EPI AOC 15-inch flat panel monitor

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Review

Created: September, 2000

AOC 15-inch flat panel monitor - LM500

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If the time has come to put a flat panel monitor in you office, then the LM 500 15-inch flat panel monitor could be a good place to start.

There is nothing glamorous about this AOC 15-inch flat monitor from Envision Peripherals Inc. It is a thin film transistor (TFT), liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor that displays at a resolution of 1068 x 768 pixels with 16 million colors.

Because of the physics behind flat panel technology, this is the resolution best suited for this size of monitor. Anything less makes the edge of images on-screen fuzzy. Flat panels are designed to run at an optimal resolution and do a poor job using other settings.

This monitor will work with any analog video card that has a VGA interface. If you PC worked with a clunky TV-like cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, it will work with this display. It's a piece of cake to install and requires little work to maintain.

The screen is controlled with a finger-controlled dial that rotates 360 degrees. You push it in and on-screen commands pop up. Then you rotate the dial and choose an option. Push in again to select and then scroll through the options.

You can set the RGB (or Red Green Blue) settings individually. For example, dial up "R" and set the amount of red that you want the screen to display, once again by rotating the dial to fill or empty a horizontal bar.

Other options that can be modified this way include focus, contrast, brightness and vertical or horizontal screen orientation. There's also a one-touch auto-set button to optimize the screen.

The LM 500 is Energy Star compliant and is rated at 37 watts.

The picture on this monitor, which has a 15.1-inch viewable screen when measured diagonally, is bright and crisp and easy on the eyes.

CRT monitors can be viewed from almost any angle without image degradation. Not so for flat panel LCD monitors. The LM 500 can be viewed comfortably within a range of 100 degrees horizontally and 80 degrees vertically. Three people gathered around it can view it comfortably. As the angle gets sharper, the image greys out, however.

Most people won't care about all of the these features. The questions to ask are: Will it work? Is it affordable? Is it easy to install?

The answer to those fundamental questions is "yes."

Reviewer's rating: 4.25 / 5

Comments: The LM 500 AOC 15-inch flat monitor from Envision Peripherals Inc. is a good entry-level LCD flat panel monitor that is easy to install and is cheaper than its brand-name competition.

Specifications:
Viewable screen size: 15.1 inches
Resolution: 1024 x 768 (VESA, XGA, SVGA, VGA compatible)
Display type: Active matrix LCD (TFT)
Interface: Analog
System type: Windows 95/98/ME/2000
Mount: Desktop stand
Height: 15.6 inches
Width: 15.6 inches
Widest depth: 7.4 inches (at base)
Screen depth: 2.5 inches
Weight: 9.9 pounds
Warranty: 3 years

Where to buy: McGlenn, AccessMicro
More info: http://www.aocmonitor.com/default.asp
Price: $385 US, $530 Canadian