Hanns G HH241HPBE 24 inch Full HD LCD TFT Monitor - Gloss Black

I was looking for a decent sized HDMI ready monitor that I could also use for my Xbox 360. I was debating getting an LG, but for £140 you can only get a 22".

I risked this model without reading too many reviews, and I am glad I did.

Looks wise, its great, it certinly looks as good as any of the big brands, and has no annoying bright lights to distract you. The stand is angle adjustable, and it has a Vesa mount which was a must for me.

It performs very well, running Windows 7 the new screen drag feature means you can effectively use this as a twin screen setup. I have not noticed any issues with the picture that other reviews have noted, but then I am only using my PC for browsing, development and photos etc. There was no setup requires, I simply plugged it in and off I went.

The on board speakers, although not amazing, are more than sufficiet for the odd bit of you tube etc.

I have my 360 hooked up, and that looks crisp, and the response time seems more than sufficent!

The only downside of this monitor are the fiddly buttons. Now this would not be an issue as you rarely change monitor settings, but asd I am using for VGA & HDMI i find the button to switch inputs is had to locate, and the menu system requires multiple buttons to acheive this simple task.

But, thats the only downs side i can find, and thus the only reason it does not get 5 stars. If you are looking for a budget 24" monitor that packs a punch, look no further.

To begin this review will cover the monitor and some teething problems others may face when going from smaller panels to larger ones such as this (resolution wise) and solutions to them.

So the monitor itself. I've owned many a monitor over the years, from old CRT's to ever larger flat panels. All of those have been from `big brand' manufacturers and cost a fair bit. I decided to get a budget model because I was more interested on size than how good it looked or performed (its use is simply that for the Internet not games or any colour critical photo work).

I had looked at GNR monitors for cheapness, but they looked, felt and in use ARE cheap and nasty affairs. I was not impressed. Hanns G on the other hand look impressive, and looking on You Tube found some good reviews and 'real world' performance (not for this particular one but get a feel for Hanns G as a company none the less) I've found my HH241 performs admirably well.

My first impressions were how light it was. At least half the weight of my old 19 inch LG. Followed by the fact it looks `more expensive' than it is. High gloss surround with a well built feel. No `creeks' as you move or tilt it. The base/stand is the low point. It looks less flattering as it is matte plastic and has a cheaper feel to it but does what it is meant, hold the monitor firm and is well constructed.

You are able to tilt the monitor (which is the smoothest tilting of any I've owned) but you cannot raise the height or swivel the base - But this is not an issue for me.

The back plate is simple. 1 HDMI, 1 D-Sub a headphone and line in socket is what you get. This means one can connect to a computer via VGA and then to a HDMI source such as an Xbox 360 and switch between them without having to mess about with cables being swapped. You have supplied 1 (I might add long) VGA cable. 1 HDMI to DVI cable. CD drivers/manual 3 Pin UK plug with 3 pin 'kettle lead' connection. You also have two speakers in the back. Think chepo TV sounding, sound flat with no bass but hey it's a monitor after all and most will have 3rd party speakers to go with their computer.

The menu buttons and power buttons are located under the front of the bezel. They are annoying to use as you must feel your way around under to feel them, they are flat too making that job a little harder. They also seem to need more pushes to get a task done than needed. Menu then move finger to select, then move finger to enter, then move finger to select - you get the idea just hassle as you have to do this under the front of the monitor blind. But once sorted it is set and forget - unless you switch between VGA and HDMI sources, in which case you will need to learn the button push pattern to get this down to a fine art to enable easy switching of the input source.

Picture quality is VERY good. OK so the contrast is not as rich as that on expensive panels, but this is under £150 so what can one reasonably expect? I've set my brightness to 75% because the default is 100% and simply too bright. But that brightness has it's good points. Whites are true and I found no colour casting. You can set the monitor to presets, such natural which effectively adjusts the colour temperature - I've got mine at 65k - No ghosting is present with very crisp response even from fast moving images.

A 1080p test of You Tube provided surprising clarity comparable with my 42" LCD television which cost close to a grand. Just goes to show.

Now the problems. This is, I might add *nothing* to do with the monitor, but if I experienced them I bet others have or will so here is what to do:

I bought an Asus Radeon HD 4350 Silent PCIE HDMI 1GB Graphics Card also to power the monitors resolution which my current card would not be up to. However, when using the monitor with my laptop this same `issue' was present too. It has an on board ATi graphics chip. The issue is that upon connection you will either not get the reported resolution or you will but have a black boarder of about an inch around the picture with the text/icons hard to read. The solution is in the Catalyst Control Panel that where it shows your monitor (should be named if installed the drivers for the monitor that come with it) there is a small black arrow. Click it. Then go to scaling. Then slide to 0% and bingo you have full screen. This only affected me with the HDMI cable, so in VGA mode it was fine and I suspect many will use VGA.

Pros:
* Value for money but not cheap looking
* Qauilty reproduction of fast moving images
* Amazing brightness
* No dead pixels
* No backlight bleeding

Cons:
- Low power 'flat sounding' speakers
- Silly menu button arrangement under the bezel
- Cheap looking base/stand

Overal for the money, you cannot go wrong. It really is a no brainer if you want a good size monitor that actually perfoms almsot as well as those costing double this.

Nice screen and surround all black looks good with a nice crisp picture.
A major drawback for me is the sound quality seems very poor and not very loud even at 100% (speakers are at rear)but this can be remedied with a set of external speakers
Changing any settings is very tricky as buttons are out of view under the screen and it has to be done by feel alone, although there are markings on the front of the surround these cannot be seen clearly as they are black on a black surround.
To change inputs require pressing 3 different buttons although this sounds easy can be frustrating if you press the wrong one as you have to start again. This would not have been so much of a issue to me but the specs state 2 hdmi ports but there is only 1 so I have to change inputs from hdmi to vga quite frequently and after a month still havent mastered it 100%.
All in all for the price its a very good buy for a 24inch monitor but cheapness does comes at some cost, so add the cost of external speakers to the price if you require a decent sound.