Evesham Alqemi LCD: Screen savers

Evesham hasn't just thrown down the gauntlet for competitively priced LCDs, it's mounted its trusty steed and thrust a lance into the budget screen market with a range of TVs at prices that are, well, medieval...

Crave had only just scraped our jaws from the floor following news of the PC company's cut-price 'Full HD' 1080p screens before the latest Alqemi range left us jaw-floored one more.

There are three models in the usual 32-inch, 37-inch and 42-inch screen sizes. Each features an impressive on-paper specification, including a high-definition compatible WXGA (1,366x768-pixel) resolution. Unfortunately, Evesham hasn't confirmed which high-definition formats the screens will support -- leading us to believe that it could only be 720p and possibly 1080i.

All screens feature integrated analogue and digital TV tuners, although there is an alternative no-frills 32-inch model that's only equipped with an analogue tuner and fewer features for £100 less -- a fair saving if you already own a digital set-top box.

Strangely, the two 32-inch models offer higher contrast ratios (1200:1) than their oversized siblings (1000:1). But otherwise the specs are the same -- 500 cd/m2 brightness, 178 degrees viewing angles and a reasonable 8ms response time.

The only oversight appears to be the inclusion of just one HDMI digital input. This limits the number of high-definition devices you can directly connect at the same time, especially since that number can include HDTV receivers, DVD players and games consoles.

Now for the good bit. The analogue-only 32-inch LCD5 is £499, rising to £599 for the digital 32-inch LCD6, while larger screen sizes are equally economical -- £799 for the 37-inch LCD2 and £1,399 for the 42-inch LCD3. All Alqemi screens are available now. -RA