Iiyama ProLite B2409HDS in Monitors

The Iiyama PLB2409HDS may not be the most stylish of monitors with its dull black design, but it packs in the features. The sturdy stand swivels widely, lifts through 11cm and pivots to a very useful portrait orientation, while the main body houses a pair of acceptable 2W speakers and an HDMI port to add to the usual DVI and VGA.

The bezel is pretty thin at 17mm, so those with plenty of desk space could consider tiling a pair of them, and it includes an automatic Eco mode for dimming the backlight to conserve energy.

That's all well and good, but unfortunately the 1,920 x 1,080 panel itself is less than stellar. Colours had a slight red tinge that we couldn't eliminate, even when switched to sRGB mode, while the backlight had a few too many uneven patches.

The 1,000:1 contrast meant a decent level of detail in shadows and highlights, but we weren't overly stunned by the brightness or the depth of the black level.

This all translated to unspectacular performance in our real-world tests. Wall-E looked a little limp next to the more vibrant models, while Crysis - despite the 2ms response time making for smooth motion - lacked depth and failed to excite us. It isn't as weak as some budget models we've seen, but for this money we'd expect a bit more quality from a 24in panel.

So the decision comes down to whether features or image quality matter more to you. If it's the former, the B2409HDS will stretch and pivot to any desk position you require, but the fact that better quality monitors will do the same for similar prices means we can't fully recommend this Iiyama.

Author: David Bayon