It's official . . . 17" LCD monitors are obsolete

Author's Rating:

Pros: CHEAP, good image quality, no "ghosting", analog PLUS DVI connectors, attractive cabinet (black), good warranty

Cons: Poorly packaged, some bad pixels, crippled (latest) driver, poorly written manual on CD only

The Bottom Line: 
This is a rather low-end 19" LCD monitor, but it's a good one. Most computer users would probably be happy with it. It's not perfect, but only has minor problems.

Author's Review
This is a review of the F-419 (R12) 19" LCD monitor by AG Neovo. I own the black version, though I'm posting this under the (Ivory) heading.

My wife wanted to buy a new LCD monitor for her parents. They are using a 14” CRT monitor that barely fits on their small computer desk. So obviously, even a 15” LCD monitor would be a good upgrade for them. In researching this purchase, I learned that 15” LCD monitors have been obsolete for years . . . and thus, they are relatively expensive. “Relatively expensive” meaning that the average price of a new 15” LCD is so close to the price of many decent 17” LCD monitors that it is not worth considering the purchase of a 15” LCD monitor at all. Further research revealed that 17” LCD monitors were almost obsolete also, by the time I started researching possible monitors to buy. With good 19” LCD monitors starting at just over $200 (after rebate), there is no good reason to consider the purchase of a 17” LCD. So our plans changed slightly . . . I told my wife that I would upgrade our NEC LCD1760V 17” LCD to a 19” LCD monitor, and the in-laws got our 17” LCD monitor.

Now the NEC LCD1760V is a GREAT LCD monitor. I’d argue that it is probably the BEST 17” non-DVI LCD monitor ever made. It has outstanding image quality, and it’s also a great gaming monitor (according to my nephew). So any monitor to replace it would have to be pretty high quality, as far as features and display quality goes. Because I’m always “tinkering”, I still need analog (D-Sub) input on my monitor (to test systems without DVI video cards). But I also wanted DVI input, as my current video card is DVI (and analog, but DVI offers better image quality). And all other features of my new monitor would have to be roughly equal to the LCD1760V. So my rough checklist of features to look for was something like:

19” or larger
Less than $400 delivered, preferably
16ms or lower claimed response time
260-ish or better claimed brightness
450:1 or better claimed contrast
1280 X 1024 native resolution (higher would be better, but not necessary)
Analog (D-Sub) AND DVI connectors
Black cabinet (to match my desk and other peripherals)

Other than the size, connectors and color, all else was somewhat negotiable. Brightness, Contrast and response time numbers are often “fudged”, so ALL of those figures must be taken with a grain of salt. Let me clarify that . . . do NOT make the mistake of buying a LCD monitor based only on manufacturer CLAIMED specifications for brightness, contrast or response time. Still, you can use those numbers to decide which models to take a closer look at. If you can’t look at a monitor on display in a retail store to judge it with your own eyes, read lots of reviews before spending your money.

The Monitors I seriously considered before buying:

Samsung 204T: WOW!!!, is all I’ve got to say about this one. We use them at work. Unfortunately, this 20” beast is about twice the cost of any good 19” LCD monitor. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough (???), but I couldn’t find ANY 20” LCD monitors that seemed to be reasonably affordable, compared to good 19” LCD monitors. I just couldn’t justify spending hundreds more for another inch.

AOpen F90GS: Great specifications, good brand name, CHEAP!!! Is actually less expensive than the F-419 (R12). And I LOVE AOpen products, which are top-notch quality. Problem is, I couldn’t get past the rather bland looks of the monitor cabinet. It is ugly. This probably would have been my first choice, if the cabinet wasn’t so generic looking. The value of the F90GS can not be beat. (in my opinion)

BenQ FP91G+: Good brand, good specifications, reasonable price. But again, the bland looks of the cabinet turned me off.

PRINCETON LCD1950: I ALMOST bought this monitor, instead of the F-419 (R12). Princeton has been producing good-quality monitors for many years. Their LCD1950 is probably the most visually appealing monitor I have seen (in pictures, anyway), whether it is plugged in or not. J The claimed specifications are good, and the price is very reasonable. What made me nervous though, is that I could only locate ONE short user review of it, during my research. User reviews are only really good if you read several of them. If most users seem to agree that (whatever) is good, then it’s safer to consider buying (whatever). For something like a monitor, you really need to KNOW that it is good before you buy it. One person liking it is not enough reassurance for me, personally. Not to throw my money at it anyway. If I’d just been able to find a few more reviews of it, I might be reviewing the Princeton LCD1950 right now.

Samsung 940B: Again, another strong contender. Great specifications, reasonable price, good brand name. But it is a little more expensive than some other 19” LCD monitors (though still reasonable), has the bland looks that I don’t like, and I was afraid that it would constantly remind me that I did NOT get the Samsung 204T that I fell in love with. (!)

NEC LCD1970GX-BK: If you want the BEST 19” LCD monitor and price is no object, HERE IT IS. This would be the most obvious upgrade path from a NEC LCD1760V. There is no doubt that just about anyone (myself and my wife included) would LOVE this monitor. While this one also has somewhat bland looks, that can be forgiven, because it is NEC brand. (NEC brand will more than make up for bland looks) The claimed specifications of this one are incredibly good, and probably accurate . . . again, it is NEC!!! I would have been willing to spend an extra hundred or so on this one, just because it is NEC. Unfortunately, this particular model is about twice as expensive as some other good name-brand 19” LCD monitors. I couldn’t quite justify spending that much, just to have “NEC” on the front of our new monitor.

Viewsonic VX924: Experts and (most users) seem to agree that the VX924 is one of the best 19” LCD monitors available. Having owned multiple Viewsonic brand monitors in the past, I’d gladly consider buying one again. THIS particular Viewsonic has outstanding specifications, looks good (even before you plug it in, ha ha), and is VERY reasonably priced. It has the lowest claimed response time of any monitor I considered buying, and that claim is probably accurate. (Viewsonic quality is right up there in the TOP tier with NEC) But the low response time is the only thing that really sets this monitor apart from the others I considered, and I don’t personally care about response time. Those who do care about response time will say that lower response time is better for gaming and watching (DVD, for example) videos. My previous monitor had 16ms response time and it was a kick-butt gamer (according to my nephew who is REALLY into computer games). I also had no problem watching videos on a 16ms response time monitor. For a while, I was actually using that 16ms monitor on a home-built DVR PC (to record movies off of Dish Network onto the hard drive), and it worked GREAT for that. Do I need a response time in the lower single digits? I don’t think so. Reading many reviews (expert and user) of the VX924, I’d have to conclude that it is a pretty darn nice monitor. So why didn’t I buy it? After all, there is nothing wrong with a low response time, even if I don’t personally feel I need it. Well, in a few user reviews I read, some VERY observant users mentioned color and/or backlight being uneven, in certain areas of the screen compared to certain other areas of the screen. These are very subtle differences that very few users would notice (even if they are looking for it), and fewer still would care about. I used to do CCTV calibration for a living, so my eyes are very well “trained” for judging picture quality of monitors. I would be one of the few people who would notice uneven color and/or backlighting, and it would annoy the heck out of me, even though most people probably couldn’t even SEE it. So having even one person mention a possible uneven backlight issue was enough for me to (reluctantly) cross the Viewsonic VX924 off of my list.

There were many other monitors well within my desired price range (and rough specifications) that I ruled out simply because I’d never heard of those brands before. But there seem to be many off-brand monitors worth considering, if you don’t care too much about brand name.

AG Neovo F-419 (R12): As I researched dozens of monitors and read hundreds of reviews, I found myself constantly coming back to the AG Neovo F-419 (R12). Although I had heard of this brand before, I’d never seen, purchased or used anything made by AG Neovo, which made me a bit nervous. Still, with good specifications, cheap price, and looks almost as good as the Princeton LCD1950, I really couldn’t find any other 19” LCD monitor that was close to what I was looking for, without spending quite a bit more money on it. So I decided to take a chance on it.

Out of the Box:
I wasn’t crazy at all about the way the F-419 (R12) was packed. The box is very flimsy, and there is no protection at all for the actual screen of this monitor. I was also disappointed that there is no printed user’s manual. Yes, there is a user’s manual on CD, and a quick setup guide. I guess that would be enough for some people. The main problem I had with the packaging is that nothing is sealed. The monitor comes in a plastic bag that is NOT sealed. The monitor (in the plastic bag) is supported by two pieces of Styrofoam. The cords are in plastic bags, only one of which was sealed with a single strip of scotch tape. All this is in a box that is NOT sealed. As you unpack it, how do you know that it’s new, and not USED??? It could have been unpacked and re-packed several times before it was shipped to me, for all I know.

Installation:
Not much to it at all. Snap the stand onto the monitor, hook up video and power, and ummmmm . . . you’re done. I hooked it up using the included DVI cable. Windows XP recognized it as a Plug and Play monitor, so no driver installation was necessary. (unless you want control panel to display the exact model instead of “plug and play”) Then you will want to set your video card to output 1280 X 1024 @ 75Hz. (It will default to 60Hz, and probably default to whatever resolution your previous monitor was running at). The back of the monitor has a snap-on cover over where the video/data cables connect. I’m not sure how useful this is, as nobody sees the back of the monitor. One end of each video cable is angled about 90 degrees to make it easier to tuck the video cable into the snap-on cover, without putting extra stress on the video cable. That’s a nice touch.
I should comment on the stand here. I was pleasantly surprised at how sturdy it is. It’s not as sturdy as the stand on the NEC LCD1760V monitor that this monitor replaced, but it’s plenty sturdy enough. The stand snapped onto the monitor with a pretty confidence-inspiring, firm “click”. And the monitor stays steady even with kids running around the house. For a non-portable monitor, I think the stand included with the F-419 (R12) is more than adequate.

On Use:
Not being one to read directions (especially if I have to read them from a CD-Rom, Ha Ha), I fiddled around with the front panel controls until I figured out roughly how they work. From what I can tell, left/right arrows access OSD menu settings, up/down arrows change settings, and the far left button (star symbol?) also changes settings, or exits the OSD menu.

Bad Pixels:
My specific monitor has four bad (stuck) pixels, colored light gray, purple, green and light green. The two green ones are near the center of the screen, the gray one is a couple of inches below the green ones, and the purple one is near the lower right corner. You wouldn’t see them unless you were looking for them. Even then, they are difficult to find, depending on what the background color is. For example, if the whole screen is blue, you can’t see any bad pixels on my monitor. If the whole screen is red, you can’t see the gray or purple ones. The gray one is tough to see anyway, but barely visible on a white background.
In evaluating an LCD monitor for bad pixels, you need to check the whole screen at different background colors . . . white, black, red, blue and green. Don’t feel too bad if you find a few, as long as they are not too easy to see. Download and run a utility called Nokia Monitor Test. That will help you test colors, and to find bad pixels.

Image Quality:
Properly adjusted (see Settings), the AG Neovo F-419 (R12) has very beautiful color and sharp, easy-to-read text. It also has a really bright backlight (or maybe 2???), which helps to make colors very vivid. If you buy this monitor, try downloading some high-resolution wallpaper from Google Images search engine. I think you will be impressed. DVD Movies also look really good when viewed on this monitor, with no “ghosting” at all.

Settings:
Out of the box, the factory settings are 100 Brightness and 50 Contrast. Brightness adjusts how “black” the color black appears. A common error on all monitors (computer, television, CCTV, etc.) is to have the Brightness level set too high, so that the color “black” appears gray. Unfortunately, Brightness is often set wrong at THE FACTORY, and this AG Neovo F-419 (R12) is no exception. A setting of 100 for Brightness makes black look light gray on the F-419 (R12), but 100 is the FACTORY setting for Brightness. I used a utility call Nokia Monitor Test to adjust Brightness and Contrast. There can be variations between different monitors, even of the same exact model, so you should not use my settings on YOUR monitor. However, I found that on MY specific F-419 (R12) monitor, Brightness should be set at 48. (That’s quite a change from the factory default setting of 100!!!) With Brightness set to 48, the 1% box on the Brightness/Contrast test pattern (1% above true black) is just barely visible against the tiny black (true black) border that surrounds it. The Nokia Monitor test would be more useful if it had a true black box so that you could turn the brightness down until the true black box just disappears (blends into the black background). But being able to set the 1% box barely visible is a pretty good approximation of where the Brightness setting should be set. The factory default setting of 50 is about right for Contrast, as the color White sure looks bright White. Contrast is a “white” adjustment, in relation to the color black. So if you find you need to adjust Contrast (white), you should then re-check your Brightness setting (black).
Before I forget, I should mention that color temperature should be set to 6500. The F-419 (R12) allows you to set color temperature to 6500, 9300, or a user setting. Correct color temperature is especially important if you intend to use the monitor to watch movies, which are viewed at a color temperature of 6500.
I would love to pop this monitor open to see what’s inside of it. I suspect (can’t confirm it, as I don’t want to void the warranty) that this LCD monitor uses two backlights. The reason I suspect this, is that with certain color backgrounds showing, there is a faint dark vertical line right down the center of the picture. It is about 1/4" wide, and hard to see, but it’s there. It’s just a small area where the display is just a little bit darker than the rest of the display. My best guess is that I’m looking at a small gap between two backlights, but that’s only a guess.

Driver:
I got a rather nasty surprise when I tried to install the driver for this monitor. First I should state that no driver NEEDS to be installed for Windows XP. But I thought I should install the driver anyway, as someone reading this review might be wondering about the driver. There doesn’t seem to be a driver installation utility on the included CD-Rom, so I had to manually update the driver through the Windows XP control panel. I had to attempt to update the driver a few times before it finally DID update. In Windows control panel display utility, it changed from “plug and play” to something like “F-419 DVI”, which made perfect sense. At the same time, the vertical frequency of my video card dropped from 75Hz (where I’d set it when the monitor was a “plug and play” monitor) down to 60Hz. So, I went into advanced settings to change the frequency back to 75Hz. Only one problem . . . with the updated “F-419 DVI” driver installed, the only supported frequency was 60Hz!!! The specifications of this monitor state that vertical frequencies from 50-75Hz are supported. Well, not if you install the driver, they aren’t. Now I know someone reading this is wondering why I didn’t download the latest driver from the website. Well, I tried that, also, without any better luck. Unfortunately, after extracting the driver from the AG Neovo web site , it appears the driver on the website is no newer than the one on the CD-Rom. (they are the same date, well over 2 years old)
To be fair, this driver issue is not serious. Windows XP does not need a driver. You might possibly need to install a driver for earlier versions of windows. The driver on the CD-Rom will work “OK” for that, if necessary. So you are stuck at 60Hz if you need to use the driver. This is not a CRT monitor, so flicker won't be a problem anyway.

CD-Rom Manual:
When I finally got around to reading the user’s manual on CD-Rom, I found some odd errors in it. First, the Manual (clearly marked F-419) states to set video card resolution to 1024 X 768. (The monitor’s native resolution is 1280 X 1024!!!!) Setting the video card resolution to 1024 X 768 will result in a very fuzzy picture that looks horrible, so I have no clue why AG Neovo would suggest this. Later, the manual explains how to select one of five sharpness settings in the OSD display. While there is a sharpness icon in the OSD display identical to the one pictured in the user’s manual, IT IS NOT ACCESSIBLE on the OSD menu system. There are a few other functions referred to in the user’s manual that are not accessible in the OSD menu system. Whenever I get around to hooking up the analog (D-Sub) input, I’ll
try the OSD Menu system again, to see if those other icons are accessible. Using DVI cable, some of the functions on the OSD Menu are not accessible.
I also learned in the manual what the TCO sticker (upper right corner of the monitor) is. I gather it is the Swedish version of “Energy Star” labels on many products sold in the U.S. But there seems to be more to it than just energy conservation . . . such as limiting use of toxic materials and making sure the product is “prepared for recycling”.
Reading the user’s manual on CD-Rom, I realized that the entire manual had been translated (poorly) to English. There were many sentences and phrases that just didn’t make sense. My favorite . . .

“If the entered mode between below period but not match the frequency of supported timing, display optimization not be assured.”
(So THAT’s why it’s not working!!!)

Also, the manual states a color temperature of 9300 should be selected for general use. 9300 can be used as a color temperature setting on a computer monitor, but this will result in a brighter picture that is tinged blue. The display of this monitor is plenty bright, so there is no need to distort colors by setting the color temperature too high. I strongly suggest you set the color temperature of this monitor to 6500. That will work fine for Internet and office apps., and also offer best image quality when viewing movies.

On Viewing Movies:
I should probably list the rough specifications of my wife’s system, so readers will know what was used to evaluate this monitor:

Intel P4 Prescott 3.0GHz processor
1GB of DDR400 RAM
Chaintech SA6600 (Geforce 6600) AGP video card, DVI connector
NEC brand dual-layer DVD burner
Windows XP Professional OS
Cyberlink PowerDVD 6 software

I’ve used powerdvd software to view a few DVD movies on this monitor. To give it a good workout, I’ve deliberately chosen titles with fast action in them, such as The Fast and The Furious. This is a great monitor for viewing movies on, with no “ghosting” noticeable at all.

On Gaming:
I’m not a gamer. I’m guessing the F-419 (R12) would work great for gaming, though. It has no ghosting problems. Also, it has a faster claimed response time (12ms is a little faster than 16ms) than our previous monitor, and THAT was an excellent gaming monitor. Next time our nephew visits, this monitor will get a good “gaming” workout, and I’m sure he will love the F-419 (R12), just like he loved our NEC LCD1760V.

In Conclusion:
I’d like to say that I LOVE this monitor, but I can’t really use wording that strong. It is a good monitor, but not a great one. Maybe I’d like it better if I’d upgraded to the F-419 (R12) from a CRT monitor, or any non-NEC brand LCD monitor. But I guess you could say I’m a bit spoiled after using (and/or owning) FANTASTIC LCD monitors like the Samsung 204T and NEC LCD1760V. The image quality of the F-419 (R12) is more than acceptable, and the only faults I could find with it are rather insignificant. Still, if you are used to perfection, I believe this monitor will disappoint you. And four stuck pixels out of the box seems to point to poor quality control at AG Neovo.
But to be fair, my wife is a much more “average” computer user than I am, and she LOVES this monitor. So if you are looking for a decent (and cheap) LCD monitor for Internet, office apps., and even gaming use, I probably could recommend the AG Neovo F-419 (R12). For such a low price, it IS a good value.

I was tempted to give this monitor a bad review, but then I thought about it some more and realized that this monitor is the Death Knell for 17” LCD monitors. It is JUST good enough, and cheap enough, that you’d have to be crazy to even consider buying a 17” LCD monitor. The three-year warranty on the F-419 (R12) is just icing on the cake. AG Neovo calls this a “Value Choice” monitor. If that was their goal, I guess they succeeded.

OK, my review of the F-419 (R12) is done, but I feel I must comment on the feature “Height Adjustability”:
Before I ordered this monitor, I read hundreds of reviews of various monitor models. In many of these reviews, the monitor (not just this one I’m reviewing) was criticized for not having a height adjustment. I would view “NOT height adjustable” as a GOOD feature of a computer monitor. If you want to know why, then it’s time for Monitor Ergonomics 101:
A computer monitor should be -more than- 2 feet from your eyes as you are sitting in a comfortable position, to allow your eyes to focus on it easily. Also, the top of the display area of the monitor should be somewhere BELOW eye level as you are sitting in a comfortable position. That’s right . . . you should be looking ‘down’ at your monitor. Again, this helps your eyes to focus, as human eyes focus better on objects when you are looking down at them. These ergonomic rules mean that the BOTTOM of the monitor should be located somewhere BELOW the height of most desktops. (To keep the top of the viewable area of the monitor below eye level) IMPOSSIBLE, you say??? Google for the phrase “recessed monitor desks”. If a computer desk is ergonomically correct, it will allow for a monitor to be placed (partially or completely) below the surface of the desktop. Such ergonomically correct computer desks do exist, though they aren’t common in household use.

On a side note . . . if you have looked at computer desks in any retail store with a good selection of computer desks, it is likely that you’ve seen one or more computer desks with a raised platform/shelf for a computer monitor. Ergonomically, that’s a nightmare. You need to lower your monitor . . . NOT raise it!!!

No monitor ever manufactured is going to be able to lower itself below the solid surface of your desktop. And if you need to adjust the monitor’s height at all, it should be adjusted in a DOWNWARD direction. (Which would usually mean buying a new desk, if you care to adjust it properly) Therefore, it can be argued that “height adjustability” in a monitor is a useless gimmick. If your monitor is height adjustable, you should always leave it at the LOWEST possible height setting anyway. So what good is height adjustability on a monitor, exactly? “Height adjustability” might possibly add needlessly to the cost of a monitor (just like built-in speakers that sound horrible anyway), so a monitor not being height adjustable should be viewed as a GOOD thing. Just my humble opinion.