Iiyama ProLite E511S review

Verdict:

Review Date: 15 Mar 2004

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Ben Pitt

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Iiyama's ProLite E481S earned a Best Buy award last month for its high-quality 19" image at a remarkably low price (see Hotlist). So we were intrigued to see if the manufacturer's new 20.1" LCD could pull off the same trick.

Certainly, the price is lower than for other 20" LCDs. While £704 may not seem like a bargain, this screen's 1,600x1,200 resolution can display a lot more information than 19" screens that run at 1,280x1,024. This is beneficial to anyone using design software or video and audio editors with lots of windows battling for room.

The E511S's design is identical to that of the E481S, but in beige it looks dull. We would go for the black version that's available. Basic speakers are built in, as is a headphone socket integrated into the slim front bezel.

There's no DVI cable included, but we found negligible difference in image quality over D-sub and DVI connections. The only exception was that the auto-adjust function over D-sub didn't set the phase perfectly, but it wasn't hard to fix it with the manual control. It passed all our colour accuracy tests, and photos showed a real vibrancy. A 16ms response time ensures games look great.

Our one surprise was Sharpness in the onscreen menu, an unusual option that also appears on the E418S. You can select a sharpness level from one to five, but none of the settings were ideal: three was a touch blurry; four had a glow round black text, noticeable on grey backgrounds such as in menus. The E481S does not have the same problem, as its three setting looks perfectly normal.

The E511S is great value, but we wouldn't rule out spending more for superior image quality or less on two 17" LCDs.

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