitor, because it is superior to nearly every other 24" LCD on the market!
Here are the basic details:
-Brigtness: 500 cd/m2
-Contrast: 1,000:1
-Display Type: WUXGA (1,920x1200 pixels)
-GTG Response time: 6ms
-Black to White response time: ~16ms
-Viewing Angle: 178° H/V
-Connection Types: DVI/VGA
-Silver bezel, height ajustable and rotating stand
Advanced Details
-Uses P-MVA panel type*
-Has an approximate input lag** of 20MS on the desktop
... (Information found on This web page translated from Dutch to English).
-Such a relativley new monitor, that's why the page above with the input lag demonstration was only found in Dutch
-Many reviewers across the web, on the reviews that were found, state this monitor has EXCELLENT color and contrast, plus no mouse lag detected compared to models like the Samsung 244t.
-Many users such as on the [H]ardforum.com are always pleased about this monitor, no complaints.
* A P-MVA type monitor uses a system to give fast response times, AND good colours, as compared to the Dell 2407 where it has horrible color banding issues. note that "TN" panels are the worst color producers, and "SPS" monotors are a little bit better than MVA, that this monitor uses. Here is a definition from HardForum.com:
MVA (Multidomain Vertical Alignment)
- compromise between TN and IPS technologies
- superior color reproduction over TN but not as good as IPS
- very good viewing angles but less than IPS
- higher contrast than TN or S-IPS means very good blacks
- dead pixels are black
- slower pixel response than TN or IPS
- details can be lost when directly viewing dark areas
Premium-MVA (P-MVA) - ACER AL2423W
- same as MVA except ...
- "overdrive" technology increases pixel response but still slower than TN
- may have slightly degraded color reproduction due to "overdrive" process
** The term "input lag" describes the amount of time between moving your mouse / controller (or typing on your keyboard) and when it shows up on screen... and NOT to be confused with "Response Time" which refers to the level of "ghosting" on a monitor. This is a newer term because on LCD's 19" or smaller, there is usually very little input lag. Note the worse the input lag, the more sluggish your mouse will feel.
- I hope I helped shed some light on the details of this monitor. It is a much better buy for $699 than almost any other 24" LCD, please spread the word!
So, my research and all the reviews I could find told me that this monitor is S-MVA meaning great blacks, great veiwing angles, and excellent full 24-bit color. All wrapped in a nice package with no input lag. True? Well, keep reading...
First Impressions
Well, upon recieving the box I kept saying "Thank god for protective packaging!" because my box was full of dents thanks to UPS
Outside box pictures
pictures of packaging
the box could certainly use a little bit more packing. Maybe something like bubble wrap to take shock when the LCD bounces.. because that styrafoam is hard and the monitor feels whatever hits it because the energy travels straight through (You know, kind of like those swinging gray orbs that nock on each other and swing ).
One think I want to mention, like many of ohers have said. This thing is HUGE! I'm upgrading from a 19" 5:4 LCD to this 16:9 24" LCD. It looks amazing in comparison! The pictures on the internet do not show what this thing really looks like. I need to mention that the bezel looks nearly as thin as the Dell ones when you actually see it. It's got a nice matte off-silver color to it. The screen is matte also (Not reflective!)
Pictures of monitor completley unvelied
Down to Business
Okay, now here's the good nitty-gritty stuff you've been waiting to hear. Is everything true about this monitor? What's it like? Here's the scoop.
Upon connecting it and turning it on, I noticed NO dead pixels. Thank goodness! I still have yet to recieve one PC monitor that has dead pixels (I've bought 3). Although, I did notice some strange shape on the size of the screen near the corner where the pixels were pink and made a round shape similar to a hand. I absolutley freaked out when I saw this! No worries, though. It went away after ~20-30 minutes of use.
Comparing this LCD to my previous Sony SDM-HS94P 19" (400 cd/m2, 500:1, 12ms) I noticed the ghosting was MUCH better. Now, I never really cared about ghosting that much at all... but it is nice to see a little less blur in the desktop. Even though this monitor had double the contrast, and 100 cdm2 more brightness, i only noticed a slight improvment on brightness. I don't know whether my old Sony is actually brighter than the specs say, or this monitors specs are exaderated I don't know.
What about the 1920x1200 resolution you ask? AMAZING to see that much desktop space. I'm still using my old Sony with this for a dual-monitor setup... but I rareley need it because of how much space I get on this monitor. I feel so much more immersed looking at a widescreen monitor because it actually fills up my perhabrial (SP?) vision. The stand of this monitor is great, as someone else here on this forum once mentioned.. "it looks like a stealth aircraft!" And... The stand is completley adjustable... including rotation and height which is great. Although, the stand sticks out in the back a bit so I can't tuck my monitor as far back as i'd like to.
Pictures of the monitor's height-adjustable stand
Now for a few very inportant key points:
-Black Levels: VERY good. As a matter of fact... this monitor probably has better black levels than any LCD i've seen... inlcuding the TN Sony panel sitting right next to me.
-Overall Image Quality: This is also very good. On the "cool" color preset, colors are inviting, rich, and white looks like pure white (Not tan or blue). There is a strange effect, though, a little bit of sparkling / grid effect on the monitor that I didn't expect. BUT, it's not very noticable and it could just be a charactaristic of this type of LCD panel.
-What panel type is this?: It is a P-MVA panel; look at my quote above if you want to see what those panels are like. It is a good "all around use" LCD.
-Is this panel true 8-bit (24-bit) color?: YES! That means no wierd shades of gray or pink mixed with dots on certain colors - like TN panels that are 6-bit tend to do.
-WHAT ABOUT INPUT LAG?: This was probably my #1 concern about this monitor. I was concerned that the 20MS input lag (NOT the same as pixel response time) rated on Here (dutch page translated to english) would cause bad enough mouse lag to use this monitor. And to my pleasent suprise It's barley noticable! My mouse doesn't feel quite as snappy as on my older 19" LCD, but it's barley noticable like I just said. This is one of the key points about this monitor, most 24" LCD's have 35-60ms input lag! This monitor only has 20!
-How is ghosting?: Although you LCD users might prefer no ghosting at all, this LCD gets pretty close with only 6ms. I can tell you it's an excellent improvment over the 12ms 19" Sony TN monitor I previously owned. You will really only notice it when dragging white objects on a black background (Like on the desktop).
-And viewing angles: This is another very impressive aspect about this monitor. The colors barley change at all when moving around the monitor... at nearly 180 degress to the right or left, I can still easily make out what colors are on the screen.
As you can see in the last two pictures, the 19" Sony gets pink and discolored at extreme angles, where th Acer AL2423W stays crisp
Conclusion
I've gotta say that the research I put into this monitor was well worth it. With no dead pixels, minimal input lag, great color reproduction, and deep blacks... it's all around great. Good for movies, gaming (yet to be tested) and desktop. The thing that probably bothered me the most was the "twinking" or "sparkling I noticed earler... but I still am getting used to the fact this monitor had no glossy finish. Pros and cons:
Pros
- Great, deep blacks
-Cool, adjustable colors
-Wonderful veiwing angles
-Minimal mouse (input) lag
-Completley adjustable stand.
-Very bright (500 cdm/2 monitor)
-High-res of 1920x1200
-Nice looking outer bezel.
-Even backlight.
Cons
-"Overdrive" may cause "persistant" or "burnt-in" images after a displaying a static picture for a long period of time.
- Monitor slightly titled (crooked) on stand...
-A slight twinkling effect noticable across the screen.
My bottom line: This is probably the BEST 24" monitor available on the market today. It is very evenly lit, consistant color, and does not have the problems that plauge the Dell 2407 and input lag is hardly noticable... where input lag in the Samsung 244t can ruin your computing experience.
I will be constantly updating this thread, with more pictures and info! Suggestions are welcome!
-Cornflake (Adam of Denver, CO USA 17yrs of age).
Additional Comparisons
I've taken some comparison pictures between my 19" Sony TN 6-bit display and the 24" Acer 8-bit display to try and guage color quality. I must say this monitor is a massive improvment.
If you take a look at the following screenshot, you can tell how Sam is pink, and sometimes green in areas compared the the 24" acer to the right:
Now let's compare the dark color areas of Sam's outfit to see how the dark color shades look:
19" 6-bit panel picture to the right, Acer 24" to the left
Notice that? For those of you who have never seen it, there are color bands of odd colours in the screenshot if the 19" monitor's image. Even though you still see bands with the Acer, they are even and not odd shades of green / or pink. No video card is yet capable of creating an image completley band-free.
Acer 24" gradients on the left, 19" Sony on the right
As you can clearly see in those gradient pictures above, the Acer generates clean, clear, pink / green free dark colors which look much better. This is because it is an 8-bit P-MVA panel as opposed to the Sony which is a 6-bit TN. The acer can accuratly re-produce all needed colors.
Here's a few screenshots of Doom 3, Far Cry, and Raven Shield running in different resolutions scaled to the monitor's size. NOTE Your video card drives scale up the pictures to full panel size by default. The monitor DOES NOT effect wehter images are left in a letterbox, or scaled. It only effects the quality of the scaling.
Raven shield in 1920x1200 mode (left) and 1024x768 (right).
Far Cry in 1920x1200 and 1024x768. Notice how Far Cry reduces your vertical viewing angle in widescreen mode
Doom 3 in 1600x1200 (it does not support widescreen) and 1024x768 from left to right
Didn't notice much difference between them? Well, there is a much larger difference than those pictures show. After testing different screen sizes, I've come to the conclusion that anything below the 1280x1024 level starts to look VERY pixelated in many games. It's a good idea to at leat run at 1280x1024 for a non-widescreen game, and 1280x768 for a wide-angle one. **Remember, unless specified differently by your drivers, a standard 4:3 resolution will be streteched full-screen making objects look slightly fat.
And, as a final touch, i've included some info abot the On-screen Display (OSD). I actually find the button layout pretty easy to work with (although not the best). The options available in the OSD in DVI mode are: Brightness, Contrast, Color Temp [warm, cool, user], Language, OSD position, VGA or DVI input, Info, Reset, and Exit. This is a fairly complete OSD, but it lacks options such as Sharpness, White level, Gamma, etc. Even though I miss the Gamma option on the monitor (Now I would have to change gamma through my driver's control panel) it isn't a big deal.
Picture of the color adjust screen in the OSD