NEC LCD19WV review

Like the Acer, NEC's 19in monitor didn't quite manage to duck below £100 this month, but if you thought the higher price would translate into better performance you'd be sorely mistaken. The design is plain and uninspired, and despite the extra budget there are no luxuries such as speakers or a DVI port - this monitor is as bare as they come.

The OSD is almost identical to that of the Acer, which is a good thing as the NEC needed a lot of tweaking out of the box. But, regardless of the colour temperature you choose, a red hue puts paid to any chance of achieving neutral greys and vivid colours. It's worst in dark screens, and no amount of toying with the individual colour levels could get us a satisfactory tone.

Daylight scenes looked as if they were in permanent sunset, and our fruit bowl photo - always the most reliable way to check colours - looked as unappetising as we've seen it. The white test screen showed up a murky area at the top edge of the panel and overall the brightness wasn't a patch on the best of the rest this month either.

In other areas performance is better: the black level is impressively deep, and our colour ramps showed smooth colour blending. The contrast and level of detail was good in our photo and video tests, but it's not enough to compensate for the awful colours.

We're not quite sure how NEC can justify charging £107 (exc VAT) for such a poor screen. Luckily, all nine of the other monitors are better than this, and eight of them are also significantly cheaper.

Author: David Bayon