ViewSonic VX912 review

While the price of 19" LCDs is falling, sub-£300 displays are still basic models with little to shout about (see Belinea review, right).

If you're after a display with a bit more life and a better appearance, you could do worse than ViewSonic's VX912.

Attractively styled in black and grey, it will sit proudly on any desk. However, the stand isn't particularly flexible, offering only a tilt function rather than height or swivel adjustments.

The VX912 has more than enough features elsewhere to make up for this. First, there's a choice of D-sub and DVI inputs. Using D-sub the picture quality is excellent. The monitor even automatically adjusts the image when it detects a change in the resolution.

However, DVI is the method you really should use, as the stable, sharp images that result are much better than those produced with the analogue input.

With a 19" panel, the display runs at a native resolution of 1,280x1,024. The VX912 is clever enough to let you know when you're running at a different resolution and not getting the best picture.

Perhaps the best thing about the panel is its 12ms response rate. It means that fast-moving images, such as games, are silky smooth and don't suffer the ghosting that affects slower monitors, such as Belinea's 101906.

Colour reproduction is generally good once the contrast and brightness have been adjusted correctly. The contrast ratio of 500:1 is what we'd expect for a monitor such as this. Lighting is even across the panel, although when viewing solid blacks the sides of the screen appear slightly lighter. Greyscales, where monitors have the most trouble, are produced well with only slight variations in intensity across the whole screen.

The low response rate and good colour reproduction combined with a reasonable price make this monitor worth buying, especially if you play a lot of games and watch many films.