Acer X192W

The 19in Acer X192W is the only glossy TFT of the 17-19in group - discounting the glass-fronted Belinea - making it the obvious choice for gamers. With its wide aspect ratio and 1,440 x 900 resolution, it lends itself well to movies, too, and the integrated 1W speakers are a useful - if tinny and underpowered - inclusion in this respect.

Despite the glossy coating, it's a cold monitor at normal settings, with a blue tinge to its colours that we couldn't eliminate totally. Plus, we had to lower the contrast significantly from default to bring out the different shades of grey at the white end of the scale.

It's a bright monitor, though, with a fairly even backlight, and as long as you position it away from any bright spotlighting you shouldn't have much trouble with reflections. Gradient ramps showed no sign of banding, and the overall dynamic range was good thanks to the 1,000:1 contrast ratio. The only problem was that we noticed some grain in videos.

It's good to see the Acer has a DVI input for the best image quality, and comes with a cable in the box. There's a hole in the stand to feed cables through, and the OSD features several "Empowering" presets, which basically adjust the brightness. The buttons are underneath and we found them a little unresponsive.

The Acer X192W has a very attractive price of £106, and we'd advise any serious gamers to spend the extra over the cheaper Mirai. But the glossy screen may put you off, in which case stick with the Mirai or stretch your budget to one of the better-quality monitors this month.

Author: David Bayon