Iiyama ProLite E2200WS

Costing £214, the 22in Iiyama ProLite E2200WS sits mid-way between the highly affordable Mirai and the dearest 22in TFT from Dell. It has a bit more style than the bargain models, with its dark casing and more substantial stand, and it also offers the choice of DVI or VGA inputs.

The OSD is a little plain, but the buttons are positioned in clear view, making adjustments easy. The Iiyama isn't the brightest, despite the same 300cd/m2 specification as others, but the black level is much deeper thanks to the 1,000:1 contrast ratio.

A minor amount of light bleeds through at the bottom of the screen, and in DisplayMate's colour ramps the dynamic range was lower in the top half of the screen than the bottom. There was also significant banding throughout, suggesting a weakness in blending colours. We checked this in our test photos and saw slight stepping, although it was minor.

To help justify the slight price premium over the budget TFTs, the Iiyama also includes a pair of 2W speakers beneath the screen. They're not too bad at medium volume - certainly better than the Mirai or Belinea attempts - although we still couldn't recommend them for music or anything requiring louder output, as they tend to distort.

Like all bar the Apple, the Iiyama comes with a three-year warranty, and there are DVI, VGA and audio cables in the box. But the E2200WS is stuck in no-man's land here: you can either save £29 and buy the perfectly adequate Mirai, or pay £23 more for the superior Asus.

Author: David Bayon