Sony has always placed a strong emphasis on style, and the Sony range of TFT displays are no exception. The SDMM51 TFT screen features a compact landscape shaped display bezel surrounding the TFT panel, with a light grey tone. This is met with Sonys obvious emphasis on entertainment, with audio integrated into the screen. All cabling is tucked away at the back of the unit, though the lack of DVI and USB connections is noticeable. The screen can not swivel at the base, but has an excellent tilt range.

Running the Sony display through the rigours of DisplayMate turned up some interesting results. While the Labs team anticipated that the Sony would do well across all testing given our experience with the outstanding quality of Sony CRTs, we were left a little surprised that the SDMM51 found it hard going throughout colour and greyscale testing. Greyscales were considerably dark which in turn affected the vibrancy of colour scales though primary colours were excellent. Redeeming features are found in the sharpness of the image, though extensive tweaking of the OSD was needed to achieve this. Also, the negligible mechanical deviance reveals that the TFT panel and electronics are of the best quality.