NEC’s OptiClear LCDs continually amaze us with their blinding brightness. The other 12 monitors ran for the shadows when we unboxed the 20WGX2, as its 470cd/m2 maximum is leagues brighter than anything else on test. Unusually, it’s also the only LCD with a glossy finish. This still divides opinion due to its intense reflectivity, but the result is an amazingly vivid picture. It’s a gamer’s LCD through and through, but the high price means you’ll have to really want the extra brightness to make it worth it.

There are four USB ports to go with the DVI and VGA inputs, and cables for all three inputs are supplied. The stand swivels and tilts enough to get a square-on view, which is a good thing, as – like many glossy screens – the NEC rapidly turns light colours to yellow if you move more than 45 degrees to either side.

But, in general use, the NEC offers deep blacks when it needs to, blinding whites at other times and a wonderfully wide dynamic range, despite a contrast ratio of just 700:1. With such a high brightness you’d expect blacks to suffer, but this isn’t the case. DisplayMate’s blending tests showed slight banding with both colours and greyscales, and we noticed a slight purple hue to our grey tinting test, but neither issue showed up when playing games or editing photos. In terms of response time, we saw no smearing at all.

The MultiSync 20WX2 is a superb choice for gamers, but most people will baulk at the $890 price tag for a “mere” 20in LCD. A good compromise is the entertainment-focused Asus for over $350 less.