Not long ago 22in TFTs were a luxury, so the £128 price tag on this BenQ really knocked us for six this month. The design won’t win any awards, however, with a bland plastic base and plain angular looks. There’s no adjustable stand either.
But what you do get is an incredibly well-rounded monitor for the money. Inputs aren’t just limited to VGA, there’s also DVI and HDMI – the only other screen to offer the latter is the £189 Dell. And image quality, while not perfect, is more than good enough for everyday use.
The backlight is bright and even, and it’s clear straight away that the dynamic range is biased towards the top end. Our black test screen wasn’t particularly deep and the dark segments of our gradient ramps were far thinner than they should have been. But on the other hand, video was bright and clear, the desktop pleasant and easy to read, and colour tracking generally pretty accurate.
Its weakness is contrast. At just 700:1, and lacking the now obligatory dynamic contrast function, the picture can appear a little flat next to the better models. We have a Japanese animation that has deceptive depth on the best TFTs, and the BenQ struggled to bring it to life. It also suffers from the awful placement of the control buttons – out of sight on the left side – which makes adjustments tricky.
So entertainment junkies will need to look elsewhere and spend a bit more money, but for a study or office the BenQ FP222W is an absolute steal. There’s no other monitor within £25 of its price, and for us that is good enough to earn it a deserved Best Value award.
Details | |
---|---|
Image quality | 4 |
Main specifications | |
Screen size | 22.0in |
Aspect ratio | 16:10 |
Resolution | 1680 x 1050 |
Screen brightness | 300cd/m2 |
Pixel response time | 5ms |
Contrast ratio | 700:1 |
Pixel pitch | 0.282mm |
Horizontal viewing angle | 160 degrees |
Vertical viewing angle | 170 degrees |
Speaker type | N/A |
Speaker power ouput | N/A |
TV tuner | no |
TV tuner type | N/A |
Connections | |
DVI inputs | 1 |
VGA inputs | 1 |
HDMI inputs | 1 |
DisplayPort inputs | 0 |
Scart inputs | 0 |
HDCP support | yes |
Upstream USB ports | 0 |
USB ports (downstream) | 0 |
3.5mm audio input jacks | 0 |
Headphone output | no |
Accessories supplied | |
Other cables supplied | VGA |
Internal power supply | yes |
Power consumption | |
Peak power consumption | 49W |
Idle power consumption | 2W |
Image adjustments | |
Brightness control? | yes |
Contrast control? | yes |
Colour temperature settings | Reddish, bluish, normal, user |
Extra adjustments | Sharpness, picture mode, input, OSD language, position, timeout, lock, info, reset |
Ergonomics | |
Forward tilt angle | 5 degrees |
Backward tilt angle | 20 degrees |
Swivel angle | N/A |
Height adjustment | N/A |
Pivot (portrait) mode? | no |
Bezel width | 22mm |
Dimensions | |
Dimensions | 513 x 147 x 415mm (WDH) |
Weight | 5.800kg |
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