Beautiful Monitor and Outstanding Value!
I am ecstatic about this purchase for several reasons. I haven't had a new monitor at home for several years, and they have come a long way since my last, 15-inch, square, LCD Samsung. I'm not knocking the Samsung monitor; it was great when new, but now it's just rather old, tired and dull. I did quite a lot of research before buying. My employer reimburses up to $75 for a home monitor to use for days when we work from home, so I wanted to come as close as possible to that price. I also wanted to step up in size to a maximum of 22 inches (to fit into the monitor recess of my bureau). Additionally, I had hoped to get an LED rather than LCD monitor. For inputs, I wanted VGA to use with my old desktop which doesn't have HDMI, plus HDMI to use with my work laptop. Since I hadn't been in the market for a monitor for a long time, I wasn't sure if I was asking too much. Well, I whittled the many possible choices I found down to this HP and an Asus with nearly identical specs. The Asus was priced $10 higher, but offered a $10 mail-in rebate. Well, I hate mail-in rebates, and I couldn't see me actually getting around to mailing it in and waiting 8 weeks for a $10 check that I would then have to take in to the bank to deposit. So I chose the HP - and, boy was I glad I did! I am so happy with this monitor! First of all, it fit perfectly in the space that was waiting for it, thanks to accurate measurements given in the product details in amazon.com. For setup, I thought I would be in for the usual new computer equipment nightmares where nothing works at first, then you have to jump through hoops, download drivers, reboot umpteen times, go back to the manual to find out what you did wrong, find out that the manual is only on disc but now you can't read it because your new monitor isn't working yet, yadayadayada... But no, setup was a breeze! I was done in about 15 minutes, the monitor worked first time on both my old desktop with VGA and new laptop with HDMI. There was one slight glitch that the initial picture was stretched sideways on the VGA connection to my old desktop, but after I installed the software from the supplied disc it worked fine. The picture via the HDMI connection from the new laptop worked perfectly first time, with no need to install anything. As for switching between VGA and HDMI, you just press a button on the underside of the frame. The picture is great, for my needs, at least. Bright and crisp, with no evident lag when running videos. As another reviewer put it perfectly: "Is this a stunning, perfect display? No, not really. But it is perfect as a low-cost secondary display for a laptop.". I totally agree with that. My needs are average, I just only use it for work and for an occasional change from my personal laptop to look at a bigger screen to watch a video or something. I mentioned the accuracy of the stated product dimensions earlier. Well, there was one thing that confused me a bit. At the top left on the amazon.com page the bottom image is a silhouette of a person standing at a desk with the monitor in front of him. There is a vertical measurement shown there of 20 in/49 cm. I assumed this to be the height with the stand (thinking that the height in the Technical Details was without the stand). I thought this would be a problem, as I only had about 19 in vertical height where I wanted to site it. Well, when it arrived, there was no problem, as the assembled unit with the stand is, in fact, 15.8 in, not 20 in, so I'm not sure what that 20 in in the silhouetted man picture represents. This monitor is an outstanding value and I have no hesitation in recommending it! Read more
