Asus PW191 LCD: Looks Can Deceive

Overshoot

Without overdrive, there's no overshoot. Following our new test method, the PW191 rates an overdrive classification of A - under 0.5 frames.

In Use

At low brightness, the monitor was comfortable to use with office applications. But you'll have to take care not to place it too close to a window. You'll also have to be careful of the location of wall lamps, halogen lamps, etc.

Gaming on this monitor is feasible. It's not a hard-core gamer's display, but it's good enough for occasional use. Gamers will get the most out of the vivid colors the PW191 can deliver.

Video Games

We rate the unit's suitability for gaming on a scale of one to five for FPS, RTS or RPG titles. The panel's reactivity is obviously the first point we're interested in, but the quality of the colors is also important.

I was waiting to see how the PW191 would perform screening movies. And sad to say, video noise was still much too evident. A lot of sparkling was visible. Note that Asus offers a sharpness adjustment (which is rare on an LCD monitor) that lets you soften the focus slightly. That helped a little, but the sparkling didn't disappear completely. You'll need to be a good five feet from the screen for it to become imperceptible. On the other hand, the Splendid Cinema mode worked very well. The colors were beautiful, though we needed to tweak the flesh tones somewhat to avoid purplish skin colors. Fortunately Asus offers a flesh-tone adjustment directly in the OSD. We hate to harp on this issue, but the optical filter means that you'll have to watch your movies in total darkness, especially if the film tends to be dark (e.g. Sin City or The Matrix).