AG Neovo S-19 Review San Antonio TX

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Originally published at Internet.com

If You've Got It, Flaunt It

Let's be honest: These days, when $1,000 will buy you a powerful PC, spending four figures on a monitor is an indulgence. But if you have to splurge, there are worse choices than splurging on a luxury display -- one that's big, bright, and colorful enough to let you work in comfort even if you have to work overtime, even if your eyes aren't as young as they used to be. And if employees or clients are awed by your status-symbol screen, well, call it a fringe benefit.

On the other hand, there's a difference between splurging and spendthrift; only the most shameless execs can afford $2,500 or $5,000 or more for a 21- or 23-inch or larger LCD/HDTV tuner or exotic plasma panel. That's where the S-19 from AG Neovo comes in -- it's a 19-inch desktop LCD that looks like a million bucks, but at $1,299 (under $1,200 from online discounters) isn't really much more than its conventional, rectangle-on-a-pedestal rivals.

AG Neovo is a Taiwanese manufacturer that's had some success in Europe and is now wading into the U.S. market, distributing flat-panel displays mostly via Web sellers like Amazon.com and big-city electronics shops like J&R and Fry's. The S-19 defies the currently fashionable thin-bezel beige design in favor of an easel-like black slab on a base that tilts backward anywhere from 5 to 25 degrees. While most LCD monitors look skinny and small compared to the CRTs they replace, the AG Neovo initially resembles a big billboard -- but after a few minutes, especially in an averagely dim rather than brightly fluorescent-lit room, the black frame seems to fade into the background, letting you focus on a 1,280 by 1,024-pixel work area that seems to float in front of you.

Basic Black

Assuming your desktop's video card supports SXGA resolution, setting up the S-19 is a piece of cake: Lift the 18-pound, 17.2 by 16.8 by 8-inch monitor out of the box; plug the notebook-PC-style external power brick or AC adapter into the jack at the rear and an AC outlet (it draws 48 watts, far less than a big-screen CRT); and connect your PC -- both analog VGA and digital DVI-D ports and cables are provided, as is an S-Video port and cable for direct connection to video equipment such as a TV tuner or VCR. The S-19 has no audio speakers or USB hub and doesn't pivot between portrait and landscape modes.

We usually left the base tilted as far forward as it goes (i.e., 5 degrees backward); straightening the screen after tilting it back, or turning its locking dial to fold it flat for packing, is a stiff, two-handed job. The black bezel around the 19-inch viewable area, gorgeous when polished, is a glossy magnet for smudges and fingerprints when not.

A High-Res Monolith

A cluster of four menu-navigation buttons accompany power and auto-adjust buttons at the bottom right of the base. The last performs a one-touch tuneup that worked well for image size and centering, but occasionally failed to render text that looked razor-sharp in both the center and near the top or bottom of the display. Pressing the button a second time usually cured the complaint.

The other buttons enter the onscreen control menu, where less-than-intuitive keypress combinations (the same buttons that move horizontally through the main menu move vertically through submenus) let you tinker with brightness and contrast -- found on the first menu page, though still slightly less convenient than the skip-the-menus direct access available on many monitors -- as well as other settings.

The latter include horizontal and vertical position, clock and phase (to combat moire effects), backlight brightness, sharpness, and three prefab plus manual color temperature settings. The AG Neovo's contrast ratio is rated at a class-leading 500:1; we were impressed with its ability to render truly white backgrounds without cranking either the backlight, brightness (a good but not dazzling 250 candelas per square meter), or contrast to the max.

Also impressive is the flat panel's response time of 25 milliseconds, more than twice as quick as some big-screen LCDs and within the 30ms-or-less threshold we consider desirable for fast-paced video or animation. The S-19 can display its native 1,280 by 1,024 resolution at a refresh rate of either 60Hz or 75Hz; both are flicker-free, though we found the latter slightly preferable under office fluorescents.

AG Neovo says the S-19's "NeoV Crystal Optic Filter" combines antiglare and antireflective properties with brilliant color and clear image definition, as well as a protective hard coating, while the latest multidomain vertical alignment (MVA) technology gives ultrawide 170-degree viewing angles. We can confirm that color stays bright instead of flipping to photo-negative even when you crane your head way to the side, though the glossy finish produces mirror reflections that aren't visible head on.

Our DisplayMate test patterns and color gradients looked smooth and bright, and the LCD did an above-average (though still nowhere near CRT-caliber) job of scaling or resizing 1,024 by 768 or 800 by 600 resolution to full screen without too much pixelation. However, while the S-19 looks marvelous, we'd call its image quality merely good: Though its 0.294mm pixel pitch is fine for a plus-size flat panel, image details weren't the sharpest we've seen, and we sometimes found ourselves reaching for the auto-adjust button to tweak onscreen text after switching from Word to our Web browser or vice versa.

But again, though it may cost $100 more than less artistically styled 19-inch LCDs, the AG Neovo is both priced and positioned well below larger (20- or 21-inch) or CAD- or graphics-studio-oriented (1,600 by 1,200 resolution) flat panels. (The company has another line, the X series, that it bills as its peak-performance monitors, as well as 15- and 17-inch multimedia and value displays.) The S-19 is a good-looking monitor, even when it's turned off, and a sleek splurge for a style-conscious executive office.

Pros: * Modern-art or movie-set style * Analog, digital, and S-Video inputs; clear whites and high contrast

Cons: * Not the sharpest LCD we've seen, especially for small text * Confusing control menus; black glass bezel is a magnet for finger smudges