Eizo S2110W review

One of the most popular sizes for widescreen LCD displays is 20in, offering a useful native resolution of 1,680x1,050 pixels. Such monitor stalwarts as Acer, Belinea, BenQ, LG, Philips and ViewSonic all offer competing models of this size for around £250. Eizo gives you an extra inch on the diagonal - although with the same native resolution - at the hugely higher price of £750.

We have to say that the extra inch boasted by the Eizo doesn't make for much more comfortable viewing, in terms of reading text or checking the small print on websites. The Eizo is wasted for general workaday word processing, spreadsheets and web pages too, because outright image quality is its big advantage. This makes the S2110W suited to photo and video editing, graphic design and illustration work.

Considering its price tag, the finish of the white/silver model looks cheap and nasty, although the monitor looks much more professional in the black edition. The stand features a cunning ArcSwing design for easy adjustment of height and tilt. Around the back, there are two DVI inputs, so you can feed the display from two digital video sources and easily switch between them.

Getting back to the picture quality, colour reproduction is based on a 14-bit graphics processor and 10-bit LUT (Look-Up Table), which is more precise than the usual 8-bit LUT. There are also individual controls for gamma and colour saturation, as well as the more usual brightness, contrast, colour temperature and so on.

All of this, in conjunction with uncommonly high maximum contrast and brightness levels on tap, of 1,000:1 and 450cd/m2 respectively, give setup scope for superb definition in highlights, midtones and lowlights of images. Similarly, while the Eizo's total response time of 16ms isn't all that quick, its real-world performance makes for very smooth and fluid moving pictures.

The S2110W won't win any fashion awards and, for merely general purpose use, it's too expensive to consider. However, if outright image quality is your main buying criterion for photo editing or high-end graphics work, the Eizo is worth every penny. Matthew Richards