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>> [Eric Franklin:] Hi, everyone, this is Eric Franklin with CNET.com, and today we're taking a first look at the Gateway FHD 2402. Now over a year ago, the very first video that I recorded for a product I actually reviewed was for the Gateway FHD 2400. In honor of that, I thought it only fitting that we have ourselves a good old-fashioned clip show. You know where I would lazily show various clips from videos I've done over the past year or so. Unfortunately, my producer, Jamie, didn't like that idea, and she promptly killed it. This woman has no soul. [thump] Anyway, I'm a professional; I'll move on. Let's just move on. The first thing you'll notice about the 24-inch Gateway is that it has a plastic overlay on its screen and bezel. This makes the entire front of the display appear flat. This overlay is so glossy and reflective that some can mistake it for an actual mirror.
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Some deluded, confusing, crazy people. There isn't much to see on the back of the panel beyond a number of small, circular vent holes near the top concealing the built-in speakers. Unfortunately the screen height isn't adjustable and there isn't a screen rotation or pivot option for portrait mode. The only ergonomic option you get is the capability to tilt the screen 25 degrees back. When knocked from the sides, the display wobbles a considerable amount. When knocking the display from the back, however, this is a different story as the display's very front-heavy. So you might want to be careful where you actually end up placing the display. The on screen display array sits to the lower right-hand corner of the bezel, right above the power button. The Gateway's 16x9 aspect ratio supports a full HD data resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. Now at this point you might be asking, "Where are the rest of my 230,700 pixels that I usually get from a 1920x1200 24 incher?" Well, the monitor industry has them, and apparently they're not letting them go as the industry moves from 16x10 to 16x9. Instead, you do get the ability to watch movies on the Gateway without the image being stretched or there being black bars at the top and bottom of the screen as there would be on a 16x10 monitor. The Gateway scored well in most of our color tests, but really faltered in our two color ramp tests, which look for an LCD's capability to render gradations of primary colors smoothly, uniformly, and consistently. Games also had impressive color and contrast, and we saw no signs of input lag, blurring, or streaking during fast movement. Viewing angle was typical for a TN panel, if by typical I mean pretty crappy. That's just the nature of twisted-nematic though. Oh, twisted-nematic. In audio tests sound from the built-in speakers was muffled, which makes speech difficult to hear. On the upside, we were able to crank the speakers to maximum volume without there being any noticeable distortion. The Gateway FHD 2402 brings you a high-gloss, high contrast screen with built-in speakers, great movie and game performance, HDMI support and a couple of USB ports. Unfortunately the sound from the speakers is highly muffled, and high gloss means this thing would not be out of place sitting on a vanity table. Still, 260 dollars is a great price for a monitor that will satisfy your basic monitor needs and look pretty good while doing it. I'm Eric Franklin, and this has been the first look at the Gateway FHD 2402.
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