LG Flatron E2381V

It's clear that LG isn't planning to slow down its monitor production any time soon.  As well as adding new models, it's abandoning the old boxy shapes that used to predominate amongst its entry-level monitors in favour of slimmer, more stylish frames.  The new LG E2381V monitor is one such example: its 23'' display is just 11.9 mm thick.

Hardware: you can plug it in ...

The hardware offering is far from exemplary.  Once you've counted up the VGA, DVI and HDMI ports and the headphone jack, there's not much else to say.  Bizarrely, when you tilt the display back just a few degrees, a component seems to push against the back of the panel, and its outline is highlighted by a lighter zone on screen, a bit like when you press an LCD screen with your finger.  As a result, we suggest you're very careful when handling the E2381V.  The same is true of the menu: touch-sensitive controls are a good idea in theory, but the glossy finish means anybody can see you've been using them because of the greasy fingerprints you'll leave behind.


It's also worth pointing out that all of the connectors are down in the base and that there's a separate power block: that's how LG managed to get the frame down to under 12 mm.

Colours: not much room for manoeuvre

Using the default settings, the E2381V doesn't do a good enough job of reproducing colours.  They have a strong blue tinge and luminance is unevenly distributed across different shades of grey.  In situations like this, we can usually tweak a few settings to improve things.  Unfortunately, though, there aren't many options available in the menu.  We couldn't do much to solve the extra blue because the default setting already had red at maximum.  We couldn't adjust the colours themselves, or the gamma either, so the E2381V left our lab exactly as it arrived: with a deltaE of 4.1.  This score should be below 3.0 for a monitor to be capable of reproducing colours accurately.

The contrast isn't too bad.  We measured a contrast ratio of 951:1, above the average of 850:1 that we've found across all our monitor reviews.  That makes the fact you can't do anything about the colours—apart from trying a calibration profile—even more frustrating.

Responsiveness: gamers need not apply

Responsiveness
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LG's claimed response time for this monitor is 5 ms, so we were never really hoping it would be one of the fastest screens out there.  Our test results confirmed our intuitions: the E2381V certainly isn't a responsive monitor.  In practice, that means that fast-moving objects look blurred, an effect that's most often visible in FPS games.  This limits the E2381V to basic office tasks or graphics work, as long as you aren't too put off by the narrow viewing angles imposed by the TN panel.

On the other hand, the input lag is below 17 ms, meaning it won't hold you back if you do decide to use it for online multiplayer games despite the lack of responsiveness.