I had the same 17” square Dell monitor for the last 5 years. Bought in 2003 for $600, it still works extremely well. But the screen real estate is limited, and you cannot display HD (1920x1080) quality movies on it. Enter the Asus VW246H monitor. With a true HD maximum resolution; 2ms response time; 300 cd/m2; 1000:1 contrast (20,000:1 dynamic); HDMI, VGA and DVI connectors and built in speakers (which no one uses anyway).
Pros
Suddenly, I have too much screen real estate. I can open 2 Word documents side by side. Visual Studio looks great, with no need for horizontal scrolling to see all code. Movies look amazing. The 2ms allows for games to play at full 60 fps, without adverse effects.I even considered connecting my Xbox 360 to it (would you believe my 32” LCD television has smaller resolution than this monitor?).
This monitor definitely changes the way I manage my Windows on screen – less need to minimize, or alt+tab, more drag-n-drop. But it also dictates some distance (you can’t sit too close to such a big monitor, otherwise you find yourself looking from side to side to catch the content), which creates a problem since your keyboard remains in the same place, and your arms are not getting longer 
.
Cons
Some problems I have with the monitor are the viewing angle - making the color look dimmer from certain vertical and horizontal degrees, and the horrible on-screen menu, driven by 4 ill-marked buttons. Speaking of buttons, they are quite plastick-y and the on/off button tends to stick.
Bottom line
Overlooking those finishing touches, the visual quality (which is the main reason I bought the monitor) is superb. With 5 automatic viewing modes and plenty of manual options, you can set the image to fit your objective brightness, contrast and color saturation. I would have liked to see a feature that would allow me to save those settings, as I do find myself having to repeat setting them every once in a while (and as stated earlier, the OSD is not that great).
I bought the monitor for $279 at Newegg.com, only to find out a week later it was replaced by model VK246H – essentially the same monitor, only with a 1.3 MPixel web camera.
I give the monitor 3.5 stars. It’s a good 24” beginner screen, but next time I’ll put in an extra $100 and get a Samsung or a Dell.
5 comments:
I have had a 24" for six months now and it is absolutely fantastic :) I still use a secod screen for email (Lotus Notes, poor me :\ But the 24" does the rest of the work (GUI, Word, Visio, Camtasa, web, you name it). Absolutely worth every penny.
Hello there, I've recently purchased the VK246H (which is, as you said, essentially the same). Anyways, I've got problems with the buttons sticking, and the unfortunate button being stuck is the Splendid-button. And if that isn't enough, it's stuck at some horrible color preset.
What did you do to sort this problem out? I dont want to risk damaging the monitor, as my other option is trading it in for a new one.
Thanks in advance
Hans
Hans,
I usually don't use that button. But when one of mine got stuck, I used a corner of an A4 printer paper to pry it loose.
I also suggest going to the Newegg site and see what other readers suggest.
Thanks for your reply. I went to the store where I bought it, and they concluded that it was a faulty set of buttons (since it was really stuck), so they gave me a new one straight away. :)
I'll keep that trick with the printer paper in mind though.
Thanks.
You are welcome.
In general, I prefer to exchange a device under warranty, rather than "fix" it. But sometimes, if it's just a small nudge (like tightening a screw), I'll do it myself.
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