Product Reviews

The Iiyama Vision Master Pro 410, it has to be said, looks almost indistinguishable from its older stablemate, the S702GT. Indeed, these two monitors seem to share the same design philosophy, which can be best described as utilitarian.

Only when you examine the 410's screen do you begin to appreciate that you are in fact looking at something fundamentally different. Stand the two units next to each other, and the new monitor

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is clearly flatter and squarer than the S702GT.

The new Iiyama's controls proved to be pretty minimal, particularly when you consider that some manufacturers have moved on to the flash USB-based methods that let you adjust your monitor from within Windows 98. We were by no means disappointed by the breadth of setup options available, but the look and feel of them were somewhat dated. Most manufacturers add welcome splashes of colour to make on-screen menus more attractive. Indeed, we were hard pushed to detect any differences between the controls of the S702GT and the newer 410.

Considering its asking price of £309 (£363), we were slightly disappointed by the image quality. Standing the Iiyama next to similarly-priced 17in screens revealed it to be lacking both in sharpness and optical accuracy. Again, less discerning users might never notice its shortcomings, but in a strict test designed to dig up any problems, we felt the Iiyama was no match for the likes of Formac's Pro Nitron 17/600 or Nokia's 447XS.