Iiyama ProLite E2403WS-1

Verdict: A stunningly low price for a 24in TFT, but there's a reason for this.

With quality 22in monitors now available for little more than £200, the march of the large-format screen is certainly gathering pace. However, while the extra resolution makes a world of difference in everyday use, most people balk at the price of the next step up: the 1080p-capable 24in monitor.

These 1,920 x 1,200 pixel giants usually have price tags of £300 or more, and models below that threshold generally make huge compromises - omitting digital connections such as DVI or HDMI, and other handy extras. Unusually, this Iiyama screen has an HDMI input for HD film watching, yet costs only £270.

Iiyama hasn't cut corners with the construction of this screen, and the stand is solid and sturdy. However, while it will tilt backwards and forwards, it doesn't swivel to the left or right, pivot into portrait mode or offer any height adjustability. We don't imagine that you'll be worried about the latter, though, as the base of the screen is held 110mm from the desk.

Iiyama supplies a DVI-to-HDMI cable, as well as a D-SUB cable, so you can use any graphics card, and not just an HDMI card. There's also a 3.5mm mini-jack input for the 2W speakers, but these don't come close to rivalling even a basic 2.1 set of speakers, and are best avoided.

A monitor like this lives or dies by its image quality, so we put the Iiyama through our usual rigorous tests. These include the industry-standard DisplyMate calibration utility, a selection of games, including Crysis and Need for Speed: Carbon, and DVD and Blu-ray films.

When we fired up DisplayMate, it was immediately obvious that the Iiyama would need tweaking, although adjusting the colour balance would never eliminate the backlight inconsistencies in the top edge and top-right corner of the screen. The 300cd/m2 brightness didn't translate into a particularly stunning white level - it was more murky than milky - but the dim brightness and 1,000:1 contrast ratio provided a deep, inky black. We tried the dynamic contrast setting, which purports to boost the overall contrast to 2,000:1, but found that it varied the dynamic range a little too frequently for comfortable viewing. However, the contrast tests were among the Iiyama's stronger showings, with even minor gradations of grey largely distinguishable.

The longer we used the Iiyama, the less impressed we became, however, as it soon became clear that the general colour tone of the E2403WS doesn't look natural. The default 6,500k colour temperature wasn't terrible, but we delved into the User Colour mode in the OSD to find out if we could improve matters. The only improvement we could achieve with the pre-sets was giving the screen a murky green tinge or a cold blue cast. Even after individually tweaking the colour levels, images displayed on the Iiyama looked very washed-out. After trying different combinations, we resigned ourselves to the fact that it's a fault with the panel, rather than the settings of the OSD and our competence at applying them.

However, such technical hiccups aren't necessarily the end of the world - we often find that films and games aren't as susceptible to poor screen quality as the carefully constructed screens of DisplayMate. We fired up Crysis to find out, and sure enough, the issues with the uneven backlight didn't come into play at all, and the same was true of Carbon's dark street environments. Neither game had any real punch though - the lush jungle of Crytek's opus lacked its usual vibrancy, while the neon lights of the Carbon street races were muted.

In our 'Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' video tests, the shadows of Shelob's lair tended to blend into a muddy mess, but the outdoor Pelenoor Fields scene fared better, with reasonable detail in the haze and dust. The ability to handle fast motion is a strength of the Iiyama panel's TN technology, and what we'd expect from a screen with a quoted 2ms response time. However, TN technology is unable to produce wide viewing angles, and like the other TN screens we've seen, the Iiyama suffers from this deficiency. It's adequate for personal use, but forget about sitting back to watch a film, or inviting friends round.

Conclusion

Buying a 24in TFT for just £269 may seem like a no-brainer - at that price, why not buy two? We'd have to urge caution though. If you want a large desktop for basic tasks, you may be willing to accept the weaknesses of the panel, but if you intend to use your monitor for gaming and entertainment, you'll soon become irritated by the off-white colours and washed-out tones. If you're dead set on buying a 24in screen then you're far better off with an Iiyama ProLite B2403WS for £320 or, if image quality is of paramount importance, a £450 Dell 2407WFP-HC or the amazing Samsung on the following page.

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