LG W2363D-PF review: LG W2363D-PF

I get it. When you're the 100th 23-inch monitor with a black chassis released in the last three months, it's difficult to stand out from the crowd. Sure, you could throw some oddly placed pastels into your design or go all white as some vendors have, but there's an important detail to remember. A good design allows a monitor to showcase its unique look without drawing too much attention to those particulars, lest it feels gimmicky.

7.0

LG W2363D-PF

The Good

The <b>LG Flatron W2363D-PF</b> achieved great overall performance, is 3D-compatible, and it includes two HDMI ports and a headphone jack, all at an affordable price.

The Bad

Even after calibration, there were slight green tint issues when viewing movies and photos. Also, menu navigation is convoluted, and the Tru-Light feature feels gimmicky.

The Bottom Line

The LG Flatron W2363D-PF is a high-performing and affordable 3D monitor.

So, is the W2363D-PF's design a cheap contrivance or does its unique feature enhance an already great aesthetic?

Design and features
With so many black-chassis monitor released every year, I'd imagine it's quite difficult to make one black monitor look very different from the next. From just a cursory glace, the 23-inch LG Flatron W2363D-PF looks no different from any other 23-inch monitor with a 3D-compatible screen. That is, until it's powered on. In an effort to have the W2363D-PF stand out from the vast host of black monitors in the market, LG has added an intriguing cylinder to the bottom of the bezel.

The cylinder employs LG's Tru Light technology and emits a white LED light that reacts, in real time, to sounds from games, movies, or music generated by the computer it's connected to. The light pulsates like a digital sound gauge on a stereo system, depending on the timing and volume of the sound. Unfortunately, there's no utilitarian purpose to this and it comes off feeling quite gimmicky.

Beyond the light show, the monitor looks fairly typical, with a glossy, piano black chassis, and an 0.8-inch bezel on the left and right sides. The oval-shaped foot stand measures 9.5 inches wide by 8.2 inches deep. When knocked from the sides, the monitor wobbles quite a bit, but the foot stand is so wide and flat, that we never felt it was in any real danger of toppling.

At 11.5 pounds, the W2363D-PF feels like it's made of plastic, but it also seems durable and substantial. The monitor's profile measures a full 2.5 inches; that's about average for a 23-inch, non-LED backlit display. On the bottom left side of the bezel, at the end of the Tru Light cylinder, is a headphone jack. Ergonomic options are limited to a 15-degree back tilt, but VESA support is included if wall-mounting is your thing. Connection options include one DVI port on the back and two HDMI ports on the left side.

In the lower-right-hand corner lays the onscreen display (OSD) array, which includes six labeled touch areas: G-Mode, Source, Menu, Down, Up, and Set. G-Mode features Thru Mode, SRS Tru Surround HD, ARC, and Auto Bright menus. Thru Mode disables the frame buffer memory, which prevents the response speed of the display from slowing down, presumably resulting in less input lag, but we didn't notice a difference during testing. SRS turns on 3D sound, ARC control allows for adjustment of the aspect ratio, choosing from 1:1, original, or full. Auto Bright turns on the ambient light sensor, adjusting the monitor's brightness based on the luminance currently in the room.

Pressing Menu brings up the main menu, which includes controls for brightness, contrast, gamma, black level (HDMI only), color temperature presets, RGB controls, as well as Hue and Saturation (the last two, only available through HDMI). RGB controls and color temperature options are also included, as well as sharpness and volume control for the headphone jack.

Though it's great to see such robust options on a TN display, navigating through the nonintuitive options can be frustrating. The arrow buttons are used to adjust attributes, but they are not used to navigate through the interface as one might expect; instead, pressing the Set button cycles through different attributes. This design makes for a cumbersome and awkward experience when adjusting settings, and it still surprises me that vendors have not perfected this aspect of monitor design this late in the game.

Performance
We tested the LG Flatron W2363D-PF through its DVI input, connected to a Windows Vista PC, using the included DVI cable. The display posted a composite score of 93 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests.

In the Extreme Grayscale Bars test, which evaluates a monitor's ability to display dark detail, the LG W2363D-PF presented dark gray down to a level of 2; this is the lowest possible level, thus indicating that displaying dark detail while maintaining the deepness of black would likely not be a problem for the monitor.

We did notice some obvious backlight bleed through at the top and bottom edges of the screen on our Dark Screen test, however.

Text: In text, we saw no color problems with black text on a white background. Fonts were clearly visible down to a 6.8-point size. We did see a lot of blooming around text with both blue and pink fonts on a black background.

Movies: We tested the LG W2363D-PF using the Blu-ray version of "Avatar." The monitor impressed us with its ability show dark detail while maintaining deep blacks. In one dark scene we could see the details of each of the Na'vi's dark braids. With a lesser monitor, we wouldn't be able to distinguish the braids from the blackness of the rest of the hair. Also, we saw no evidence of backlight bleeding while watching dark scenes.

At default settings, there was a definite green tint problem but we were able to marginalize it by adjusting the RGB settings to Red: 57, Green: 23, and Blue: 62.

Games: Because of our intimate familiarity with Starcraft II (SCII), it remains our favorite tool for judging color quality and vibrancy in games. SCII on the W2363D-PF had a vibrancy and color depth that matched our favorite TN monitor, the Samsung PX2370. The game looked as good as it did on the PX2370, but in order to get the color where we wanted it, diminishing the green significantly was necessary. We decided on Red: 60, Green: 23, and Blue: 58.

To test refresh rate, we used DisplayMate's motion graphics tests and watched a bunch of graphics fly around the screen, looking for evidence of streaking. The LG W2363D-PF showed a relatively small amount of streaking, and to our eyes it was indistinguishable from the PX2370 running the same test.

Nvidia 3D Vision performance: We tested 3D performance using Call of Duty: Black Ops. The W2362D-PF uses Nvidia's 3D Vision technology, and Black Ops looked great running on the display in 3D, with the monitor's good color reproduction and high vibrancy contributing to the impressive graphics.

We also got a chance to see how the W2363D-PF handled 3D photos and watched a short 3D movie. From a technical standpoint, 3D photos are interesting, but we don't think the effect adds much to still images. The photo seems to move and slightly shift perspective as you move your head, but it doesn't really enhance pictures in any meaningful way. Also, it makes foreground objects look like 2D cutouts, lacking any depth.

The 3D movie of a Nurburgring race fared better, looking like native 3D content and not something post converted to 3D. The film had multiple levels of depth and the foreground assets didn't look like cardboard cutouts.

The 3D vision glasses use active shutter lenses and as such, when viewing any 3D content, expect it to look darker than when viewing normally.

Photos: The LG W2363D-PF displayed photos with mostly accurate colors, however, not as accurate as on the Samsung PX2370. Also, we noticed a slight greenish hue, but we were able to diminish the green by changing the color settings to Red: 57, Green: 23, and Blue: 58.

Viewing angle: The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the screen's distance down from the top. At this angle, you're viewing the colors as the manufacturer intended them. Most monitors are not made to be viewed at any other angle. Depending on its panel type, picture quality at nonoptimal angles varies. Most monitors use TN panels, which get overly bright or overly dark in parts of the screen when they are not viewed from optimal angles. The W2363D-PF uses a TN panel, and indeed, text, and images become more difficult to see clearly at about 6 to 8 inches to the left or right of center. When viewed from below, the screen got dark very quickly, which is expected for a TN panel.

Power consumption: The LG W2363D-PF achieved poor power consumption, with a Default/On power draw of 46.7 watts, compared with the Samsung PX2370's 25.01 watts in the same test. In our Sleep/Standby test, the W2363D-PF pulled 1.57 watts and the PX2370 pulled a lower 0.27 watt. Based on our formula, the W2363D would cost $15.02 per year to run, compared with the PX2370's lower $7.65 per year.

Juice box
LG Flatron W2363D-PF	Average watts per hour
On (default luminance)	46.7
On (max luminance)	46.7
On (min luminance)	22.3
Sleep	1.57
Calibrated (200 cd/m2)	33.4
Annual power consumption cost	$15.02
Score	Poor

Find out more about how we test LCD monitors

Service and support
LG backs the W2363D-PF with a three-year parts and labor warranty, which covers the backlight for only one year. That's two years less than other vendors, such as Dell. During the first year of warranty, the company offers repair service in two working days and pays freight shipping both ways for one year. During the second and third year of the warranty, customers pay to ship the monitor to LG and LG pays the return freight to the customer. LG provides live Web and e-mail chat as support options, as well as toll-free phone support.

Conclusion
The LG Flatron W2363D-PF can be found online for as low as $300. At that price, it's one of the most affordable 3D monitor solutions on the market. Like the Acer GD235HZ before it, the LG handles 3D like a champ; that's not surprising given that most of the 3D burden lies on the software, glasses, and emitter.

Overall performance was very good, and we found a useful assortment of connection options. Unfortunately, the color fails to quite reach our high standards, the OSD can be a nightmare to navigate, and the Tru-Light cylinder adds nothing useful. Still, given its price and 3D compatibility, the W2363D-PF is currently the best 3D monitor available.