LG IPS235V review

Just looking at the spec list, the LG IPS235V appears to have everything you could want: an IPS panel, with its high viewing angles and incredible colour accuracy, VGA, DVI and HDMI inputs, plus a low price.

Despite costing under £150, the brushed-metal-effect bezel and graceful stand makes this 23in Full HD (1,920×1,080) display look a lot more expensive than it really is. There’s even a 3H hard coating on the screen to protect it from minor knocks and scrapes.

This choice of inputs means you can connect your PC as well as a games console or Blu-ray player at the same time, although without any internal speakers, you’ll have to either route audio through an AV amplifier or use the headphone port on the rear.

It’s image quality that’s going to garner attention, and it’s here that the IPS235V excels. Thanks to the superb viewing angles, you can move practically anywhere while retaining excellent contrast and colour accuracy.

Sitting in front of the display, the IPS235V produces rich and vibrant colours, getting the most out of any format, whether you’re editing photos, watching films or just using the Windows desktop. Thanks to high contrast ratios, the display produces deep inky blacks and bright brilliant whites, bringing out all of the detail in any scene. With its 8ms response time, we found that games were smooth and didn’t suffer from any noticeable problems, such as ghosting.

While the sRGB mode will suit most people, there’s also a user mode, which lets you change the hue and saturation for six individual colour channels: red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow. When used with a colour calibration tool, it lets you adjust the monitor for colour-accurate work.

The menu system is controlled by buttons underneath the edge of the screen, but they aren’t labelled – when you press one, a pop-up appears with options corresponding to each button. Once you’re used to it, the menus are pretty easy to control.

The IPS235V’s excellent image quality and low price make it a bargain. Although there are other budget IPS monitors, this one’s wealth of colour calibration options gives it the edge, and it wins our Best Buy award.