Product Reviews

The ViewSonic VX912 is a low-price TFT, which, although not dripping with features, doesn't make significant quality compromises either.

The styling of the panel is understated yet smart, with metallic plastic making up its entirety. An integrated power supply cuts down on clutter, and a removable panel at the back keeps cabling tidy.

Compared to the Philips 190X5, the crispness and brightness of the Desktop are in another league. We found no pixel-jitter problems over DVI or D-SUB. The crispness of text is obvious when working on large spreadsheets or viewing web pages, and images look clean and balanced.

DVD playback performance was good rather than stunning, with a slight loss of detail in murky scenes and some occasionally noticeable motion lag - and that's despite the

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quoted 12ms response time. Slightly disappointing viewing angles mean this wouldn't be first choice for a media system, but it won't be a problem in everyday use.

The lag was also evident when gaming, although detailed textures and lighting effects looked superb - largely thanks to the impressive level of backlighting, sharpness and contrast. On the plus side, gamers will appreciate the VX912's impressive downscaling ability when running at lower-than-native resolutions. While most panels distort noticeably, the VX912 looks great at both 1,024 x768 and 800 x 600.

ViewSonic has persevered with its obscure button labelling but, once used to it, it works. The menu itself offers the ability to switch between 5,400K, 6,500K and 9,300K colour temperatures, as well as sRGB and user modes.

It's a shame it doesn't go any further though, as our technical tests revealed issues with colour balance. Full spectrum ramps looked weak in the red area of the spectrum. There was faint banding on colour graduations too, and also a steep run-off at the extreme ends of the colour range. Photos still look good, but it does mean colours can't be entirely trusted for accuracy.

This means Iiyama's ProLite E481S-B, which performed better in our technical tests, remains our top 19in TFT choice. But we still like the ViewSonic for its bright, sharp images and good design.