BenQ E2200 HD

Recently, we had reviewed Acer's 19-inch widescreen panel that offered a 16:9 resolution and had come away fairly impressed with its performance with regard to movies. In a similar vein, we will be reviewing another 16:9 monitor - BenQ's E2200 HD - which has a native full resolution of 16:9 and manages to pack this in a 22-inch frame. Read on to find out how it fares.

The one thing that I have always loved about BenQ, is the fact that their monitors come in very simple and plain designs eschewing functionality over form. The E2200 HD is no different in this respect, as it has sensibly chosen to make the LCD panel a matte finish, with the bezel and stand being the only aspect of the monitor that have been given a glossy finish. The dimensions of the monitor are 20.58 x 16.06 x 7.35 inches with a weight of just over 4.7 Kgs. This makes it quite the "guy in shape" when you compare it to other "fat" monitors of its range on offer from other manufacturers.

The physical construction of the monitor is fairly sound, with the only downside here being that its base is very basic. It offers no height/swivel adjustment. The monitor can be tilted a bit, but that is also quite minimal. Luckily the height of the LCD panel from the base is fairly decent, so one does not need to put a notebook underneath it to get it to the correct height for good viewing.

In the past, BenQ has always offered very comprehensive options when it came to OSD menus on its LCD panels. This has not changed here, as the E2200 HD comes with the standard variety of controls for brightness, contrast, color, aspect ratios (4:3, 16:9), along with their preset definitions like “movies, games, standard and SRGB”. The OSD menu unlike previous BenQ panels is fairly snappy, quite intuitive and allows a good degree of customization. Another feature that I found impressive were the OSD controls. The provided buttons are large and fairly responsive, which is a good step up from the competition as it offers easy manipulation of the OSD menus.

Connectivity-wise the E2200 HD packs in VGA, HDMI and DVI inputs. This makes it a sweet deal for gamers, who are looking to combine their consoles and PCs. It also has 2 PC speakers, which is typical nowadays.