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

Spatial Uniformity

We measured the uniformity of lighting over the panel. This is a parameter that should be taken into account. The eye is fairly sensitive to spatial variations of light intensity. Certain monitors, for example, show a halo of light at the upper of lower part of the panel, which is a bit ugly when you use your monitor to watch a film. This halo is particularly visible in the blacks, and will show up even more in the black bands above and below your movie in 16/9 format. Fortunately you don't see it here.

We set the panel at 50% brightness and 50% contrast and measure the uniformity of the lighting on a white image separated into 64 areas of equal size. The brightest point is considered to be 100%, and the previously measured black value is considered 0%, with the other values obtained distributed between them.

Several remarks are in order here. First of all, the uniformity was fairly good, with all the values within 20% of the total range. The luminance was concentrated at the middle of the panel, the area more likely to attract the user's eyes. The upper and lower portions of the screen were definitely less bright, but that's not a problem in itself. On the other hand, in the lower left and right corners, a halo could be seen (the luminance is back to 100% there). That's unfortunate.