Asus VW195S review

Two monitors in this group surged ahead of the rest in our test scores. And, while the Asus VW195S might not quite match the impact of the Iiyama's high-resolution panel, it certainly offers enough to run it close.

It's more attractive than most, with the familiar design of Asus' entertainment monitors - black and solid-looking, with a tilting stand and clearly-labelled control buttons. The OSD is also one of the most intuitive in this group: everything is divided into sensible categories complete with a variety of preset picture modes.

Beyond holding the S button to auto-adjust the VGA signal, we didn't have to tweak anything out of the box. In User colour mode greys were perfectly neutral and colours vivid and accurate. The 2,000:1 dynamic contrast worked well, and our colour ramps showed even distribution. The white level appeared blinding next to the rest, and our black test screen showed minimal backlight bleedthrough at the edges.

The Asus really came to life in our real-world tests, with the company's entertainment focus bearing fruit in the vivid jungles of Crysis and in our HD test movies. Fast-moving images posed few problems thanks to the 5ms response time, and while we certainly wouldn't want to listen to music on the tinny integrated speakers, they're at least loud enough to be usable for online video and the like.

It may not have a DVI input, but this month's tests have proved that at this size that's really not a major problem. And in terms of features there's not a lot between the Asus and the Labs-winning Iiyama. Where the Asus does slip up is the price. Unless you prefer the larger dot size a 1,440 x 900 screen offers, we'd save £2 and opt for the Iiyama's extra resolution.

Author: David Bayon