Product Reviews

The Hanns Boston is a 19in widescreen monitor from Hannspree's XM series. It certainly does not look like a conventional monitor. Hannspree has given the Hanns Boston a dark brown, wood-effect frame around the screen to give it a retro look. This unusual style won't suit everyone; you'll either love it or hate it. A straw poll in Shopper's labs concluded that the surround looked fake, like the sort of iron-on laminate veneer you might find peeling off the edges of a cheap chest of drawers.

This is a shame, as the Hanns Boston's image quality is very good. Both the digital and analogue connections produced a pin-sharp Windows desktop. The screen has a native resolution of 1,440x900, with an aspect ratio of 16:10. The bright 350cd/m2 backlight evenly illuminates the display and, although the 700:1 contrast ratio is low by today's standards, blacks were impressively dark while whites were clean and bright. Our colour wheel test and example photos also revealed no problems. Colours were vibrant and realistic,

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and skin tones looked natural.

The horizontal viewing angle of 150° is narrower than most monitors of this size. However, we were able to take a step to the side without the screen darkening and losing colour accuracy.

The stand can be swivelled from side to side and it is also height adjustable. However, the monitor doesn't use a sliding mechanism, which is commonly found on height-adjustable displays. Instead, you have to remove four screws from the bracket that holds the screen on the matt-black stand. There are holes on the pole-like stand, into which the screen's bracket is slotted. Once the bracket is moved the screen can be screwed back into the sole other position, giving the choice of a screen elevation of 113mm or 133mm.

There are five large, silver control buttons across the bottom of the screen, which provide access to the onscreen display (OSD). This is basic, but it has the controls most users will need, including brightness, contrast and colour temperature. When the OSD isn't displayed, two of the buttons control the volume.

The Hanns Boston has a pair of built-in 1.2W speakers. Monitor speakers are never of really high quality, but these produced a reasonable sound that wasn't too tinny and had a bit of bass. We could listen to movie soundtracks comfortably without having to turn the volume up to its highest setting. This was lucky, as the speakers distort at top volume levels.

Hannspree has put together a sturdily built monitor with excellent screen quality. However, the Hanns Boston's unusual style will be off-putting to many buyers.