Review: The Best And Worst Of 5 Widescreen Displays

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At one time considered a luxury, widescreen displays are now standard fare for business users and consumers.

For business applications, widescreen displays are useful because they allow two pages to be viewed side-by-side at the same time and make it easier to work on long spreadsheets. And on the entertainment side, widescreen monitors enable media center PC users to watch movies in their original widescreen format.

Slide Show: 5 Widescreen Displays

Pricing for widescreen displays has plummeted, and they now cost no more than standard displays. That gives VARs a nifty hook to sell customers on display upgrades.

To that end, the CRN Test Center took an in-depth look at five widescreen displays from four vendors: AOC, KDS, NEC and Samsung. All have MSRPs of less than $300, and two are generously sized 22-inch models -- a real bargain. But surprisingly, those two products didn't come out on top.

The displays were evaluated for ergonomics, feature set, image quality, fit and finish, bang for the buck and channel program. Ergonomics included the number of position adjustments of the base and the ease of use of the on-screen display (OSD) controls. The feature set included such things as the number and type of inputs, whether a display had built-in speakers or a USB hub and so on.

The displays were tested for image quality using DisplayMate Technologies' DisplayMate for Windows Multimedia Edition Version 2.10, a program containing images and test patterns that push displays to their limits. The fit and finish rating included the quality of materials, ruggedness and attractiveness. Bang for the buck was determined by comparing screen size and feature set to price. All of the products have three-year warranties.

For each testing category, each display was given a rating of 1 to 5 relative to all the other units in the roundup. The five categories were then averaged. Each vendor's channel program also was evaluated and given a score from 1 to 5. The overall score for each display was then determined by adding the average score for the technical categories to the channel score. Displays that had a score of 8 or more received "Test Center recommended" status.

Next: The AOC 212Va-1

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