Can 19" LCDs Pass the Frag Test?

In Practice

We didn't notice any excessive latency when playing games. Of course the panel is not as good as 17" LCD displays like the Samsung 710T, not to mention the BenQ FP71E+. But, again, the gaming experience is in a different class. The sensation of immersion in the game is much greater, and that's worth sacrificing a few milliseconds on the graph for as long as the responsiveness is within acceptable limits. And it is. On the other hand, pixel interpolation - currently the black mark of 19" LCDs - is not very effective. The monitor does a little better than the NEC LCD92VM, but not much. At 1024 x 768 it's marginally acceptable, but at 800 x 600 it's really hideous.

Video is not this monitor's strong point, with sparkling very visible on color masses and black levels that are a little too high, taking away from films with dark atmospheres like The Matrix or Dark City. The horizontal viewing angle is acceptable for a panel using the TN+film technology, and the vertical angle, while a bit limited, is wide enough so that the less-than-uniform lighting isn't too apparent.

We had no particular problem using this monitor with office applications.

Conclusion

After some difficult moments with their 16ms 17" panels, Philips is back in the spotlight with a very good 19" panel, a little better than the one from AU Optronics. As for the FP937s, the finish is not as nice as on competing models, which is a shame. But the panel has some qualities that make it worth considering. BenQ says it will soon introduce a version with an 8ms panel, and we'll bring you up to date as soon as we can on what that panel will really be like. But currently, the FP937s is the fastest panel available from BenQ in the 19" size.