LG W2361V 23-inch Wide LCD TFT Monitor (2ms, 50000:1, Full HD, Gloss Black)

After scouring the web for reviews on cheap Full HD LCD monitors and painful nights deciding on them, I finally settled for this one. The reason is that I didn't find lots of reviews for the W2361V but instead I found very good ones for the W2261V (22" version). The latter was highly regarded due to it's AU Optronics panel but apparently some of the recent production of these monitors came out with panels other than the AU Optronics.

Feeling a bit disappointed, I set out to find other LCDS and luckily I found the 23" version and decided I could settle for that one and take the risk. I still don't regret buying it. The screen is fantastic. The homogenity of the backlight is very good, the display is sharp and movement is very fluid. Colours are amazing after a little tweaking and the angle of vision is quite good. Afterall, it's just a monitor so you'll be almost always sitting in the centre front of the screen.

Aesthetically, the screen looks very expensive with it's sleek bezel and teardrop style power button that lights up (can be switched off). The screen is matte which is excellent if you don't want to get distracted by environment reflections. I find this to be perfect for everyday desktop use but I am currently using it only for XBOX360 gaming in HD and for watching movies.

The connectors available on the screen are VGA, HDMI, DVI-D and 3.5mm Audio Out (used only for outputting audio from HDMI). It would have been nice to have a stereo speaker on the monitor but given the price tag no one can really complain.

Software side, it comes with forteManager, a Windows-only tool, that allows the user to control the screen features directly from the computer. Users of other operating systems will feel left out, although forteManager runs under Wine in Linux but doesn't seem to be able to communicate with the screen.

The screen control layout is placed on the right side of the rim and can be a bit tricky to operate. I didn't find much use for it's fancy features (sepia, black & white colours in a monitor?) and to be honest I think most users will find it useless. The only useful features are the colour and tone adjustment menus.

The only negative remarks I can make on this monitor is the base: it doesn't swivel, can only be tilted by a small margin and is not height-adjustable.

Overall, this is an excellent monitor for the price and it would be very hard to find anything better. I'd gladly buy a few more if I had the money to. I'm knocking off 1 star off the rating due to some of the useless features, awkward button operation and the low degree of screen tilt.

This is possibly the best upgrade for a PC Screen.
Non gloss screen means no reflections.
Running it via HDMI input and clarity is unbelievable - I think better than many HD TVs. Whites are super white, colours are balanced and the size of the screen allows you to sit back in comfort to work.
It requires a HDMI cable, the 2 other format cables are supplied.
Touch sensitve on/off switch is not obvious, but great.

What a good Monitor this is very high quality in my opinion , I'm running my Pc and Ps3 through it and the pictures fantastic . Full Hd so Blu-ray looks superb , just as good as my Sony 32" Bravia .
Please note though there are no speakers , just an audio out head phone socket for Hdmi , but that's not a problem as I can split the sound from my Ps3 , or just plug my speakers into the head phone socket , which I'm doing at the mo .
My only moan is that all the instructions are on a cd - I like Paper !
Very easy to set up just plug n play , but a manual would have helped for the fine tuning of user preferences .
High contrast ratio as well - just like the Sony Bravia , better than Samsung etc .
Buy one before the price goes up again !