ADI MicroScan L712

The MicroScan L712 from ADI is one of the few 17in screens submitted this month to cross the £500 barrier. Only Eizo, Iiyama and Philips are more expensive, but they use TFT technology a leap ahead of ADI and so can justify the premium to some extent.

The L712 uses an MVA panel. This stands for multidomain vertical alignment and is designed to increase the viewing angle over standard active-matrix screens. Unfortunately, now that Super-IPS is available, MVA no longer looks so impressive, and the ADI lost out in the viewing angle tests. It only gained a half mark in the horizontal angle due to significant dimming and colour accuracy changes as the viewing angle widened.

In the other real-world tests, the ADI produced lacklustre results. It only scraped a pass for its DVD playback quality, and again received a half-mark for the clarity of Desktop and ghosting tests. In common with most of the other screens, it flew through the sharpness and resolution tests, gaining full marks thanks to its use of a digital connection.

The L712 lost out most in the colour and greyscale tests. It failed the white-level saturation test, where bright greys merged into white, and the 256-level greyscale ramp. There were then too many half-marks for it to catch up and it finished last with the CTX, Hansol and 18in LG.

Although we doubt anyone will be hugely disappointed by this panel's image quality, the ADI would need something special to justify its price - only the bundled wall mount adds to its features tally. When the NEC LCD1700NX offers similar features and notably better image quality for £55 less, there's no reason to choose the MicroScan.