The evocatively named NF1500MAE from Hitachi is a surprisingly good screen for its low price. It scored a confident equal highest in our colour and greyscale tests with the Palsonic and NEC. It was also able to maintain high qualities in some of the more gruelling aspects of the benchmark testing, such as colour tracking and greyscales, where many of the other screens fell short.

The display's brightness, contrast and fine focus were solid throughout, and these translated into decent real-world scores for watching DVDs and playing games. If there was one disappointment with the screen, it's that the viewing angles weren't the widest. This won't be a problem if you're using it solo on your desk, but for group viewing of a DVD or presentation you might need to squash up a bit. The screen also only comes with an RGB D-Sub connector - the inclusion of DVI would have been nice but it rated well over the analog connection anyway.

The NF1500MAE may not have the top score in any one test, but the screen rated consistently high, which placed it near the top of our lists compared to other monitors that scored higher in some areas but were dismal in others.

Add to this all-round strong performance and the fact the monitor costs a mere $599, and you have an exceptional bargain in your hands.