NEC MultiSync LCD 1880SX

It's easy to forget how much electricity your PC consumes in a day. Say, on average, a TFT runs at about 65W, multiply that by everyone in your office and then include the monitors on all the other floors - it soon adds up. So NEC took it upon itself to design a more energy-efficient TFT, culminating in the MultiSync LCD 1880SX.

By reducing the power consumption on NEC's previous TFTs by 25 per cent, the 1880SX runs at just 50W. Not only that, but its standby power is less than 2W, and you can program an automatic power-off through the OSD - any time between one and 24 hours. NEC has listened to customers and reduced heat emissions by using a diffusion filter that steers waste heat away from the panel. That said, our test unit became as warm as any other TFT in the office after being on for a day.

With lower power consumption, you might imagine that brightness would be the first area to be hit, but you'd be wrong. The 1880SX is not only a bright and high-contrast panel, but also offers even lighting across the board with superb viewing angles. Plus the performance was exceptional in nearly all our tests using DisplayMate Multimedia Edition.

All the colours, including white, were pure, and it displayed even the lightest and darkest shades of grey on both black and white backgrounds. The only disappointment with regards to greyscales was obvious stepping between shades on the fading tests. This isn't good news for NEC's automatic black-level adjustment, which boasts accurate greyscales for medical applications such as X-rays. The colour fades, while still good for a TFT, were slightly constricted at the brighter end of the spectrum.

However, NEC has to be praised for the flexibility of the colour balance with its six-axis colour control in the OSD. This lets you adjust the secondary colours as well as the basic primary ones. There's also DDC-CI for centralised PC control, allowing IT managers to perform operations remotely. Also useful is long analog cable compensation, which includes signal delay correction and signal sharpening. This is of use to companies that already have long cabling installed, as it claims to produce a sharper, more balanced image.

The OSD is well thought-out too, being sensibly small and easy to navigate, but watch out for the sharpness control - under the wrong settings it can put the colour timing badly out of alignment.

The design is also good, with a thin 13mm bezel that makes it ideal for multiple monitor applications. It also has a great stand, which slides up and down easily and turns round without releasing any catches for pivot mode.

The 1880SX is a high-quality TFT, with superb viewing angles and great image quality. Some of the new features aren't all they're cracked up to be, but that doesn't stop it from being an excellent monitor in its own right. There's also D-SUB and DVI, and the only main feature missing is a USB hub, although this would add to the cost.

Author: Ben Hardwidge