This monitor from HannsG represents a very strong challenge to some of its competitors. 

The HH251HP is a 25'' screen with a 1920 x 1080 pixel 2 ms TN panel inside and two HDMI ports on the outside for the price of a basic 22'' monitor with a 5 ms TN panel.  Given that it's on sale for less than £200, you might think that it would only have a rather minimal set of features … but you'd be wrong!

Handling: Two HDMI ports but a basic stand

The hardware features include 2 x 1.5 W built-in speakers, a VGA port and two HDMI inputs.  That means you can connect several sources to the monitor at once, such as a computer, a games console and a DVD player.  If your computer only has a DVI output, there's no need to panic, as HannsG includes a HDMI to DVI adaptor.  The outside of the monitor is pretty basic but looks attractive enough.  As is often the case, it includes glossy black plastic at the front and a matte finish behind.  Only the stand serves to remind us that this is a cheaper screen, because it neither rotates nor turns from side to side.  That's why it only scores two stars in this section.

This is the first HannsG monitor that we've tested, so some of you might be wondering who's behind this company.  Well, its name comes from the Taiwanese manufacturer HannStar, which, despite being relatively unknown, has grown since 1998 to become the world's fifth-largest supplier of LCD panels for computer monitors.

Colours: Incredibly accurate

Default Colours

Ideal Colours

Using its default settings, the colours on the HH251HP are accurate, and our measurement showed that the monitor had a deltaE score of 2.5.  That's a very good result, but you can improve it even further.  You need to access the 'Colour' menu and change from 'Natural' to 'Warm', which causes the colours to reach a deltaE of 2.1.

If colours are this monitors's strong point, then having deep blacks is definitely it weakness.  A good screen should get down to 0.1 cd/m², producing a contrast ratio of 1500:1.  Here, the HH251HP is a little behind the average with blacks at 0.3 cd/m² creating a contrast ratio of 711:1.  Black areas appear a slightly lighter shade of grey, as you can see in the test card above.

Responsiveness: A standard 2 ms screen--apart from one little detail

Coloured    Transparent
Average ghosting over ten frames

The HH251HP is a responsive screen that produces the 2 ms response time that HannsG claims for it.  However, the most observant viewers might notice a very small amount of black ghosting, as you can see on the photo below.  This reverse ghosting, a shadow effect, is not as pronounced as on some Philips and Iiyama monitors that we've recently criticised for this problem.


As well as being responsive, the HH251HP has a low enough input lag to allow you to game without any problems.  With an average delay of less than one frame, this monitor won't have any effect on your multiplayer performance.