Monitor Reviews

Purchased this monitor 6 months ago. The monitor was packaged with good cushioning and a strong box - very important if you move alot and have your possessions shipped. The monitor itself presents a clear, bright display. My room over here is poorly lit due to a lack of windows. The display is easily read under these conditions; whether I'm typing a paragraph (such as this review) or watching a DVD movie with my computer. I will definitely purchase another monitor of this model when I have more $$$ so that I can run a dual display system.

I'm going to echo everything that this other reviewer had to say when he wrote:

"You'll be shocked when you open the box with your new Microtek monitor - there's almost nothing in it. A manual, 2 cables and the display. The instructions for connecting are very brief and to the point. Follow them exactly. If you are using an old monitor, just disconnect the cables from the monitor and use them, rather than the new ones. Saves time. You should be delighted when you turn it on. There seems to be no problems out there waiting for you, at least I couldn't locate any thru the sales clerks. A fine product."

Doesn't get any easier to hook up and to install, great product!

I have a [$$$] 24" monitor running 1920x1280 screen resolution at high refresh rates.. When I recently broke a pin on the video cable for it, I purchased the best cable they had, for some [$$$] at my local computer store. The image was blurred, with 3 or 4 ghost images a quarter inch off each other.

I immediately found this cable on Amazon, ordered it overnight, and took that other cable back -- for the refund it deserved. Now my image is back to one - no ghosts, no fuzziness. This cable seems 3 times thicker than the one I returned. And the screws are easy to use for my big old fingers. Sweet.

If you need a replacement cable for your monitor don't just buy the same cheap-o type that came with it. If you have a high quality monitor you will see the difference using this cable. If you have a cheap ($400) monitor you may not see the difference, but the cable will outlast your monitor. Its money well spent. Its a very high quality product. Cleared up a 'flicker' problem for me that was caused by a nearby electric sub-station. Good shielding.

It doesn't get any better than this - this 15" is the best that the industry has to offer. Period.

The price is going up well before December/03 due to the competition with 15" TV's, where the profit is so much better at a retail price of $700+ on a 15" TV. As of 12/20 I paid $382 plus $30 to get this 15" LCD monitor to me by Christmas Eve. As it stands before me, I can tell you that it's well worth it.

My NEC 1560M-BK has no - I repeat - NO DEAD PIXELS - when other manufacturers are willing to let you suffer through up to 8 dead pixels. Even one dead pixel - particularly dead center on your screen - is enough to drive you nuts. A knat on your nose.

The "word" is that 15" LCD screens are at a premium right now, there are several manufacturers invested in new facilities that will be coming online in the summer of 2004. The price, at that time, will start to drop like a rock as there will actually be excess capacity. But that's the nature of computers, is it not? You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. Can you wait?

So get youself one of these NEC LCD1560M-BK's, you'll be happy. But just try to find one. Rottsa Ruck.

To repeat:

1) This is very best 15" monitor that you'll find. Seriously and Period. No dead pixels. Bright. Contrasty (you'll actually have to tone it down from its presets, if you turn 180 degrees away from it you'll actually see your skeleton projected on the wall behind you).

2) You'll not find it.

3) It's better than nearly all 17" LCD monitors. Beware of any manufacturer's LCD specifications, they tend to, ahem, lie. Do your research, third party opinions might be the best. PCWorld might be a good place to start. They don't care for what's-his-name anyway.

4) You'll not find it.

And best wishes to you all this eve of Christmas - Happy Holidays!

Excellent Monitor, Brighter and with higher contrast than my old Dell Screen. Its size is just right for a cramped desk. I looked at several other models before deciding on this one based on its rating in PC World (#1 for 15" Monitors) and its higher contrast levels and brigtness as compared to the competition (and a NEC model without the built in Speakers). It arrived in just one day - despite my choice of free shipping - and the screen is just fabulous. Plus it comes with a 3 year warranty and had no - nada - none - dead pixels.

A most excellent flat screen monitor.

I bought this 1560NX monitor after I read the review for the 1560M (very simalar but with speakers and a higher contrast ratio). Anyhow, when I first got the monitor I was generally pleased. I would have given it a 4/5 then. But after a while I realized that it just wasn't as crisp as my Gateway 9300 laptop screen. Even though my laptop was old, it had one of the clearest texts of any screen I've used (albeit - not a bright screen)

I'm very picky so this started me looking again and I discovered, by comparing lcds in the stores, that this NEC monitor was about average when it came to text and a little above average on colors. In fact I was seriously considering trading it in for a Samsung 152B. The samsung has a good even text. Text is very important to me.

But before I did this switch, I decided to buy a video card with DVI support and hook it up to this monitor (since it has both VGA and DVI connectors)

WOW! - What a difference. It when from good to GREAT. The colors are more accurate and brigher and the text is now very sharp. I would say that it is now as good as the Samsung. Now I feel that this monitor is about as good as they get.

When I first got the monitor I was generally pleased. I would have given it a 4/5 then. But after a while I realized that it just wasn't as crisp as my Gateway 9300 laptop screen. Even though my laptop was old, it had one of the clearest texts of any screen I've used (albeit - not a bright screen)

I'm very picky so this started me looking again and I discovered, by comparing lcds in the stores, that this NEC monitor was about average when it came to text and a little above average on colors. In fact I was seriously considering trading it in for a Samsung 152B. The samsung has a good even text. Text is very important to me.

But before I did this swith, I decided to buy a video card with DVI support and hook it up to this monitor (since it has both VGA and DVI connectors)

WOW! - What a difference. It when from good to GREAT. The colors are more accurate and brigher and the text is now very sharp. I would say that it is now as good as the Samsung. Now I feel that this monitor is about as good as they get.

BTW - the video card I put in was an NVidia MX 440 8X with DVI.

I wrote the other review, and I have a correction to make. I had to write a new review - after all, I don't want to lose all my helpful votes now do I?

I've since bought a new graphics card (ASUS GeForce4 MX440), which has made the monitor sooooo much sharper at the higher resolutions containing more than 1600 horizontal pixels (i.e. 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440 and 2048x1536). I didn't think a graphics card would make any difference at all to the quality of the display. Boy was I wrong. Before I said that the screen was slightly blurry looking at say 1920x1440. Now I find it is very crisp indeed, and I suddenly realised why this monitor is worth so much.
The display is still the slightest bit "shaky" at 2048x1536 @ 75Hz, it kind of quivers or hovers around a bit. This is probably because it is 75Hz and not 85 or 100Hz. Personally, I don't find that 75Hz is high enough for the amount of time I spend in front of the computer. But anyway, the "blurriness" aspect has gone completely.
The only explanation I can come up with is that when I yanked out the two-year-old old graphics card, there was a really thick layer of dust on the back of the circuit board. A few times, I'd carefully vacuumed out some of the dust from inside the computer, but I must have missed that area. Sorry NEC, if you lost any customers because of the other review.

With over 3 million pixels at my disposal, I can display two whole pages in MS Word side-by-side simultaneously, while still being able to legibly read font (Verdana) as small as size six!! Try doing THAT with any LCD display!!
So it sure helps with the layout aspect of serious word-processing (such as producing a thesis or a book). It is also capable of displaying, perhaps, 3, 4 or even 5 times the number of cells at any one time than, say, a 17" monitor could in those huge spreadsheets you sometimes create (no I'm not kidding).
And for all you gamers out there, can you imagine playing need for speed 4 in 2048x1536, and 16-bit colour? That is the reality. What a blast!

One last thing, for all you desktop publishers and graphics artists out there: know that you better plan on getting a mighty fine graphics card if you intend to use 32-bit colour at the 2048x1536 pixel mode, because even though I bought the ASUS card that said it could cope with this @ 75Hz, it could only manage 60Hz, which is not good enough for me. I even edited the ini files of the display driver to try and force it to work, but could not get the claimed 75Hz - despite what it said on the website to the contrary. So I stick with 16-bit colour, partly because I can't really notice the difference, but mainly because the refresh rate is higher.
The other thing to consider is that even though the monitor may be capable of, let's say, 1600x1200@95Hz - the graphics card might only be able to display 85Hz or 100Hz at this resolution, so you must use the lower one, which is a pity because it isn't taking full advantage of the monitor's capabilities.

But I'd still give it six stars if I could! :-)

ONE MORE THING: NEC ISN'T NOT GOING TO MAKE THIS IN AUSTRALIA ANY LONGER, SO SNAP IT UP WHILE YOU STILL CAN 'CAUSE THEY'RE NOT GETTING ANY CHEAPER!

A couple of things about this screen which you may not already know. Firstly, I noticed that the image that you see on the screen is kind of set back a little, behind this flat glass plate that is at the actual front of the monitor. The resulting parallax error will be noticeable if viewing from the side at an angle - something that you can't tell if you're buying sight-unseen. On the positive side, you do get a built in USB hub, so you'll get 2 more slots than you have now!

You'll probably need to get yourself a new graphics card; the minimum that will take advantage of the FP1355's full potential will be at least the nVidia GeForce II MX400. If you're paying this much for your monitor, a little extra for a new card probably isn't going to make any difference (or like me, you can't afford anything else for months).
Don't think that because this monitor is capable of up to 2048 x 1536 @ 75Hz that this resolution will be practical. At this highest resolution, I couldn't help notice that the resolution is not all that crisp, perhaps a little blurry or more correctly, quivery - so it isn't perfect. Do you use the highest res possible on your existing monitor? Probably not, right? So if you can't live with using this monitor at the NEC recommended 1600 x 1200 @ 95Hz, I'd say don't buy it.
Don't forget that if you will be looking at text, you will have to make it slightly larger because you'll be using much higher resolutions. However, you can will be able to look at smaller-sized fonts than with normal monitors because it will look crisper and less pixelly.

A small tip for windows setup: go to the display properties window / settings tab / advanced button / general tab - and where it says font size, choose other and make it something like 150 or 200% and THEN go back to the display properties window / appearance tab and re-adjust the size of each item individually for fine tuning. If you don't make the fonts 200% of their normal size, some of the text that you will see in use during windows will be very small indeed and it can't be changed by changing any of the items in the appearance tab alone, and you will end up squinting.

I truly don't think this monitor is for everyone. If you know much about computers and windows setup, and you enjoy customising everything..... if you spend hours with your current monitor adjusting the screen's image so that you get the last millimetre of display area out of it - you will be very pleased; but I couldn't recommend it if you simply want to do ordinary computing just with a bigger screen. Remember that the intended use is desktop publishing / CAD / graphic design and perhaps spreadsheets (although NEC doesn't mention this use) - which is what I bought it for.

Yes, the two thin horizontal black lines are visible on any light-coloured background. But only a perfectionist or fastidious person would be truly bothered by it. It's something that you learn to live with.
I have personally called it "varanus komodoensis" which translates as komodo dragon - or the biggest monitor that ever lived!!

I've had this monitor for a week now, and I'm completely content with my purchase. I shopped around very carefully for a long time, and ultimately chose the NEC 1560V because of the low price, high contrast ratio (400:1 same as the Dell UltraSharp, but the NEC [costs] less), and I also wanted a WHITE monitor, which I found to be rare in my searches.

The picture is crisp, without a trace of fuzziness. I had to lower my screen resolution to 1024 x 768 pixels - and that's the ONLY level that will work with this monitor. I like to keep my windows small, so that took some getting used to, but it's okay. The screen is adjustable, and my dad was excited to see that the viewing range was quite wide - 120 degrees, again, better than the UltraSharp's 80 degrees. Sure, I'd recommend this monitor - it's cheap, it's pretty, and it's functional. A great choice for people who don't have money to burn.

I've really enjoyed using this monitor. I got another model of MultiSync monitor about 6 months ago, and was very pleased with that, so I saw no reason to switch brands when I discovered I needed another LCD monitor.

I've used this monitor on my PC running Windows 98, and then Windows XP. (I later upgraded to XP.) I've also used it on a PowerMac G4 (connected to the VGA port), which runs both OS X and OS 9. It works well with both of these Macintosh Operating Systems. The screen is bright and clear.

When I ran the Windows update in XP, it immediately found a recent driver for this monitor. That was nice.

It is best to set this monitor at its "native" resolution of 1024 x 768 -- if you set it for 800 x 600 (or lower) the monitor "reminds" you periodically that it is not set at its "best" setting. This warning will keep popping up and while I assume there's a way to make it go away permenantly, it is a little irritating. So, be warned if you want to use this monitor at anything other than 1024 x 768. Actually, all LCD monitors are the same in this regard -- they don't *want* to be set at any other resolution other than their "native" resolution. The sharpness will not be as good on any LCD monitor if it's not at its "native" resolution. That's just the nature of LCD.

All I can say is that setting up this monitor has been trouble-free. It is a slim and lightweight monitor with a bright screen. An absolute joy. Very cross-platform! I am quite pleased with it.

The Brilliance 180P is nice upgrade over standard monitors. I had a 20 inch that took up a ton of desk space plus the thing was heavy and the internal tube was like a room heater. The Philips monitor has a bigger screen, brigther graphic display, and it's easier on the eyes. The drawback is the optional of USB hub not being inclued, but the price is good LCD monitor.

This is the best 18" LCD I have found for viewing angle. We mounted this on a wall in a small conference room off my office. I needed a very wide viewing angle with a great picture so prospective customers could view my products. This one really is terrific. It was very easy to install and set up wit my computer system too.

The 201B monitor has a sharp display. I run it at 1600x1200 with small fonts and all the print is easily readable. It has a standard 15 pin D-sub and BNC connectors so you can hook two computers to it and switch back and forth with a front panel selector switch.

One disappointing item: the monitor has a USB connector and software to let you adjust it with a PC program. The software loaded from the supplied CD but refused to work on my Win2k PC. I found out from Philips custumer support that the USB adjust feature only works with Win95 or Win98. It doesn't say that on the box or in the manual. Its hard to imagine why Philips would add an expensive feature to a product but then only support it on an obsolete OS. Most users will have to use the normal front panel buttons for adjustments.

This 21" monitor is a real space saver. I prefer the tube type monitors and did not want to go to an LCD. Most 19" & 21" monitors would take up too much space on my desk. This one is more compact and has a nice picture quality. Pretty reasonable price too.

I shopped till I dropped but this TV had the best depth perception of all of them. Also I could view it at different angles it didnt seem like the light was centered in the middle. Great TV!

This TV is fantastic. The picture is exceptionally good, even in smaller rooms. It doesn't give off the typical glare during the day and can be viewed clearly from even wide angles. The room we have it in is a medium sized family room. The picture is great anywhere in the room but if your room is big the picture is just awesome. I am so pleased we purchased this TV.

#1 monitor! Had the fisher price dual lights and sounds monitor but after 3 months of falling asleep to static and going through countless 9v batteries I went out and bought this one. Solved both my problems - monitor is static free with added feature that the speaker only comes on when there is sound in baby's room - battery is rechargeable.

We tried several monitors and returned them all, until we found this one. It is crystal clear, rechargeable, portable, has a long range, out of range indicator.... What more could you want. Great product, great price!