Iiyama ProLite PLB2206WS review

22in monitors now routinely drop past the £150 exc VAT price mark, but it's rare to find one that does so with a fully adjustable stand attached.

Iiyama's PLB2206WS costs just £142, yet its sturdy arm will swivel and tilt, pivot through 90 degrees to portrait mode, and extend through an impressive 110mm to suit pretty much any desk on which it may find itself.

This makes it very much one for the business crowd, with its black or silver bezel and large round base giving it a sturdy feel. The TN panel is unsurprising at this price, but for most offices you won't need anything more, and the 1,680 x 1,050 resolution and 300cd/m2 brightness are the standard for an old-school 16:10-aspect 22in display.

Performance in our technical DisplayMate tests was reasonable, with smooth colour gradients and good sharpness to test images. While the black level is quite deep, the backlight bled through somewhat at the top and bottom of the display.

Lowering the brightness reduced this significantly, but we couldn't quite eliminate a slight green tinge visible on our neutral grey test screens. This doesn't show itself too much in real-world use - just the occasional lack of vibrancy in bright-coloured scenes.

The rest of the PLB2206WS is standard business fare: a choice of VGA and DVI ports sits on the rear, along with a 3.5in minijack audio input for the weak 1W speakers. Audio and brightness control buttons sit prominently beneath the screen, but you'll struggle to spot the menu and power buttons etched into the black bezel. With the menu itself a little hard to read too, the bottom-mounted buttons make adjusting the picture awkward indeed.

But you won't have to do that more than once, and for everything else the Iiyama is a solid business choice. It may not be the finest multimedia display, but a strong enough picture for everyday applications, a three-year on-site warranty and a stand that you'd usually only find on dearer models make this a good value purchase.

Author: David Bayon