19" LCD Monitors: The Spring 2006 Collection

NEC 90GX2

This is the most recent monitor from NEC. While the monitor's overall lines show a certain family resemblance with the 1970GX, performance has made a great leap forward since that earlier model. And latency is the area the NEC has concentrated their efforts on.

To be quite frank, the race for low latency hasn't really resulted in much since the VP191b. Given that 99% of the 3-, 4-, and 6-ms monitors we've seen had so many disadvantages as a trade off for remanence, you wonder if the race to shave milliseconds is really worth it. But as is often the case, market pressure, and not sound thinking, is what wins out. So let's see if the NEC monitors haven't given up too much in order to get under the 6-ms bar.

Design

The fact is that the 90GX2 looks very much like the 1970GX, which we tested earlier. However, this NEC monitor seems to suffer from budget restrictions. For example, the base no longer has a height adjustment, unlike the earlier generations. But other than that, the finish is still good, with handsome, fairly-sturdy plastics.

Ergonomics

The ergonomics is very good, but as we said, the monitor has lost its height adjustment, which is a shame. Otherwise, there's the mini-joystick found on all the monitors in NEC's GX series. It's very practical for navigating through the sub-menus. It's clearly a plus. The OSD is very professional - you can save various setting to create your own configurations for color temperature, RGB balance, etc.

Connectivity

Here again, there's nothing superfluous. The monitor has VGA and DVI connectors, and that's all.