I treated myself to this for New Year 2009 to upgrade my virtual worlds experience and add some extra vitality to games. The box it came in was huge and I'd visualised it as a bit of a monster from the reviews, with the shock and awe associated with the matching super gaming Acer Predator PC. It was great to unpack this sleek design triumph with its sparkling Lambo orange paint, and high tech claw-like feet looking like something from the landing gear of a Romulan warbird.
Once installed on the clean empty surface of my studio desk the bright frame colour looked fabulous and the front glass is the deepest shiniest black you can imagine but pretty reflective if you don't angle your lighting behind it or downwards. The overall impression is great and the 1920x1200 resolution immediately made entering the landscapes of virtual worlds like Entropia Universe and Second Life an amazingly enriched visual experience. This max setting was too much for my eyes to run on my working desktop or for Word etc....so I'm using 1440x900 for that. The quality of details and colours in games like Hellgate London, Neocron and Bioshock is just unreal and it runs lightning fast on action scenes and combat creating a wonderful immersive feel in fast moving games.
It's not just the size (ooo.. err missus..) but the richness and depth of colours with a staggering contrast ratio that really brings sunsets, water, skies and game environments to life and makes my photoshop work really a pleasure and watching DVD movies through the HDMI is a delight.
I was originally going to wall mount it but the `landing gear' base really makes it looks futuristic on the deck. All in all it's a great buy if you shop around. Now I need a faster machine and higher level gfx cards to do it even more justice; to me it's been worth every penny. If you are a gamer you will love this screen for what it does to your visual experience and the 'wow' factor it produces on screen. I can't imagine going back to lower size and quality screens now.
My only quandary is now having got this stunning 24" widescreen and got used to the increase in size I already got over the `future shock' and just like with a new touch phone I am already looking forward to the next model....I find myself thinking `wow, it would look even better if it was.. er... bigger!!' I keep looking at the big LCD panel in my lounge and thinking... `yea... now when Acer bring this stunning tangerine dream out in 32, 37 inch version.... Now that really would be something .. !!'