Thread: Benq G700AD Monitor

The Benq G 700AD monitor closely followed the Samsung 743NX through most of the tests, but lost out in the brightness stakes. It also had a little trouble displaying subtle gradations of white. The design is quite good. The monitor is finished in matte-black plastic, and it has a small footprint. In a word, it's unobtrusive. Though the grille on the bottom looks like it has speakers hidden behind it, there's actually nothing there. This monitor has Benq's SenseEye technology built in. This essentially changes the brightness and color settings depending on what your image is. The Acer V173W was the first of three wide screen monitors in this roundup. We did not give any extra marks to the widescreens in this test. This monitor has a native resolution of 1440 x 900, unlike the 1280 x 1024 of the normal aspect ratio monitors.

This means you get more horizontal space-good for working with spread¬sheets-but lesser vertical space. The trade-off may be acceptable or not, depending on the kind of documents you work with more often. This moni¬tor was not very bright, and the viewing angles were quite a bit lower than what we're used to seeing, Acer quotes them at 140 degrees and 130 degrees for horizontal and vertical angles respectively. All the others had viewing angles of 160 degrees for both. Performance was acceptable, but not very good. The contrast ratio was quite low. On the bright side, this monitor was quite sharp and clear, even with fine text.



AOC's 177Sa, Samsung's 733NW and LG's Flatron L177WSB brought up the rear of the pack. AOC is a relatively new brand, and it did reason¬ably well, but it was priced a little too high to make an impact on our charts. The picture was the dullest of the lot, but the contrast ratio was quite good. The addition of speakers and a headphone port is welcome, since that saves you having to fumble around behind the computer every time you have to plug the 'phones in. Samsung has listened to our complaints about the touch-sensitive buttons, and the new 733NW has actual physical buttons. Unfortunately, it also has a terrible way of attaching the stand to the body of the monitor.

Unlike all the monitors we've ever tested, this one uses a stand that has to be pushed into the body of the monitor with a lot of force. By "a lot", we mean enough that one person has to hold the monitor and the other has to push the stand in with all his might. It does not just click into place-it moves around, and it's extremely frustrating to set up. This is a one-time thing for most people, but even so, it should be easier than it is. As a monitor, the 733NW isn't bad at all. It's a wide screen monitor. It's quite bright, but the contrast ratio is a bit off. Also, subtle whites posed a few problems.