Sony S95AB Flat Panel LCD Monitor Review [Digg.com This!]

I received the following email recently from Stephanie:

"Dear Paul,

I hope you don't mind my getting in touch. I'd like to ask you a
couple of questions, if I may, about your Sony monitor. I've been desperately
trying to find reviews of this monitor on the internet and the only useful thing
that came up was an old post of yours on dpchallenge.com debating the merits of
LCD vs. CRT.I'm only considering this monitor because it's on sale in Dabs for
£169.18 incl. VAT and has a MVA panel, which I believe has better viewing angles
and colour rendition than the majority of 17" and 19" monitors currently on the
market.However, my main uses for this monitor will involve text and video much
more than photo-retouching, so I'm wondering how suited you think this monitor
is for work of this kind.In short, the features I'm looking for are:-- Sharp
text-- Silent operation (some monitors are known to emit a buzz or whine, which
would be anathema to me as I run a silent system).-- Good dvd playback for
movies-- Good ergonomicsI'd be very interested to know how well or badly you
think this monitor fares in each of these respects. Any feedback will be much
appreciated!

Regards,Stephanie"

(Actually her email was better formatted than that!)

For a quick-and-dirty review, please find my response below:

£169.18 sounds pretty good. I got mine from Dabs too and I think I paid ~£240 probably not even a year ago. I don't know what an MVA panel is and I can't speak for how it compares to other flat panels, but I'd say it performs pretty well, although not spectacularly, viewing angle wise.

For your use as text... I'd say it peforms excellently. I use Windows XP ClearType (in Display options), which aliases the text to look more like a book. I find this gets rid of the harshness that's common with black on white text like Word. I believe the panel also has a sharpness setting, so if you don't have ClearType or don't want to use it, you can use the panel itself to smooth the text a little. I did turn ClearType off to check whilst typing this email, and it does look a bit harsh on the eyes with the default sharpness. Like I say - you can change this however.

The panel also gives excellent colour reproduction. My only issue with the colours is that the blacks tend to be a little lighter than on my CRT (IE. they're not as vibrant). This could be corrected with more accurate colour profiling, but it's not enough for me to worry about.

Going back to configuration - I've found it excellent compared to CRTs - there's no adjustment necessary for screen rotation and barrel/pin distortion - I just use 'Auto' and that sorts it out. I don't know whether this is a particular feature of the Sony compared to other makes.. To my knowledge the flat panel is silent!

For playing DVDs back I find both my CRT and flat panel less than optimal because they're just such high quality. The problem I have, which is particularly true of the LCD, is the blacks get lightened, which results in pooling for compressed video. So a black fading to a lighter grey will show stepping and might have green patches and that sort of thing. It depends on the DVD I've found, and it's not something I've noticed or worry about much. The panel also has a brightness button to toggle between Low, Med, High, User Set, which I use when watching a movie. This allows me to use Medium normal and I can go brighter for a more contrasty feel for movies.

Ergonomics wise I've found it to be great - it takes up a lot less space on my desk, although is still reasonably heavy (nothing like a 19" CRT though!). It offers 360 degree rotation - the only thing limiting you is the cables connected at the back - but I've just turned mine 180 one way, then 180 the other way without any problems at all. It can tilt maybe 5 degrees down or 20 degrees up. You can also mount the panel either portrait or landscape by unscrewing four screws at the back and refitting them. It's novel, but I didn't like the portrait view. You also need a graphics card that can rotate the desktop.

I think that's all.. All in all I'm pretty pleased with it. I use it daily and look at a lot of photos as well as use it for web browsing and email, etc. I use an ultra-flat CRT at work (similar to the NEC 19" I may have referenced on DPC) and if anything I'm getting more used to and happy with the LCD as time goes on.