Reviewed in a sneak preview as a pre-production model a few months ago (February 2004, page 48), the DiamondView impressed us then and it’s good to see a full production version fulfill those impressions now. Not a great deal has changed though; it still suffers from a few brightness issues and white wash-out, and the contrast didn’t really translate as well as it should for its rating.
Blacks and colours were dark and vibrant when needed though, and all up the DiamondView DV175 equalled the CMV with the gaming, text and DVD tests.
The one area where the DiamondView 175 excelled over all others was with a phenomenal viewing angle -- the image was viewable from wherever you looked, appearing like a photo in a frame. This was particularly great because the 175 was solidly built with a metal base boasting a very sturdy hinge to allow easy wall-mounting.
The DiamondView DV175 toes the $900-mark in pricing which is good for a name brand, but in our value for money scoring metric the pixel warranty played quite a large part, and here the DV175 jsut managed to miss out on an award.