Acer S231HL bid 23-Inch Widescreen Ultra-Slim LED Display – Black

By 

Vynny “Vynrod” (USA) –

  

My 28″ watch took a dump overnight and so I needed something cheap and usable pronto until I get the chance to replace the capacitors on my better screen.

I opted for the Acer 231HL due to the ultra slim design and obviously the low cost. First thing to note is even with this being touted as a 23″ watch it’s tiny. Now I don’t just mean thin (which it really is) but the screen itself just seems so wee. I grasp that I’m used to seeing a 28″ screen but would ~4″ make such a stark difference? Maybe, and of course if you’re coming from a smaller watch then you’ll instead probably be amazed at how much larger this is… it’s all relative I guess. The much-welcomed restricted bezel around the screen and small base stand does add to the apparent diminutive size. It just seems a tad wider and shorter than it should be – having said that all looks in proportion, not squished or anything indicating that there’s an aspect ratio problem, so it’s psychosomatic I guess. When set to its native resolution of 1920×1080 it looks crystal clear.

The watch itself is advertised as VGA/DVI and HDMI. Now I don’t know what happened but mine does not have a HDMI port. There’s a space where the connector should be and indeed the blue-collar shows it visibly but it’s just not there. Bizarre as I see reviews and specifications discussing HDMI which my watch just does not have. My model number is certainly S231HL – there’s no extra numbers or letters so I guess some iterations were manufactured without HDMI. I feel this is very vital to note, especially if you be going to to use the watch as a TV. You should certainly check this first before you even take out the watch fully. For me it’s no biggy as I’m using the supplied DVI cable so I’m not worried about it. Your mileage and wants may vary. There are also no speakers on this unit which aids in its small size and deepness but may be a deal breaker for you.

The screen itself is brilliant and has fantastic black levels. The 12 million to 1 draw a honor ratio is of course a silly spec since it’s just the dynamic draw a honor ratio and, even with some searching online, I cannot absolutely find anywhere that states the much more useful static draw a honor ratio for this unit. I suspect it’s in the 1000:1 range though. I do note that (probably) thanks to the LED back lighting the black levels are brilliant when compared to a nearby 800:1 static draw a honor watch – so no complaints there. The screen did have a slight greenish hue to it and pure yellow in Photoshop (R:255 G:255 B:0) looked a tad sickly green. So much so that when I turned down the red by 10% it still looked the same. I tried playing with both the nvidia graphic card settings and the watch settings itself and even installed a shareware app called powerstrip which I’ve used in the past to acutely control the watch all to no avail. But, with using the watch for a week it seems to have ‘settled in’ and now looks fine which is frankly a small confusing!

As a fan of unnecessary super bright LEDs I just have to mention the power light. It a thumbnail sized piece of semi-oval perspex that drips down on the right on the watch. Nice touch.

So in summation a fantastic watch at a fantastic price. The initial greeny affect and lack of HDMI on my model loses it a star. But honestly for the price it’s a steal – buy two and have a fantastic multi-watch set up for about the price of just a single competing watch.

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I bought mine 7 months ago, and it was a fantastic value at $180. Nearly a five star product, but some minor issues. When I opened the box, I was shocked to find an HDMI, DVI, and VGA cable waiting inside. I figured most companies would make you buy the HDMI and DVI separately, so that was a nice surprise. This is excellent for the person that doesn’t know to tell the Best Buy salesman to piss off when he tries to sell them a Monster HDMI cable for $80. I’m buying another one of these monitors, so that should tell you something.

PROS:
-Brilliant picture quality for the price range
-Very small and lightweight, but solid structure (read below about the stand – the exception)
-Sleek, attractive, minimalist design
-Comes with HDMI, DVI, and VGA cords
-No problems interfacing with laptop and desktop computers
-No dead pixels

CONS:
-Less than perfect buttons and user boundary
-Can’t disable the power button’s light
-No extra features like speakers or USB Hub (but I knew that getting into the deal, so I didn’t take off any points)

Interfacing:
When I first plugged it into my laptop, there were no problems recognizing it or getting it to show in full resolution. I wasn’t too pleased with the default coloring (it seemed rather cold to me) so I played with it for a bit, and it looks fantastic now.

User Boundary and Buttons:
I was stuck at 4.5 stars, and this is the part that made me go with four stars instead of five. The user boundary is pretty terrible. The buttons aren’t labeled because they are multi-function. When you press any of them, the menu appears on screen and assigns each button an action. You get to choose between a user mode and four others (Eco, Standard, Graphics, and Movies). The customization gives you enough freedom, but physically working with it is just clunky. The buttons would have been a lot simpler to use on the side, rather than on the bottom. I would have also liked dedicated Enter and Back/Cancel buttons for the menu. The other problem with the boundary is the Power button. It has two LEDs inside – one blue, one orange-yellow. The blue one displays whenever it is turned on and is receiving an image from the notebook. When the notebook goes to sleep, the button switches to yellow. This is all fine and dandy, but I haven’t figured out a way to disable the LEDs. This is kind of annoying because I like my room to be extremely dark at night, and the lights are rather bright. If I find out how to disable these, I’ll come back and change the review to five stars.

Picture Quality:
The watch uses a matte screen, rather than a glossy one. I much prefer this. If you don’t know the difference, look it up – matte basically sacrifices a bit of draw a honor to reduce glare. I use my watch to watch full HD movies, play games on PS3, and do standard notebook work/games. All of it looks even better than on my HDTV (but that’s not hard because it’s a budget Vizio). I can’t say much about hardcore gaming because I’m only a casual gamer. As for video quality, it’s a huge step up from my laptop’s watch, but you have to keep in mind that this is a super cheap LED watch. Don’t guess it to match your groundbreaking new $3,000 TV for picture quality. For the price, though, I was absolutely thrilled at all aspects of the picture quality. If you check out the specs on it, you won’t be very impressed by anything, so I suggest you take a look at it in person if you can. Always trust your own eyes for picture quality, because going by manufacturer specifications alone can be misleading sometimes. Go to a store for viewing before you buy online, and I reckon you’ll like what you see.

Design and Build Quality:
It is super thin and lightweight, and the frame around the edges is pretty thin, which is nice. That being said, it still feels solid, except for the stand. The stand was a bit of a disappointment, as it’s just a tad wobbly and my watch is (ever so slightly) off level. I’m getting pretty picky here, because you pretty much have to get a level out to notice it. If not, all is solid, sleek, and sexy. Nothing showy, just a nice, simple design.

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I just received this watch today, and wow its huge. I recently built a new notebook for my CAD and Graphics design work so I needed two monitors. I have this one paired up with my ancient 19″ lcd an man what a difference. Its dwarfs my ancient one and Its so bright yet it don’t hurt your eyes. If your like me and make a living from your notebook that is a plus. For in the $200 range this is the best LED watch because it is 23″, has Versa mounts, is very very slim, and has DVI with HDMI and made by a fantastic company. I also use this watch for my xbox 360 slim and its awesome. Thanks to amazon for their fantastic shipping prices, I ordered it yesterday and got it today. I will buy another soon to replace my 19″ lcd.

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