With a price tag this low, the Polyview had a great advantage before undergoing our tests. However, as is so often the case, would cheap mean rubbish? This 17in TFT feels light and cheap -- its thick bezel doesn't win any style awards. Yet, once we'd plugged it in, our roller coaster of impressions zoomed up once more.

While it didn't ace any of our DisplayMate tests it punched well above its weight, scoring particularly well in the contrast test on the way -- detail was visible in both light and dark areas. It also managed to outperform most of the other 8ms monitors when it came to lack of motion blur -- astounding for a panel this price. It earned our respect and went on to score the third highest mark overall.

The inclusion of decent 2.5W stereo speakers helps sweeten the deal further as does the on screen display measuring colour temperatures in Kelvin -- not vague terms like 'warm'.

But it's not all great. We weren't too hard on it for sporting an external power supply though this would be a pain if you regularly lugged this monitor about.  Of more concern was Polyview's dead pixel policy which requires there to be more than six dead pixels, during the course of the three year warranty period, before it's eligible for replacement -- a factor in the low price.

The IBM is the panel to go for if you want a decent 17 inch display, but if you're paying that much money you'd be better off plumping for the Labs Winner. The 17in market is rapidly becoming the budget market and with this in mind you won't get much more of the bargain than this.