Planar 996-0479-00 15 inch LCD Monitor

So what does any technology freak such as myself do during the summer, when I have no real regular expenses and loads of income? I buy really expensive toys!

Throughout the years, I have been upgrading bits and pieces of my computer system: processors, memory, video cards (several times). In fact, every part of my system has been replaced since I brought my computer to college in 1998.

All except one.

My monitor.

My trusty Mag DJ800 had served me well, doing almost 3 years of faithful operation. But come on, 3 years in computer years is close to a century.

Something had to be done.

My mind had set on getting a new monitor. Some of the monitor models I was looking at included the awesome sony G4XX series (CRT), as well as looking at cool LCD technology, most from the likes of Viewsonic (VG181/ VG174) and SGI (the 1600SW). As I was doing my research, I came across posts about a smaller company, Planar Systems, who had done mostly LCDs for medical and commercial systems, and was now entering the consumer market. I decided to find out as much as possible about their products. The LCDs they had came in 3 sizes: a 15" analog (too small), an 18.1 analog/ digital (little out of my price range), and the 17.4". I had found a candidate in the 17.4. It had come down to a comparison of the Planar 17.4", the Viewsonic VG174, and the SGI 1600SW.

One of the biggest issues that I had with LCDs were the problems with "ghosting" that I had heard about in games. Being a big game player, I saw this as an issue. After some research, I found that the biggest detail I had to look at in LCDs was the Pixel response time, or how quickly each individual pixel can go from Black to white (rise time) and white to black (fall time). The lower the total of these two numbers, the better and more responsive the LCD will be to moving images.

The Viewsonic touted a 25ms rise/ fall time, described as "the lowest in its class". The numbers were not as specific on the SGI, but after some searching, I found it to be 40ms. The Planar was the tough one. I ended up emailing Erick Petersen, the Director of Commercial Sales for Planar about the Pixel response time, and he replied with this:

"Thank you for your interest in Planar Desktop Monitors. We've been delivering flat panel solutions throughout the world for 18 years.

In response to your question, this is an area, where I believe Planar offers a significant competitive advantage with our 17.4" in flat panel monitors. We are using a superior display from Fujitsu that offer a typical response time of 25ms, but the key is our rise time of 10ms and fall time of 15ms. Full motion video can be displayed on this panel. Fast response, superior viewing angle, very bright, high-contrast ratio display. I think you will love it!"

Mr Petersen had told me exactly what I wanted to hear. The Fujitsu Technology happens to be the same Technology that are in the Viewsonic models. And Through Dell.com, I was able to get the Viewsonic for a couple hundred less than I could get the Planar anywhere, *and* the planar had the benefits of a DVI input and a built in USB hub. The SGIs were still well above $1200, so those were pretty much out of the question.

When I went to order the monitor, I checked my online deals and coupons pages, to see if I could sweeten the deal. Lo and Behold, Dell had *just* began a 20% off all accessories (monitors are accessories on Dell.com), and there was an additional $35 off of $250. This brought my total down to approximately $610 shipped. I got an email from Dell saying it would take several weeks, as they don't carry the monitors directly. I later found out that Planar drop ships all of their monitors direct. I received my monitor in about a week.

I unpacked it at put it on my desk. It is quite a sight. I have the Professional Black model, and it is very stunning. When I ordered the monitor, I also ordered a GeForce3 DVI card to go with it (can't let the DVI input go to waste), which I promptly installed prior to hooking up the monitor.

The monitor comes with all of the necessary cables and manuals. Included is a standard power cable, a standard SVGA cable, a DVI cable, and a serial connector for the LCD's touchscreen capabilities (which I haven't tried).

Digital video only works inside of the operating system, so to get full functionality (in boot and bios screens, for example), both the analog and digital connections must be plugged in. Once you specify that you want to use digital for regular usage, it will automatically switch to the best connection (digital, then analog if no digital connection is available).

When it first booted up, it wasn't anything special. I was expecting as much, as for the best quality, it has to be set to its native resolution (the 17.4" is 1280x1024). Once I switched to that, I was thoroughly impressed. Also of note was that my monitor didn't have any dead pixels. When I switched to Digital, it was as if someone had wiped my screen clear. Everything was very very crisp, so much so that I could see the blockish edges of my fonts (this has since been fixed as I installed WindowsXP, which has a font smoothing technology called ClearType). For the analog users, the 1280 resolution goes up to a 75hz refresh rate, and adjusting the screen to perfection takes no more than hitting a button.

The on screen displays are very easy and intuitive. Simple menus no more than 2-3 levels deep. There are a total of five buttons on the front: 2 "Function", 2 "adjust" and a "menu". What these do are pretty straightforward: menu to open menu, function to nav up and down in the menu, and adjust to change the settings. The manuals aren't even needed.

Other features of the monitor include built in speakers and the aforementioned built in USB hub. I have no experience with the speakers, but nothing built in can be *that* good. The USB hub is very nice to have, especially a powered one, meaning that you can plug any usb device into them without worry. The only thing I don't like about the USB hub is that its connections (as well as the video cables) are in a very hard angle to get to. This is ok, as long as you are not trying to swap USB devices with that hub (any of my hot swapping is done on my keyboard USB plugs)

"So does it work well?" you ask. I have to say that I am very impressed with what this monitor can do. I am able to watch DVDs with no problems whatsoever. Games do have a minor bit of "ghosting", but I am still able to play games like counterstrike and Diablo II with no problems. Image quality for regular desktop activities such as writing papers and surfing the web are perfect. I couldn't have asked for more.

Overall, I am very happy with how this monitor has performed in the 2-3 months I have had it. It has gone far and above being just a replacement for my old 19" CRT. It has proven to be a very worthwhile upgrade.

If you spend a lot of time in front of the computer, LCDs will save your eyes a bit of strain. And if you have the money to spend on the more expensive technology, I feel that the Planar 17.4" LCD is worth every penny.