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Published: Apr 29, 2009 Author: Michael Chiu Editor: Amber Lupala Provider: Geeks Share this article:

Testing and Conclusion

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Plugging in the monitor, the first thing you’ll want to do is check out the monitor’s menu and adjust its settings. Looking at the menu we can see that there are a bunch of different menu options that you can go through for various settings. The colors of the menu are very comfortable to use and the menu responds to button pushes without any delays. These are all stock settings that you will see and they ended up working pretty well, except the brightness that I had to adjust to a lower setting. (The lines/artifacts that appear on the screen are due to my camera, not the monitor).

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Looking at some test patterns available online, I was impressed by Soyo’s performance in terms of contrast, picture responsiveness, and color, all at a native resolution of 1920x1200. Even out of the box the monitor didn’t need much tuning, and I was able to tune in any settings that were out of line, evidence that the monitor has a great picture. Also, there were no dead pixels with the sample model.

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One thing that LCD monitors suffer from is back bleeding, or the backlight of the LCD showing in black screens. The Soyo, like all monitors, has some back bleeding, especially at the top and the bottom; this is exaggerated by the camera. But frankly during normal use you hardly notice this effect; you might see it when watching a dark movie but otherwise it never caught my eye.

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I’ve started to use this monitor as my everyday monitor, spending over 5 hours each day on it with no complaints of eyestrain or any issues with flicker despite gaming, surfing, and watching movies on it. Overall I found the picture to be crisp and clear in all applications, thanks to the ultra-fast 2ms response time. Sound quality of the built-in speakers is adequate and comes in handy if you don’t have room on your desk for separate speakers.

Conclusion
Overall, the Soyo” DVI Widescreen LCD monitor is an affordable widescreen LCD that delivers a crisp/clear picture right out of the box. The monitor has a number of desirable features, including DVI capability, 2ms response time, and built-in speakers. At ~$169 USD at Geeks.com, this monitor will allow you to upgrade your computer experience greatly without breaking your bank account. While there are larger (and more expensive) monitors out there, I would recommend this monitor for an everyday monitor that delivers where it counts.

Pros-
+ Bright, crisp, and clear display
+ DVI capable
+ No dead pixels
+ Built-in speakers
+ 2ms response time

Cons:
- No DVI cable included
- Moderate back bleed

Thanks to Geeks.com for providing the products for review.