>> Eric Franklin: Hi, everyone. This is Eric Franklin from cnet.com, and today we're taking a first look at the BenQ V2400 Eco. Right off the bat you're going to notice something a little different about the BenQ its stark white chassis which includes a white power cord and a mostly white VGA cable. However, for today's purposes we're using a black HDMI cable to do the demo. You may also notice that although the panel is thin, it's not nearly as thin as the current king of LED monitors the Samsung XL2370. One place the display is thin, however, is in its adjustability options. Huh? No? Forget it, move on. The screen height isn't adjustable and there isn't a screen rotation or pivot option. All you can do is this 20degree back tilt. The 23inch 16:9 1920 by 1080 display includes a wide footstand that wobbles considerably when pushed. On the top of the footstand is a small round pocket that looks like a cup holder. In it is this plastic green grass BenQ has placed inside. BenQ says this spot is perfect for small keepsakes or mini plant pot. However, we don't advise you planting anything that would require water into a monitor you just paid good money for. Video connection options are limited to VGA and HDMI, and as I said before there is no HDMI cable included. The monitor includes a headphone jack, however. The onscreen display is robust with many useful options including six presets. Our biggest [inaudible] point, however, was with the monitor's relatively low maximum brightness especially when you compare it to the Samsung. Sidebyside the BenQ looks dim in comparison. As a result colors in movies didn't have the same pop as they did on the XL2370. Games showed no sign of input lag or streaking or ghosting during fast movement. We found that the standard preset was the best all around setting for games. The game preset's picture is over tuned to the point that the polygonal models show more aliasing than when in standard mode. Again, like in movies, colors in games didn't have the same pop as they did on the XL2370. The BenQ uses a TN panel and when viewed from the sides or bottom, we perceived the screen to darken at about four inches off from center. And we noticed that when viewing the screen from the left, right, or top the display darkened and the color shifted quicker than when viewing the same picture on the Samsung XL2370. In power consumption test, the BenQ costs about $7 per year to run compared with the XL2370's $10 per year and the Dell SP2309W's $13 per year. With the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 available for about $300, there's really simply no good reason to purchase the BenQ V2400 Eco which retails for about $50 more. The Samsung has better overall performance facilitated by its wider viewing angle and brighter screen. While not a bad monitor by any stretch, the V2400 Eco just can't compete with the best LED monitor out there. Once again, this is Eric Franklin, and this has been the first look at the BenQ V2400.
