Verdict: Too many bells and whistles push the price too high.

As soon as you remove the PG221 from its box, it's obvious that this is no ordinary 22in TFT. The fat cylinder protruding from the back isn't standard-issue for monitors and houses the PG221's built-in 15W subwoofer. This feature, in tandem with a pair of 5W built-in speakers, ensures that the PG221 offers some of the best integrated sound you'll hear from a monitor. Inputs for this abound too, with two pairs of phono sockets and a 3.5mm mini-jack.

However, this is assuming that you don't already have a thumping surround-sound speaker setup. The PG221 has another party trick too, in the form of a 1.3Mpixel webcam built into the top of its fascia. This hooks into the USB port from the built-in hub, so only three ports are available. The PG221 has a plethora of video inputs on offer, including DVI and D-SUB, plus composite, S-Video and component, making this a comprehensively equipped screen.

Asus rounds off the screen's aesthetics with futuristic lights and touch-screen controls on the front, although the first time you use the monitor, you'll wonder where the on switch is. We also found the image controls to be a little quirky in operation, accidentally changing the input instead of choosing the menu option we wanted.

The PG221's standard settings produced a decent enough picture without much adjustment. However, DisplayMate revealed that black contrast had a narrow visible angle; if you aren't facing the screen full on, you can easily confuse dark grey and black. Even then, very small differences in black levels weren't discernible with the brightness on full. Performance was better at the white end, but still not perfect. We also noticed slight edge glare at the bottom of screen, and one test pattern pulsed slightly.

This all added up to none-too-inspiring real-life performance. During our gaming tests, Prey looked dark. Considering the PG221's audiovisual orientation, we were also surprised to see that our Blu-ray movie looked a little overexposed, as did the 'The Return of the King' DVD, even when we enabled the movie playback presets in the OSD.

With all its additional features, such as the integrated webcam and subwoofer, the PG221 is hardly a budget choice. In fact, it's the most expensive monitor of this month's 1,680 x 1,050 models. You could easily add speakers and a webcam to Iiyama's ProLite E2201W-B, and achieve better visuals, as well as garnering a pocketful of change.

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