Philips 240BW

Manufacturers often tell us that fancy stands bump prices up. But despite this, the Philips 240BW manages to include a fully adjustable one for under $560. It lifts through an impressive 130mm, tilts and swivels, and even pivots into portrait mode for editing tall documents or images. The bezel is a reasonably thin 21mm should you wish to line up a pair of LCDs, and the grey design is very similar to that of the Iiyama.

Its picture quality, however, is lacking. We found colours washed out and lifeless, while the 250cd/m2 brightness was shown up as inadequate by our all-white test screen. The Philips looked frightfully dull in this company. This does result in a deep black level, but the 1000:1 contrast rating just doesn’t give it the punch required for anything more than stolid office work.

In that environment it’ll be fine for everyday use: the colours it produced were close to neutral, and gradients were reproduced without stepping. The duller backlight actually makes document editing easier on the eyes, and the adjustability is well suited to the cluttered state of most office desks. But in our movie tests the monitor’s picture looked murky, uninspiring and lacked the detail of the better models.

As a cheap and adjustable 24in monitor the Philips 240BW initially looks like a good deal. But the image quality is distinctly underwhelming next to the superior Samsung, so for all but the most awkward of desks we’d look past the Philips for our budget choice.

• - Recommended -
  Samsung SyncMaster 2232bw
• 
  Acer P223W
• 
  Dell SP2208WFP
• 
  Philips 220CW
• 
  Asus MK241H
• - Recommended -
  Samsung SyncMaster 2493HM
• 
  Viewsonic VP2250wb
• 
  BenQ G2200W
• 
  AG Neovo E-W22
• 
  LG W2252TQ
• 
  BenQ G2400W
• - Recommended -
  Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP, superb big screen with DisplayPort and HDMI