TechRadar Verdict
The biggest screen you can get for the money. Screen whores take note
Pros
- +
Lots of lovely desktop
- +
Sharp images
Cons
- -
Poor black/white gradient
- -
Poor colour saturation at angles
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The Hanns.G HH251HP panel we're reviewing here punches below the standard price-point for 24inch monitors and gives you another inch of displaying goodness into the bargain.
Screen real estate is always a bonus and, with the HH251HP displaying at a native resolution of 1920x1080, you've got a whole load there for your computing pleasure.
This widescreen nature means that in productivity, gaming and movie-watching, you're going to be benefiting across the board. Indeed, there's no other PC component/peripheral that you're going to get as much satisfaction out of, on such a regular basis, as with a decent monitor.
In hitting that price-point, however, there surely has to be a catch, doesn't there? Well, if you're a designer after a beautiful panel with perfect colour saturation and ideal white/black balancing, then this isn't going to be the panel for you.
But then, you already knew that didn't you? You knew you were going to have to be selling a kidney for a lovely PVA panel, after all. But if you're an average Joseph with a penchant for large desktops, then the Hanns.G is worth a punt.
Obviously this TN panel has its flaws, though; the touted Hanns.G exclusive X-Contrast technology does nothing good for the screen's contrast. I had to set the standard setting to full with our test images to be able to distinguish the darker greys from the blacks and, with the X-Contrast tech turned on, the screen went so dark I could hardly make out the lightest colours.
There's a certain amount of pollution in the white/black gradients too, and the colour saturation isn't too hot at even fairly standard viewing angles. That said, the Hanns.G offers a lot of monitor for not very much money. There are comparable screens out there for the price, but none at this particular size.
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If you want to make a move above the 24-inch screen-size then you're looking at spending closer to the £300 mark. We did find a few smaller 23-inch Samsung screens with the ludicrous 2,048x1,152 resolution and a 1080p Asus, but despite the undoubted quality of Sammy's panels, I'd still go for the Hanns.G for the size alone. My poor ol' eyes might just burst with a higher res on a smaller screen…
The HH251HP is well appointed too; the sleek, glossy black surround is non-intrusive and it also comes with a decent array of inputs. The speakers, typically, are fairly wimpy and the stand is simple plastic fare, but those are places I really don't mind expense being spared.
The twin HDMI ports and lack of DVI had me briefly baffled, but the enclosed HDMI to DVI cable quickly made sense of that and offers multiple connectivity right from the off – something that few equivalently priced panels do.
And therein lies the rub, this Hanns.G offers something few others do – and that's reason enough for me to heartily recommend it.
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