Features of the LG L1970HR 19" LCD Display
LG's L1970HR 19" displays is an active matrix TFT LCD monitor. LG claims that the 19" LCD is the slimmest flatscreen in its class. While I haven't tested every 19 inch LCD in its class, I can say that the LG is definitely the thinnest bezel display that I've seen a long time. The thin bezel won't mean much to most people, however, if you're a dual display user the thin bezel is exactly what you're looking for in a display. Dual display users want their bezels thin because that means they can get the displays closer together for less of a gap in the display image between the two monitors.
One of the best features for gamers on the new LG display is the F-ENGINE technology that provides the first LCD picture enhancing chip that gives better color and contrast. LG also gave the LG1970 HR a great gray-to-gray response time of 2 ms, so ghosting should not be an issue and the contrast ratio is an excellent 1600:1 with a brightness of 300cd/m2. The native resolution of the display is 1280x1024 and it can display 16.2 million colors. Both DVI and analog and inputs are available.
The LG L1970HR 19" LCD Display has decent viewing angles of 160° vertical and horizontal, and the pixel pitch is 0.294 mm x 0.294 mm. The stand of the LG L1970HR 19" LCD Display leaves quite a bit to be desired. The stand offers no adjustment other than for the up-and-down tilt. There is no height adjustment or adjustment for lateral movement, nor is their adjustment to allow for portrait viewing of the display. While most of us can live without portrait viewing option, it is hard to live without a height adjustable stand. I've said it before, the stand is where most LCD displays fall short, and the LG is no exception.
While the LG stand is not the most adjustable stand on the market is notable in the fact that the DVI and analog ports are built into the stand rather than built into the monitor. This is the first time I've seen this approach taken and it's pretty nice because it allows the bulk of the cables to go down the back your desk so you don't even see them in most instances. Another unique feature of the stand is the fact that it folds flat against the back of the display for storage or transportation, making this a 19 inch LG display an excellent option for LAN partygoers.
LG L1970HR 19" LCD Display in Use
While I'm used to using a wide aspect ratio, larger screen displays I enjoyed using the 19 inch LG display. During my testing of the display, I played games on it, watch movies on it as well and is ran some tests on it with DisplayMate software. The first round of testing was the PC games testing. I chose my normal testing games, including FEAR, Quake 4, as well as playing Oblivion. In all my game testing I never noticed any ghosting, smearing or tearing of the image displayed on screen. Image quality was also good, while not as good as my reference Eizo CE240W display.
For the movie watching portion of my testing I chose the movie Underworld Evolution. Much like the gaming portion of testing I noticed no artifacting or problems with movie playback on this display. The display is noticeably less bright than my reference Eizo monitor, but you expect that with a monitor of the quality of the Eizo is being compared to monitor the sells in the price range of the LG.
The last series of tests I performed on the LG monitor, involved the use of DisplayMate. Using DisplayMate I ran the built-in LCD testing script. The display had no problem aligning vertical and horizontal lines correctly and colors displayed were crisp. Not one single dead pixel was found on the display. However, I did notice of the display was noticeably brighter in the corners as opposed to the middle of the screen.
Final Thoughts on the LG L1970HR 19" LCD Display
At the end of the day I was pretty impressed with the LG display, though I was quite disappointed with the quality of the stand. You can pick up the display of online, starting at $379.99. While that price isn't too bad there are a lot of different options in the price range that you can choose from as well. ViewSonic has several monitors that sell in this price range, and while they're not necessarily a better option for you they are options nonetheless. LAN partygoers, you should seriously consider this LG display because the folding stand will make transporting this display to and from the LAN party very easy.
