NEC AccuSync AS191WM review

The 19in AS191WM, while lacking many of the features of more expensive models, still has the superb image quality we’ve come to expect from NEC. Colours are vibrant – almost leaping from the screen, and the bright, even backlight was so strong that we found no need to turn the brightness level up to full.

Five clearly-labelled buttons sit under the front of the screen and control the menu, power and input source. The menu system has brightness, contrast and colour temperature settings but doesn’t have any preset image quality settings. There are two Eco brightness settings: Eco1 at 80 per cent and Eco2 at 30 per cent. The former is more than sufficient unless you sit in the brightest of rooms.

There’s a yellow area on the brightness bar that tells you when you’ve exceeded the Eco1 mode. Even at Eco2 mode we had trouble working out whether a laptop screen at full brightness was actually any brighter than the AS191WM. Eco1 mode consumed 17W, while Eco2 mode uses only 12W. If you’re obsessive about saving the planet, there’s even a menu item that tells you how many kilograms of CO2 you’ve saved while using the monitor.

Although image quality is great, the resolution is not as high as you might expect at this price. If you’re into films, its 1,440 x 900 pixels are well short of Full HD (1,920 x 1,080). For those who are just using office applications, browsing the internet and checking email, it’s sufficient; but with 60 per cent less resolution than a Full HD display it will feel comparatively cramped when using more complex applications, such as photo editing packages.

This is understandable for a 19in model, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that you can buy BenQ’s G2220HD for less. It’s a Full HD 22in monitor, although it can’t quite match the AS191WM for image quality and it eats 38W at full brightness. Most people will happier with the bigger monitor, but if you want great image quality and low power usage, the AW191WM is hard to beat.