Verdict: Close, but no cigar

Tired of fiddling around with tiny little buttons to control your display? So, it appears, is NEC. The MultiSync LCD 1970NX has a specialist driver utility called NaVISet, which enables you to control just about every aspect of the colour and brightness levels from a new tab in the advanced display properties dialogue box in Windows. Obsessive tinkerers - and that means us - will even find a range of display patterns to use in setting up the perfect picture.

The 1970NX also features some innovative on-board controls, with two buttons and a mini-joystick for navigating around the clearly laid out OSD. There's a range of colour options, all but two of which can be user-adjusted, and three special DV modes. While it's not fully explained what these are for, it's safe to say that they optimise contrast and colour for photos and DVDs, and offer a range of options, from a brighter image with slightly compressed highlight tones, to a darker picture with richer colours.

The black and silver styling is attractive in an understated, executive sort of way, and there's enough tilt and height adjustment to ensure that you get a comfortable view. You can also swivel the monitor 360 degrees, a function undoubtedly designed for business use.

Performance is generally impressive, but the 1970NX finds it difficult to distinguish between grey and black at the low end of the tonal range, and grey and white at the upper end. Fix the contrast for one and you tend to lose detail for the other. Having said that, DVD performance was good, despite the low 25ms response time. While it can't muster the precise detail of 'Bad Boys 2' that the best of the 17in displays show, colour reproduction is excellent; it's as good with the gritty shadows of the pink house gunfight as it is with the overexposed action of the highway chase. Photo reproduction is fine too, though brighter colours seem clipped. There was no sign of blur in Doom 3 and easily enough contrast for spotting zombies before they get their grizzly mitts on you.

Overall, it's a quality display, but the LG is better.

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