The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful: 17" LCDs Reviewed

In Practice

For use with office applications, the glass filter on the panel provides additional contrast and the pleasant sensation of being in front of a CRT monitor in terms of image depth. The down side is that it reflects light and you'll have to be careful where your desk is placed in relation to any windows in the room.

The responsiveness of this 16 ms model was really surprising. Fast-action games were quite playable and the comfort level was acceptable. The monitor can stand up to certain 12 ms models. As for the reflection problems, I'll give you the same advice as for the Sony: Play in the dark.

Video isn't really this monitor's strong suit. First of all, the viewing angles are reduced. Then, the reflections on the panel are very bothersome for films where low-light scenes abound. Dark shades were hard to distinguish from one another, but on the other hand the depth of black was appreciable. Finally, the display tended to be greenish, and the adjustments will have to be made manually.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, the XL775D is a fairly good monitor if you leave the difficult adjustment aside. If you know how to adjust a monitor, the new Xerox is a good buy, with its high-end finish for less than $400 and its responsiveness that beats the LG 1720B's.