Acer 99sl review

The 99sl is the first monitor from Acer we've seen in the Labs. It's a budget model so it sports, as you might expect, a shadow-mask instead of flat or even standard curved aperture-grille tube. These tend to produce more accurate colours than aperture-grille monitors but suffer from inferior geometry. All the other characteristics of a low-end display are present and correct, though. Its only connectivity is a D-SUB cable, with no BNC connectors or USB ports in sight, and the cable supplied is captive, so if anything goes wrong with it you'll need to call out an engineer.

The 99sl got off to a bad start by failing every test in the first section of our gruelling DisplayMate workout. We noticed that despite the anti-reflective coating, we could clearly make out, and were distracted by, reflections of background objects. The geometry was among the worst this month, failing four of the seven tests in this section. Although we expected a degree of curvature due to the shadow-mask CRT, the horizontal bow was very poor. Where straight lines should have been displayed, we didn't even need to use a straight edge for reference to see they were warped. In the sharpness and resolution section, the full-screen horizontal-line resolution test was failed. Although some of the best monitors fail this test, where horizontal lines are drawn one pixel apart, the Acer was particularly poor, blurring the white lines into a single mass of grey at the edges of the screen.

Test screens designed to show evidence of moirÚ proved that the Acer had weaknesses in this area too. We were able to correct these interference patterns to some extent, using the single moirÚ reduction control, but not completely on some screens. Focus was also poor, especially in the corners. Colour registration was passable, however - fortunate, as there are no controls to correct the alignment of the guns. In terms of other adjustments, the OSD is fairly limited, with no linearity, colour purity or corner geometry controls available either. All of this means that the 99sl gains the ignominious honour of last place in the image quality table.

The one thing in the 99sl's favour is its low price. At a mere £213, a price even lower than many 17in monitors, it's bound to be a temptation to those on a budget. Our advice is to steer clear: with monitors, you really do get what you pay for. If you're only prepared to spend this much to upgrade to a 19in display, don't expect a wonderful experience.