Ideal for the home or office, LG’s silver-and-black Flatron L2000C (£340) can adjust to a multitude of situations with its ability to tilt, swivel and pivot up to 90 degrees. For users who like their space, this true 20-inch unit (4:3 aspect ratio) features a 800:1 contrast ratio, brightness of 300cd/m2, 1600x1200-pixel native resolution, and speedy 8ms response time. It even comes with both analogue RGB and digital DVI-D ports, so caters for both old and new graphics cards, and relatively wide viewing angles of 178 degrees.

Another neat feature of the monitor (446x223x446mm, 9.3kg) is that adjustments are easily accessible on the relatively thin front bezel and the ergonomic design allows for tilt, pivot, swivel, and height adjust functions. The monitor also comes with a full copy of Portrait Display’s Pivot Pro, excellent rotation software.

Pivot Pro software lets you rotate the computer display from landscape to portrait orientation, making documents, e-mail and Web browsing easier to manage. The supports all rotating orientations (portrait 90, presentation 180, portrait 270, and landscape), and supports multiple monitors running Windows 2000, XP, and XP x64 Edition.

It allows you to dynamically switch from portrait to landscape and back, and dynamically resize windows and applications. The software is resolution independent, supports the highest resolution of graphics cards, and automatically adapts to the language version of your operating system (English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Korean, and Chinese).

The monitor is powered by LG’s proprietary f-ENGINE technology, a chip that enhances LCD monitor picture quality. The electronics giant also uses DAFI (Digital Adaptive Fine Image) technology in the Flatron f-Engine, which does not affect colour, but enhances brightness and contrast.

The DAFI technology includes a RCM (Real Color Management) function to express vivid natural colours, an ACE (Adaptive Colour and Contrast Enhancement) function to enhance brightness and contrast, and enables dynamic mobile imaging. The technology is ideal for mobile imaging in TV, film, mobile games, and animation.

Other user controls allow you to alter brightness and contrast levels, colour levels (9300K, 6500K, User colour (R/G/B), Gamma), horizontal and vertical position, zoom levels, OSD transparency, as well as clock and phase. You can also alter the position of the on-screen menu, as well as select from a range of on-screen menu languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean) and lock the menu. Front panel controls include Power, Auto Adjust, Source, Menu, Left/Right/Up/Down, and Select.

The modest-looking Flatron L2000C handles common text chores very well. It also brings games and movies to life with its rich colours and detailed graphics. All type sizes looked clear and legible in our test, and it more than excelled at the challenging task of making grey reverse text stand out against black - an undertaking that trips up many monitors.

For someone who works mostly in e-mail and word processing, the Flatron L2000C is a waste - its big, bright screen craves full-screen graphics, movies and games. The only downside is that colours looked a little overexposed in the normal mode (the default f-Engine screen mode), and graphics seemed more accurately rendered in the movie mode. You can, however, tweak the screen by selecting the user mode.

The thin silver bezel also helps to keep distractions at a minimum, and cable clips at the rear of the stand help to keep cords out of the way. Concentric circles add a dash of visual interest to the round stand, which sits atop a lazy-Susan swivel mechanism, but those looking for a cutting-edge design will be left wanting. [8]

[Best LCD Monitor Pricing UK]
[Best LCD Monitor Pricing US]

Got this product? Got a camcorder/mic? Let us post YOUR video/podcast review!

Christian Harris, 03.03.06