Acer H226HQL - glossy and cheap 22inch IPS without PWM (review)

You guys went english, huh. Good idea. I like your reviews even if didnt understand a whole lot. :)

21.5" is too high DPI for my eyes, though. Pondering if I should take a gamble on the H236HL. Gamble being if it has PWM or not. It came out after the H226HQL and it looks very similar, so there is a chance that it uses similar PCB. But there is no 'Q' in the name there and there is no telling what that means. :)
 
According some guys from Acer 23inch model (H236HL) unfortunately uses PWM.
 
ufoncz said:
According some guys from Acer 23inch model (H236HL) unfortunately uses PWM.
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Double impressed. First off that you already knew that info, ufoncz.

Secondly that Acer person actually knew and admitted it, right of the bat. Pretty rare with both good knowledge and straightforward answers from monitor manufacturer. One up for Acer.
 
j3cam said:
PWM too for the Acer H236HLbmjd (Prad.de) :-(
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Thanks for the confirmation. Puzzling that they would use the tech in a smaller model of a series. I guess its a segment thing. H226HQL is by far the cheapest PWM free monitor you can get at the moment. So I guess its a good deal for a eye-friendly office solution.
 
But it has a small pitch dot... so is it really eye-friendly ?

I fear that this screen is too much glossy for me...

Alternatives flicker free:
- GW2265HM
- Dell U2312HM
- GW2460HM

It's a short list... and some monitors non flicher freeseems very good : Dell s2340l, AOC i2369vm for exemple ! I don't know if it's necessary for me to have a flicker free screen ! I haven't this problem with my old LCD non leds ! Do you know if a lot of users are flicker sensitive ? Is it a stronger problem for children ?
 
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j3cam said:
But it has a small pitch dot... so is it really eye-friendly ?

I fear that this screen is too much glossy for me...

Alternatives flicker free:
- GW2265HM
- Dell U2312HM
- GW2460HM

It's a short list... and some monitors non flicher freeseems very good : Dell s2340l, AOC i2369vm for exemple ! I don't know if it's necessary for me to have a flicker free screen ! I haven't this problem with my old LCD non leds ! Do you know if a lot of users are flicker sensitive ? Is it a stronger problem for children ?
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Its glossy? Well.. its an advantage when the dot pitch is smaller. But one have to have good control of lighting for it to work out well.

Dot pitch in itself is a matter of viewing distance to monitor and how good your vision is. Distance to retinality (distance where you can not differentiate individual pixels) for 20/20 (normal) vision can be calulated as:
minimum distance in centimeters = 343.8 * pixel pitch in millimeters
Examples:
21.5" 1080p is 0.248 mm pixel pitch gives 343.8 * 0.248 = 85.2 centimeters
23" 1080p is 0.265 gives 343.8 * 0.265 = 91.1 centimeters
27" 1080p is 0.311 gives 343.8 * 0.311 = 106 centimeters = 41.7 in
27" 1440p is 0.235 gives 343.8 * 0.235 = 80.8 centimeters = 31.8 in

So. In practice its not a huge difference. Although if your desk is really shallow a smaller dot pich monitor might be better. There might be some differences when taking eye convergence and focus into account but these are things are tricky to trace. Even a professional eye doctor might not have a good answer. The best way IMHO is to try different monitor and see what seems most comfortable in the long run.

U2312HM is flicker free only in some revisions. Would not count on it.
GW2460HM would be a big chance of getting old revision that is not PWM free.
GW2265HM. There you go. This one will be PWM free. Its as cheap as the Acer. Get two for the price of one GW2760HS.

Difficult to say. Some people they dont get affected at all by PWM. Some get affected but they dont notice it as a big deal. The thing with PWM is that the lower you go with brightness the worse the potential sensitivity problems will be. Therefore, if you're light-sensitive that will amplify the problem.

On the other hand you can always dim your monitor by reducing brightness with contrast instead of brightness setting or both at the same time. That way you'll have less PWM effect. But image quality will suffer.

I guess you're looking for cheap, but if you find a good deal Samsung S24C750P might be PWM free. The new Dell P2414H is definitely PWM free.
 
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I have just got that monitor today. My first absolutely glossy panel after all the matte ones. Colors are great, it's pretty fast in games - I haven't noticed any ghosting. Black is pretty black and I seem to have gotten quite lucky with the panel that doesn't have much BLB (it's not noticable unless someone goes crazy with brightness and contract). And one thing for sure - text looks crystal clear on it. Nothing looks grainy anymore so one would assume, eyes don't get tired. Unfortunately, they do (at least my eyes that is). Even with brightness brought to 0 and monitor being PWM free, it somehow doesn't feel as easy on eyes as my old, unbeatable TN CCFL 1280x1024 panel. I'm not sure if it's the LED that I cannot stand or the fact that I was basically trying to focus on the text rather than myself that I saw in the mirror.. ehm.. monitor. In past I thought anti glare coatings were an issue but it's even worse to have a monitor without any ag coating at all. The only solution to deal with it is to sit in a dark room, wear black clothes, black hat, and have a light source put behind the monitor to eliminate light reflections. Working during the day - forget it if you want to let some light in to your office/room.

Dell P2414H arrives next week so I'll see what that one offers. I'll probably send Acer back as I can't deal with reflections (as I said, wanted to find out how bad they are on a glossy screen).

Yet another thing is - I find 16:9 absolutely moronic aspect ratio when it comes to anything. I even prefer watching movies in 16:10 (some old ones). I constantly lack vertical working area. 5:4 is fantastic for office usage (programming, linux console, web browsing). 16:9 is some madman's mistake.
 
deviant said:
I have just got that monitor today. My first absolutely glossy panel after all the matte ones. Colors are great, it's pretty fast in games - I haven't noticed any ghosting. Black is pretty black and I seem to have gotten quite lucky with the panel that doesn't have much BLB (it's not noticable unless someone goes crazy with brightness and contract). And one thing for sure - text looks crystal clear on it. Nothing looks grainy anymore so one would assume, eyes don't get tired. Unfortunately, they do (at least my eyes that is). Even with brightness brought to 0 and monitor being PWM free, it somehow doesn't feel as easy on eyes as my old, unbeatable TN CCFL 1280x1024 panel. I'm not sure if it's the LED that I cannot stand or the fact that I was basically trying to focus on the text rather than myself that I saw in the mirror.. ehm.. monitor. In past I thought anti glare coatings were an issue but it's even worse to have a monitor without any ag coating at all. The only solution to deal with it is to sit in a dark room, wear black clothes, black hat, and have a light source put behind the monitor to eliminate light reflections. Working during the day - forget it if you want to let some light in to your office/room.

Dell P2414H arrives next week so I'll see what that one offers. I'll probably send Acer back as I can't deal with reflections (as I said, wanted to find out how bad they are on a glossy screen).

Yet another thing is - I find 16:9 absolutely moronic aspect ratio when it comes to anything. I even prefer watching movies in 16:10 (some old ones). I constantly lack vertical working area. 5:4 is fantastic for office usage (programming, linux console, web browsing). 16:9 is some madman's mistake.
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I have both monitors and the acer's image is so much clearer.
 
deviant said:
@Murzilka: How do you deal with reflections? Or they simply do not bother you?
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There are reflections but they do not bother for some reason. I love this display without exaggeration. It is EXTREMELY well factory calibrated as well. Games look simply amazing. Get it without a single doubt.
 
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