BenQ - E900T

BenQ has been in the forefront of the TFT monitor business for some years now. The company's latest E series of monitors has been designed for multimedia action

Let's look at the facts: This is a 19-inch LCD screen that weighs 3.8kg, measures 425 x 416 x 180mm with optional silver or black surround and has a refreshingly clean look.

As well as the usual Auto mode which takes all the basic settings out of your hands, you can fine-tune horizontal and vertical positions, pixel clock and phase plus all the colour, contrast and sound parameters.

Round the back are the standard DVI-D and VGA inputs plus audio jack and there are two in-built stereo speakers with a maximum 1W per channel. Thankfully there's also considerable variation in height and angle adjustment. Height can be altered up to 70mm, there's a 45-degree swivel left and right and a more-than-sufficient tilt range from -5 to +20.

Being an LCD screen there's a fixed native resolution of 1280 x 1024 (SXGA) and gamers in particular will be very happy with the fast 5ms response time, 16.7 million colours, 300cd/m2 image brightness and 800:1 contrast ratio.

For video use, the lack of a widescreen option means that some of the image is lost, but even so it's worth experimenting with the BenQ E900T's video mode - this warms flesh tones and pushes the white balance towards red. It's not technically accurate or linear, but it can improve the look of some videos, and give actors a hint of a tan they might not have had otherwise.

At the heart of the E900T is BenQ's proprietary Senseye Technology which offers four preset modes - Standard, Dynamics, Movie and Photo - that provide instant optimized settings for the named scenarios. That way, at a stroke you can have instant readiness to watch your favourite movie, scroll through your photo album or take on that pesky alien invasion.

Unless you particularly want a widescreen or larger monitor - which is an option for not much more money, then for the price this is an ideal multi-purpose display.

BenQ's E900T LCD monitor is a fine showcase for the new Senseye Technology with its preset tailor-made screen settings for a range of viewing activities, and it comes with friendly controls and fast response times.

Price
~ £140
~ $257