Gateway FPD1960 review: Gateway FPD1960

Large and sleek, the Gateway FPD1960 will make a basic but elegant addition to any workstation. An easy-to-follow onscreen menu makes adjustments a breeze, but its mediocre image quality and lack of adjustability keep us from recommending the monitor. For its price of $350 (as of July 2005), you can find other 19-inch LCDs that offer more adjustability and better performance. We recommend the Samsung SyncMaster 915N, or if you're willing to spend just a little more, check out the Dell UltraSharp 1905FP, one of our all-time favorites.

It's not a head-turner, but the Gateway FPD1960's streamlined, classic design aims to please the masses. The panel features an inch-wide, matte-silver bezel, with contrasting glossy black sides. The rounded corners give the FPD1960 a softer appearance. The small but stable circular base supports a thin, matte-black plastic neck.

The height isn't adjustable; the FPD1960's panel is permanently suspended 4 inches above your desk, which is a good height for most people but a little low for taller folks. The panel tilts back 35 degrees but doesn't offer near the adjustability of other monitors we've seen. Gateway sells a $50 replacement stand, however, that swivels and telescopes. (It also pivots from Landscape to Portrait mode, but the FPD1960 can't pivot the image to match.) Two plastic squeeze tabs hold the panel to the neck, so you can swap stands without tools.

Setting up and using the Gateway FPD1960 is quite simple. The power button stands alone on the front bezel, while the other five buttons are hidden on the panel's right side. Although out of sight, they're well labeled and easy to reach. If you press the menu button, the onscreen menu (OSM) pops up; a sidebar with arrows labeling the functions of the buttons, much like what you'd find on an ATM, helps you navigate the menu. The OSM lets you adjust the display's more advanced settings, such as color temperature and gamma, but brightness and contrast have their own dedicated buttons on the side.

The FPD1960 accepts analog and digital input, and the top button on the side allows you to switch between the two sources. The digital, analog, and power ports are the only inputs on the back of the display, and a small plastic clip attaches to the neck to route cable cords. The ports for digital and analog input are very close to the panel, which makes it difficult to connect the cables properly.

The FPD1960's 1,280x1,024 native resolution with a 19-inch (diagonal) field produces 85 dots per inch--a comfortable density for reading even if you sit back from your desk. But the contrast wasn't as crisp as we're used to seeing from LCDs; black text on white background didn't pop on our tests. The monitor produced fairly saturated colors, making graphics acceptable to look at, but on CNET's DisplayMate-based tests, we noticed that the panel introduced inappropriate tints at different saturation levels, which can create some color distortion in photos and movies.

Our DVD-playback test showed some streaking or ghosting, which was no surprise considering the panel's relatively slow 16-millisecond pixel-response time. Problems with screen uniformity are common among LCDs, and the FPD1960 is no exception; our test unit was darker along the top edge of the screen than elsewhere. It also scored fairly low on our brightness tests--despite its more impressive factory specs. We found the screen bright enough to use under standard office-type fluorescent lights, but in a sunlit room, the picture may appear dim.

Gateway skimps on support. Most LCDs have a three-year warranty, but Gateway covers only one year unless you pay an extra $30 to extend it to three. You also have to pay shipping for repairs. Gateway runs a tech-support call center 24/7 on a toll-free line, and you can e-mail questions or chat online with a representative via its support Web site.