There are a lot of 22 inch displays, however there are currently only three with a response time of 2 ms: the Asus (glossy panel with imperfect colors), the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW (at the heart of a current polemic involving the different versions) and most recently a new alternative, this LG L226WTQ. The rapid response time is preferable because afterglow is noticeably diminished in all contexts, for example, games, movie sequences, titles, scrolling, etc.

Like with the Samsung display, LG went with the glossy effect for the base and back of the screen. However, surprisingly the borders on the front are a classic gray matte. For this reason, it stands out less than the 226BW as well as HP’s innovative w2207 and ViewSonic’s VX series. The L226WTQ has a sober look somewhere in between a product for home and office. In terms of ergonomics, it’s not better than the 226BW and we find VGA and DVI (with HDCP) connections. However, there is no vertically adjustable foot, pivot mode, or USB hub. There is one consolation in that with functionalities equal to the Samsung screen, the L226WTQ is often found for less.
 
Reactivity: It’s indeed a 2 ms
 
We started with games. Is it as fast as it claims? Yes, and undeniably it’s equivalent to other 2 ms panels. Visually we can tell it’s more reactive than the other 5 ms 22 inch displays that we tested at the same time. However, there was one detail that caught our attention. There is a small overdrive problem (something manufacturers add to accelerate the rotation of liquid crystals). Behind the main image in movement a negative is visible. This is not as noticeable as with the Samsung 226BW C series, but we are surprised and slightly disappointed. We were really hoping to find THE 22 inch without defects. Luckily, in practice it affects only a small number of users and some may barely see this halo around moving objects in games.

What type of panel in the LG L226WTQ ? Answer... LG-Philips.

Color rendering

Here, this was to be the most revealing part of tests, that in which we were to see if the L226WTQ could reasonably dethrone the 226BW. And the answer was, unfortunately, no. The average difference between ideal colors and the ones displayed on the 226BW S series was a dE of around 2.5. With the LG it was as high as 5.3. There was indeed a noticeable blue dominance, which was impossible to manually correct because it wasn’t homogenous. Pure white was slightly rose, grays were blue (higher in neutral grays) and black shades were again pink. LG does offer a profile with its monitor, we did try it, however, it was worse after.  LG also took the time to provide a number of adjustments, one of which we would have really liked, color temperature in Kelvin, but it wasn’t better. The only other solutions were to calibrate the screen or install a profile like the one we offer for downloading. We ran it with several machines in Windows Vista and XP, with ATI and NVIDIA cards and the average difference went down one unit. It then becomes much better, and the difference is obvious. To install the profile, follow the directions.

Compare its performance with the competition’s in the Product Face-off section

 Return to the Introduction