Eizo FlexScan L465

Upgrading from a 17in CRT to a 15in TFT is a worthwhile venture, but you often end up with a smaller screen area and something that can look minuscule on your desk. This is where Eizo's 16in FlexScan L465 could fit the bill perfectly. The screen area is the same size as most 17in CRTs and offers a native resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 and DVI connectivity for just £499.

However, when the A-Listed 15in Philips Brilliance 150P2 (see Labs, issue 85, p123) costs just £369, the L465 needs to prove itself as a high-quality monitor to defend the extra cost. Eizo's previous 16in FlexScan L461 (see Reviews, issue 82, p160) was criticised for its weak colour performance and limited viewing angles, so we were interested to see how the L465 fared several months down the line.

Unfortunately, exactly the same weaknesses cropped up in the L465, even through the DVI input from our Matrox Millennium G550 graphics card. The colour fade tests in DisplayMate Multimedia Edition showed consistent fading in dark areas, but brighter hues were almost indistinguishable, with blues worst affected, and the same could be said of the colour scales. Meanwhile, the colour spectrum tests showed a struggle to blend yellow and magenta smoothly with the primary colours. That said, the greyscale tests showed a more even spread from light to dark across the screen, and the defocusing and blooming test showed pin-sharp accuracy between bright and dark lines and circles.

Eizo optimistically quotes the L465's viewing angles as 160 degrees horizontally and 130 degrees vertically, and while the horizontal viewing angles are reasonable enough the vertical viewing angles were poor, especially in comparison with the NEC MultiSync LCD 1880SX's (see above) superb all-round viewing angles. This becomes more apparent if you change the colour temperature when you're not viewing the monitor head on - at 9,300K the white is almost pure at the bottom, but becomes a bluish grey at the top. At the default settings, the L465 also displayed uneven white purity, possibly because of this.

That said, it's otherwise a bright and high-contrast display with minimal (though visible) streaking and ghosting and some great features. There's no USB hub or pivot option, but the integrated speakers provide basic audio that's adjustable from the front panel, and it has a minimalist footprint with its thin bezel and small, stylish stand. The OSD is also well thought-out, with four navigation buttons that easily get you where you want to be. Combine this with both DVI and D-SUB inputs and the built-in power supply, and you've got a well-featured and compact monitor.

The 16in diagonal makes the L465 perfect for its SXGA resolution, and it looks and feels right on the desk. It also copes well with smoothing at lower resolutions and has fast enough response times to handle DVD movie playback and games. If Eizo could improve the vertical viewing angles and colour performance, the L465 would be a winner. As it is, it loses out to the Philips Brilliance 150P2.

Author: Ben Hardwidge