Verdict: Amazing value for a 21.6in TFT, but it's a shame that it has an HDMI input, not DVI.

Less than a year ago, £155 would have bought you a good 17in TFT. However, Hanns.G will sell now you a 21.6in widescreen for the same money. The company has spoiled matters a little, however, by fitting an HDMI input alongside the D-SUB, rather than DVI. The good news is that, as you'd hope, the HDMI input is HDCP-compatible.

You'll need an HDMI cable and adaptor (or HDMI graphics card) to use the HG216DP with a PC, as only an analogue D-SUB cable is supplied in the box. We used an adaptor for our testing (£14.99 from www.maplin.co.uk). The HG216DP also integrates a pair of 1W speakers, but these are so inconsequential that even your system beeps will be longing for better output.

Despite the Hanns.G's budget pricing, our Blu-ray movie looked excellent, with crisp colour fidelity and a commendable dynamic range. Samuel L Jackson's forehead glistened realistically. The Hanns.G punched above its weight when playing DVDs too, with a brighter image than you'd expect from a screen that uses an anti-glare coating system, rather than a high-brightness, anti-reflective coating.

However, the performance wasn't carried forward to our gaming tests. Prey appeared rather dark and lacking in sparkle, although not quite as dark as it was on the ViewSonic. Need for Speed: Carbon's urban landscapes were a little too saturated, even for this franchise's garishly bling graphical design, and we couldn't correct this problem without causing deficiencies in other areas. On a more positive note, the 5ms pixel response time didn't appear to adversely affect gaming reactions.

Like the Asus, you need to view the Hanns.G head on to see every nuance of black. However, overall contrast in black areas was among the poorest of the monitors in this Labs test. Even with thecontrast on maximum, dark greys and blacks tended to merge, which had a detrimental effect on lighter shades tending towards white. In the end, we decided less contrast was better overall, and this was confirmed by our experiences in Prey.

Nevertheless, the Hanns.G fared decidedly well for its price. It's a shame that Hanns.G decided to include HDMI instead of DVI as this means most people will need to go out and buy a separate adaptor or cable to make use of it. Otherwise, the HG216DP would have been an awesome value TFT - particularly if you prefer watching movies to playing games.

• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008
• Multi-GPU graphics - 20th June 2008
• CPU water cooling - 17th June 2008

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