NEC 23 Inch MultiSync EX231W
Jan 5th, 2011 | By SimonWhile most monitors we look at are aimed at the gaming community, the EX231W was targeted at the business users. This review won’t focus only on how well the monitor plays back movies and games. I’ll start with the viewing angle. The LED backlit panel is rated for 170 degrees and that’s pretty close to how well the monitor actually performs. The only time I saw a significant drop in viewing angle performance was when I was looking at the monitor from above or below, in those cases the contrast ratio drops off and details in dark images are hard to distinguish. In most cases, the viewing angle is acceptable and that is a must have feature around the office, when I spin my monitor around to show something to a colleague or client I need to know they’re going to be able to see the full picture with the right contrast and colors.
While definitely not the primary intended market, it was great watching movies and playing games in full 1080p. The panel made movies shine with crisp and clear pictures. The colors were vibrant but didn’t look artificial. With the 5ms response time, there was just a touch of ghosting when running detailed tests. It wasn’t anything I could see on the screen, it had to be captured using my camera. I would have to say that the response time was not an issue.
When it came to office productivity it, I highly enjoyed the widescreen display. I was able to work in two documents simultaneously increasing my overall productivity compared to working with just my laptop or old 1680×1050 Samsung monitor. Some would argue that a 1920×1440 (4:3) monitor would make more sense as it further increases desktop surface area but it would also drive up price to what could be more out of reach or beyond psychological barriers.
Ninety-nine percent of the time in front of a computer is spend looking at a landscape display. This makes sense when you’re watching movies or working with multiple documents at a time. However, if you tend to edit one long single document or which to have two monitors side-by-side the portrait view is very nice to have.
Testing a monitor by sitting in front of it for hours on ends is great but is subjective. I didn’t have any issues staring at the monitor for hours on end typing away or watching movies. However, let’s use some calibrated tools to judge how well the EX231W performs.