Iiyama ProLite E2208HDD review

While Iiyama’s monitors have never struck us as being particularly attractive, the Full HD E2208HDD is unashamedly plain, with a cheap and chunky matt-black plastic stand and a glossy black bezel. Considering the price, then, we were surprised to find that the DVI port supports HDCP you can simply plug in a Blu-ray drive or other HDMI device.

Having a DVI port means you don’t have to worry about tuning in the clock and phase of an analogue signal. Iiyama hasn’t bothered to include any internal speakers, which is no big loss considering the poor quality of most monitor speakers. It has included a little fold-out loop on the back of the stand for tucking cables out of the way, which is a nice touch.

With a CCFL backlight, the E2208HDD can’t match the brightness or contrast levels of the new LED models and it draws more power too, but we found the backlight to be even and brighter than other CCFL-backlit monitors here. At its default settings we found a slight yellow cast to the image, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it adds warmth to any image.

The menu system far more basic than on more expensive Iiyama monitors, but it’s functional and gives you adequate control. As well as basic brightness and contrast, you get three colour temperature presets plus a user-definable option to control individual RGB levels. There are also controls for “ACR” (dynamic contrast) and sharpness. The latter seems to have no effect on the image, and the former resulted in sudden shifts in brightness, so we left it disabled.

There are also some basic presets that let you quickly change settings based on what you’re using the monitor for. For example, a Work setting reduces the backlight to make reading text easier, while a Movie preset boost contrast and colours.

Although it can’t match the contrast of more expensive monitors, the E2208HDD’s basic image quality was fine, and its controls are simple to use and offer fine control. In our movie tests, the slight yellow cast added warmth to most scenes, accentuating sunlight and flesh tones. With better image quality and superior controls, the E2208HDD is a better buy than other similarly-priced monitors, so it wins our Budget Buy award.