IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel technology has, for the most part, been relegated to the high-end, high-priced monitors used by graphics professionals requiring extreme color and grayscale accuracy and wide viewing angles, while the more cost effective TN+ (twisted nematic) technology has been standard issue for most consumer displays. However, with LG's new IPS236V ($259.99 list), anyone can enjoy the benefits of IPS technology without spending a fortune. This 23-inch LED backlit monitor delivers deep, rich colors and excellent viewing angles, and its grayscale reproduction is quite good also, but hard core gamers may be disappointed with its motion performance.

Design and Features

The IPS236V's 23-inch panel uses LED backlighting, which allows for a relatively thin curved housing that measures approximately one inch at its thickest point. The entire cabinet is done up in a glossy black finish, and the top and side bezels are 0.8-icnhes thick. The bottom bezel is roughly one inch thicker and sports a clear slice of trim along its lower edge and six touch sensitive function buttons and a power switch on its right side. None of the buttons are labeled nor do they need to be; pressing any button brings up an on-screen setup menu that shows what each button does and how each is used for navigating the various screens.

The 7.5 cabinet has a glossy black base and is supported by a translucent amber-colored mounting arm with a built-in tilt mechanism. The stand does not support height, swivel, or pivot adjustments, however. You get one each of the three most popular video inputs (HDMI, DVI, and VGA), all of which are located at the rear of the cabinet. There's also a headphone jack back there for listening to audio piped in via the HDMI cable, but this connection should be mounted on the side or front of the cabinet for easy access. Unfortunately, this model lacks niceties such as a card reader, USB ports, and speakers.

Adjusting the IPS236V's settings is a breeze, thanks to the well organized on-screen menu system. The Main menu offers brightness, contrast, sharpness, and black level settings in the Picture menu and you can adjust color temperature, hue, gamma, and saturation settings in the Color menu. If you're using an analog connection, the Display menu gives you access to phase, clock, and horizontal and vertical positioning, and it has a white balance setting as well. There are five picture presets available in the Mode menu, including User, Movie, Text, Photo, and sRGB, The sRGB mode offers the best combination of brightness, contrast, and color saturation, but if you want your colors to have a bit more pop, the Photo preset is your best bet.

There's a Smart + menu option that offers a couple of handy utilities, including a Dual Web feature which automatically sizes and positions vertically tiled windows when working with multiple applications. The Cinema Mode feature lets you create an area on the desktop that will retain the monitor's current luminance levels while the rest of the screen goes into a low brightness/contrast mode, which according to LG, is supposed to reduce eyestrain while watching video on the Web by fully illuminating only the box (or the drawn area) where the video will played. In order to utilize these utilities you'll have to install LG's Easy Set software, which ships with the monitor, and you must be using a DVI signal, as it does not support HDMI.

Performance

While not as efficient as other LED backlit monitors, the IPS236V is not what you would call a power hog. It averaged around 34-watts during my testing, which is significantly lower than the CCFL-backlit ($399 list, 3 stars) (50-watts) but not nearly as power friendly as the ($299.99 list, 3 stars) (20-watts). LG backs the IPS236V with a three year parts and labor warranty, but backlighting is only covered for one year.

Overall, the IPS236V is a stellar performer. The 1,920-by-1,080 panel is a standard gamut panel (72-percent) but it delivers the deep, rich color quality that you'd expect from a wide gamut model. Swatches from the DisplayMate Color Bars test scaled evenly from dark to light, and skin tones appeared natural and realistic on my tests photos. Grayscale performance was solid as well, although there was a touch of compression at the far ends of the scale. IPS panels are known for their excellent viewing angle characteristics, and the IPS236V is no exception; the screen retained its color fidelity and brightness when viewed from an extreme side angle and from the top. There was minor loss of luminance when viewing from the bottom, but colors remained true. Small text (5.3 points) appeared crisp and well defined on the Scaled Fonts portion of my tests.

Motion performance was good but not great; minor motion blur was noticeable while playing Burnout Paradise on the PS3, which isn't all that surprising given the panel's relatively slow 8-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response. That said, most users won't notice the artifacts unless they are actively looking for them, but hard core gamers may be disappointed. If so, the ($399 list, 3 stars) (2-ms) offers very good motion performance, but it's not an IPS monitor and it has tinting issues.

All in all, the LG IPS236V is a great deal. It offers the rich, robust color quality and wide viewing angles that define IPS panel technology, without the hefty price tag. It comes up short in terms of features, and its motion performance is not quite up to gaming standards, but if you've been putting off buying an IPS monitor due to budget constraints, your wait is over.

COMPARISON TABLE



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