We see bold claims from manufacturers all the time, and we usually take them with a pinch of salt. If enough evidence is presented and/or we can back them up with our own tests, we’re willing to accept some of them; others vary from laughably untrue to those we’d love to believe but just don’t quite add up. But at the very least we need the full facts before we decide.

LG’s newest 22in TFT, the W2252TE, is a case in point. Heralded in its press release as “the world’s most energy efficient monitor”, it claims to offer “a 45% reduction (40W) in power consumption, leading the way in environmentally friendly computer screens”.

Inevitably, the question arises: a 45% reduction over what? No comparison is offered, no rival energy-efficient monitor or even the name of a standard monitor against which the LG may have been tested. The 45% reduction could be over the most power-hungry monitor in the world for all we know. And what does that 40W figure in parentheses represent? The power consumption of this monitor? Of the comparison monitor? Or is 40W the reduction itself?

Scrolling to the specs buried right at the bottom of the release we learn that the power consumption of the W2252TE is in fact 22W – surely a more headline-grabbing figure than the “45% energy reduction” that again follows it. So we know the 40W figure must be the monitor to which LG is comparing the W2252TE, but again we’re given no clue as to what monitor this could be. Another LG monitor? A rival manufacturer? Same size or larger? The figures are meaningless without this information.

It’s nothing new to us. Graphics card manufacturers are constantly slapping “world’s fastest” labels onto their latest creations based on individual game benchmarks, while Intel and AMD can both boast the fastest CPUs depending on what applications and tests you quote. And the fact that very few consmuers have the means, or indeed the desire, to test any of these claims for themselves just makes it easier for the big companies to prove anything they like with “facts”.

Taken on good faith the claims about LG’s W2252TE make for good reading, and the company should be applauded for investing in making its products greener. But if manufacturers want their advances to receive the recognition they deserve, a little more information would go an awful long way.