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LG Flatron L1510S

Matt Pearce

Five years ago I purchased a new computer. It might look like a Cortina next to today's Ka-like units, but it's what's inside that counts: added memory plus a new DVD-writer. What's more, it's parked under my desk, so looks and size are hardly important.

But what of the hefty 17" CRT monitor, the most plodding of keyboards and the most basic of mice that came with it? Gone. In a 'desktop-makeover', monitor, mouse and keyboard have been replaced by sleeker models with newer technology. The result certainly looks better, but does it work better? Over the next two months, we decide.

Before...

After!

Part I: Monitor

LG Flatron L1510S

Thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFTs) are fast becoming as popular as conventional cathode ray tube screens (CRTs) when it comes to both home and office computing. Retailing at around Ł249.99, LG's Flatron L1510S is ideally priced for the personal computer market in particular, and is an affordable alternative to the traditional CRT monitor.

When lifting the LG screen from its box and affixing its stand, what is immediately apparent is its solid construction. Despite being fairly light - only 4 kg - it has a feel of quality to it. There are only two leads to connect: the power cable and the VGA input . The power cable plugs straight into the socket with no need for an external power brick. Connection, then, is simple, but some might bewail the absence of a USB port.

As with virtually any monitor, installation is easy. Just go through the Control Panel to the Display settings and updating the driver (which comes on CD-ROM). The driver is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems from Windows 95 onwards.

Additionally, the CD-ROM also contains 'Colorific' software: a simple tool that allows you to adjust your monitor settings in 9 steps. This involves tilting the monitor to the appropriate viewing angle; adjusting the contrast until the on-screen image appears correct; and adjusting colour with the use of visual cues. The settings even take into account room lighting conditions, and you are also provided with a piece of blue card to set against the screen to get accurate colouration. The whole process is simple and ingenious, but I would still recommend adjusting the settings via the manual buttons on the screen (those brightness and contrast levels need to be as high as possible).

For a TFT, this screen is fairly flexible. Using the six adjustment buttons, you can set brightness and contrast, R/G/B and gamma levels, window position and tracking (clock and phase). The latter adjustment is something you will not find on a CRT: effectively, clock and phase controls get rid of the horizontal and vertical bands of blurriness which can sometimes appear on an LCD. Additionally, you can use the on-screen menu to switch to the preset mode, with a resolution of 1924 x 768 at a refresh rate of 75Hz, to give you optimum viewability. The refresh rate is the number of times a second a graphics card refreshes the image on a screen. A CRT conventionally requires a refresh rate of 80Hz or above, but such a high rate could potentially damage a TFT screen - so beware of your settings if you move from CRT to TFT.
What is most pleasing about the TFT is the lack of any need to adjust the geometry of the picture. You can spend ages twiddling with the geometry controls of a CRT, attempting to get a uniform and rectangular picture. Not so with the TFT. Pixels across the entire screen are identical and they form a perfect grid. The result is a picture that is completely regular and equally clear at every point.

Image quality

LG quote the brightness of the screen as 250 cd/m², and the contrast ratio as 400:1. For the price, this is fairly standard. The result is a superb picture for working on DTP documents. Text is pristine. The sharpness of the pixel display makes it extremely effortless to read the screen. When working in Word or Quark, the perfect geometry is also immediately apparent . Consistency from top to bottom of screen is perfect, and there are no glitches in any screen area - a huge advantage over CRT. The very fact that the screen is perfectly flat means that there is no glare or distortion. Glancing over the contents of pages has never been easier on the eyes.

Begin working with images, and the results are a little less convincing. The brightness of the screen is more than adequate, and colours are vibrantly presented. The flavour is noticeably different to the CRT - the appearance is more over-saturated, and initially very appealing. Yet some details occasionally get lost in the darker areas, and sometimes even in the lightest areas, even after adjusting contrast and brightness settings. Hence, enhancing photographs can be a bit more hit-and-miss on the TFT.

I also found that - even despite colour-matching technology - the colour of printouts was significantly different to the colours on-screen. This was a problem with the CRT, of course, but not to this extent. Working with graphics, however, had all the advantages of working with text: definition is perfect, and creating illustrations on-screen is less taxing on the eye. Again, there is also a benefit in having a perfect geometric presentation: the image on screen is as crisp and consistent as the image on the printout.

As is often the case with computer monitors, DVD images are mildly disappointing. Again, the pictures are colourful, especially when reds and oranges are rendered, but dark areas can get muddled, and the image itself is slightly dark overall. Skin tones, however, are fairly convincing most of the time, and well-lit scenes are richly presented.

Even on the old CRT the image was slightly blurred, but here that blurring seems to have increased, and the picture often loses its edges. Of course, ghosting is the major downfall of TFT screens, and it can often be evident particularly in scenes where there is movement against a black background. This is because, even though the 'switching on' of crystals is rapid, the 'switching off' of those crystals is around four times slower. But I found very little very little evidence of ghosting on the LG, even during the rapid-action scenes of X-Men . Movement is not as fluid as it is on the CRT (which, after all, has the higher refresh rate), but the image is still mobile enough.

Gamers might also have issues with an LCD display. Unlike CRT monitors, which can display just about any resolution, TFT monitors effectively have a fixed resolution (in the case of the LG, 1924 x 768 pixels). This is fine for Windows use, but games usually have a lower resolution. TFTs have a hard time dealing with these low-res settings, and game-play will suffer. Be warned.

Practicality

My main concern when moving from a 17" CRT to a 15" TFT was a decline in image size. But the rumours were right: there's little to worry about. Measuring the size of my old CRT, I find that in fact, the viewable area is well under 16". Yet the TFT gives me the full 15" for my money. Yes, the difference is initially noticeable, as tiny as it is - but the TFT doesn't feel like it's an entire jump down to a smaller screen size.

LG states that the horizontal viewing angle for the L1510S is 160⁰ and the vertical viewing angle 140⁰ - I'll take their word for it. In practice, the viewing angle seems plenty wide enough for 2-3 people sat in front of the computer, which will suit most people's purposes. Of course, one major advantage the TFT screen has over the CRT is that it can simply be turned with ease to sit at various angles, simply because it is so compact and light. The LG does not come with the luxury of a swivelling stand, however, which means the whole monitor must be shunted around. However, the TFT is fairly easy to angle for comfortable viewing, with a 35⁰ adjustable tilt, although annoyingly, no height adjustment is provided. Guess it's down to your chair.

The compactness and lightness of the monitor provides other advantages. The TFT is about 6" deep, including the stand, whereas my old CRT is 17" deep. You do the maths. I suddenly find myself with acres of desk space, and my office is no longer dominated by that grey lump of plastic. The difference is remarkable.

Apart from the visible benefits to a TFT screen, there are also some less obvious ones. Firstly, although it is hardly noticeable, a CRT does, of course, flicker. This can be tiring for the eye. But the constant display of pixels on a TFT, which are simply either on or off, is far less of a strain. And there are more hidden advantages. CRTs emit radiation, but TFTs don't, which can only be a good thing. What's more, less harmful chemicals are used in their production, so they are considerably more environmentally friendly than CRTs. Most importantly, TFTs are more efficient. The LG has a 33 watt power consumption, whereas the CRT has an 85 watt power consumption. The savings on one machine might be negligible, but if we all started using TFTs, maybe a difference would be made.

Verdict

As someone who works most often on DTP documents, the TFT has crystal clear benefits. Despite its limitations in the presentation of images, it is still a huge improvement on the CRT when it comes to working with words. True, it is not the ideal solution when it comes to gaming and DVD, but it still performs well enough in these areas. Any drawbacks are more than made up for by the fact that the TFT is less cumbersome, more portable, and - most importantly - stunning to look at.

CRTs may be dropping in price by the minute, but TFTs are following: the LG is an example of a model that has excellent performance and that has dropped to an affordable price. What it proves is that looks and performance can go together, even at this low premium.

For more information on LG's L1510S monitor, go to: www.lgelectronics.co.uk

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