Iiyama Prolite T2452MTS review

With Windows 8 inspiring a whole new generation of touchscreen laptops and PCs, touchscreen monitors are becoming increasingly more popular, and the 23.6in Prolite T2452MTS is one of Iiyama’s latest multi-touch models.

We tested the screen’s two-point touch feature with both Windows 7 and Windows 8. You’ll have to calibrate it under the Tablet PC settings in the Control Panel to set it up for Windows 8, but we had no problem using it with either OS.

Our Windows 8 experience wasn’t as smooth as we’d hoped, though, as the thick bezel makes it awkward to use certain shortcuts, such as swiping in from the side of the screen to bring up the Charms bar. We had to dig our finger right into the edge of the screen to stand the best chance of executing the manoeuvre correctly, but this became easier with practice. Otherwise we found the screen very responsive and easy to use, particularly when using the touch-friendly apps from the Windows 8 Store. The monitor also comes with a stylus that slots into the bezel to help with accurate pointing and to keep the screen clean from fingerprints.

Around the back, the monitor has VGA, DVI and two HDMI inputs, along with a 3.5mm audio line in, a headphone jack and a USB port, which controls the touchscreen. The panel can also tilt backwards up to 37 degrees, which is useful as the screen’s vertical viewing angles are quite narrow.

The panel’s glossy finish makes it quite reflective, but on the whole it diffuses any glare much better than other glossy displays we’ve tested, so we weren’t too bothered by reflections from overhead light sources. Its glossy finish also helps colours appear that much brighter and vivid, and this bore out in our subjective image tests. Solid reds, blues and greens were saturated and evenly distributed, but whites had a slightly milky tone. We measured the screen’s black levels at a high 1.10cd/m², and we noticed a slight yellow tinge, particularly toward the bottom of the screen. We also recorded a particularly low contrast ratio of 210:1 with our colour calibrator, and this showed in our high contrast pictures, where colours lacked punch.

We saw mixed results in our colour calibration tests, too. We were slightly concerned by our colour calibrator’s initial reading of 94.5% of the sRGB colour gamut, which is reasonable if not brilliant. Luckily, we managed to increase this figure to a much more impressive 98.2% after calibration.

Its thick bezel means the T2452MTS isn’t ideal for certain touch gestures, but otherwise it helps you get the most out of Windows 8. It also has decent overall image quality and is fair value, so if you’re after a touchscreen it’s a good buy.