Westinghouse L2410NM


As the TV and the computer LCD monitor begin to converge into one, companies are figuring out that they can enter a new market segment by simply removing a tuner and calling a television and LCD monitor.  LCD TVs usually have lower resolution and visibly spaced pixels up close, which is not an issue when viewing from afar.  However, for an LCD monitor, this is simply not acceptable.  The solution?  Put in a newer panel which has a higher DPI and you can sell it both as a TV or LCD monitor.  Unfortunately, this does not make a real "TV," due to the lack of a tuner and remote control.  However,  it creates somewhat of a hybrid of the two.  This is exactly the case with Westinghouse, which is probably more well known for home appliances than computer equipment. 

Overview
The Westinghouse L2410NM is quite a unique monitor.  As mentioned before, it is a hybrid of both a TV and LCD monitor due to the numerous connection types that it supports, and the fact that it has a speaker.  However, a more unique aspect of the monitor is its elegant design.  It features a glossy black frame along with a transparent plastic panel at the bottom.  The panel features a Westinghouse logo, which is lit from a LED light right above it.  Generally speaking, it looks quite impressive and not your standard black matte plastic finish LCD monitor that you find in most offices and homes today.

The right side of the monitor holds a push button menu, which is very illogically placed and organized.  However, it is quite easy to get used to after using it for a while.  Further back, we have various connectors on both sides of the monitor supporting both analog and digital connections.  More details about the connectors are found in the following section.

The box is nothing special, but it protects the monitor very well during shipping.  Inside the box, you will find:

Our store bought sample came in perfect conditions, with absolutely no stuck or dead pixels.  However, some users on online forums have said that almost every single one they received had at least a pixel or two not functioning properly.

Connectors


Image Quality
The image produced on this monitor is very crisp and sharp when the source is VGA or HDMI.  The native resolution of 1920x1200 is more than enough, supporting 1080p video and an even larger desktop.  The response time of this monitor is 8 ms, which is quite consistant with most lower priced LCD monitors on the market.  With a contrast ratio of 1000:1, it is quite bright; even too bright in some situations!   There was some very serious image and colour distortion when we initially plugged the screen in via HDMI, where everything was blurry and the colours were just not right.  This was tracked down to a signal produced by the monitor which told the computer that it was a TV and not an LCD monitor.  After editing an inf file before installing the ForceWare drivers for our 8800GT, the issues was mostly resolved.  However, we spent at least an hour using colour profile tuning software and the screen menu to get the right colours to show up.  However, once this was done, we no longer had image quality issues.  On an ATI 780G based system, this issue was not observed.  This points to the problem only occuring with NVidia based cards.

Generally, the colours produced by this monitor are quite vivid and range quite widely through the colour gamut.  However, darker colours had some issues.  The main problems is that Westinghouse sets the brightness to 100%, which is extremely bright for most environments...and causes eye strain quite quickly for most people.  Once the brightness was set to around 30%, eye strain no longer occurred and darker colour quality was significantly improved.  However, this brought about a buzzing noise (which is discussed below).

No backlight bleeding was visible on the screen, and very minor brightness deviations were detected on some parts of the screen.  Keep in mind, it is almost impossible to have exact uniform brightness distribution throughout the whole screen.

Sound Quality
The sound produced by the screen is quite poor, and has sound comparable to that of a built in mono speaker.  However, for voice and older VCR recordings, it is quite decent.  This is definately not a replacement for TV speakers; granted that most people never use the built in TV speakers anyways.

Buzzing
Although LCD monitors are generally dead silent (or quite close to it), some produce a light electrically "humming" or "buzzing" noise when the inverter inside the screen transforms the power to another voltage.  Most screens have a barely audible tone when it comes to this; however, this screen has a very loud buzzing noise when it is first started up and when the brightness is changed.
Generally, unless the screen is close to 100% brightness, it will produced a buzzing noise.  Usually, this noise will go away after 10 minutes at the same brightness level, but sometimes it will not.  A change to standby mode will also produce the noise, and it will stay for a while even in standby mode.  This does not happen all the time, and it seems to depend on specific units and the quality of the components inside.
Whether this is a "serious" issue or not depends on personal opinion.  However, most would agree it is a small to medium annoyance offset by the benefits gained from this screen.

General Quality
The general quality of the monitor is quite good.  Despite the buzzing sound and somewhat undistinguishable menu buttons, it is quite well built.  The stand included with the monitor is a bit flimsy however, but it seems to do its job decently.
Overall, quality is a 7.5 out of 10.

Value
We got this monitor for $400 (CAD/USD).  It can be had for anywhere between $300 to $600 depending on where it is sold.  Keep in mind, you will not find a monitor with this many connectors for less than $500, so anything below that makes it a great deal and bargain.  For the price we bought it for, we give it a 9 out of 10.

Conclusion
This monitor is an outstanding deal if priced below $400.  With all the possible connectors you can imagine, along with a large 24" screen...it is definitely a great deal.  If you can stand the buzzing and the minor issues that it has, then it is a great buy.  If these bugs are extremely annoying, however, then it may not be so great.  Overall, its up to personal taste to see if these bugs annoy a person.

Picture Quality: 8/10
Build Quality: 7.5/10
Value: 9/10 (if below $400)
Overall: 8/10

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