Labs

Of the two standard-aspect 20in monitors here, NEC's LCD2070NX is far cheaper than LaCie's £686 320, but it's still pricy at £300. Its standard aspect ratio and 1,600x1,200 resolution mean there's plenty of horizontal and vertical room on the desktop for serious design work.

It's a fine monitor. Setting it up required barely any changes to the default settings, and our tests showed a fantastically bright white and a very dark black level, despite the screen's relatively low 250cd/m2 brightness and 700:1 contrast ratio. There were no colour tints in our greyscale tests, and we saw no banding in our gradient tests. Test photos were vivid and sharp, with lots of fine detail.

With two USB2 ports on the side and two more on the back, as well as a stand that does everything but pivot, it's a practical monitor. The LCD2070NX isn't as impressive as LaCie's 302, but it's less than half the price and ideal for serious image editors with less money.