First unveiled back in September at IFA 2010, the LG Flatron IPS226V is one of the first monitors to combine an IPS display with LED backlighting.
That pairing should allow it to boast wide viewing angles and reduced energy consumption, but the icing on the cake is that the new monitor is said to have an excellent contrast ratio, unlike other IPS monitors (rare exceptions like the Dell U2211H aside), which don't have a good reputation in this field.
This is one of the monitor's real weaknesses: it might well be nice to look at, but it's hardly a model of excellent usability. Although all the basics are there, including VGA, DVI and HDMI inputs as well as a headphone output, the stand only allows you to tilt the panel back a few degrees. There's no way to adjust the height of the display and, like that, it's not worth more than two stars.
Straight out of the box, we couldn't spot any obvious problems with the IPS226V's colour reproduction. But when we began our tests, we noticed that it wasn't quite perfect. The colour temperature is a little too high, giving a slight blue tinge to the picture. The deltaE climbs beyond the threshold of 3.0, below which we categorise the colours as accurate.
deltaE before and after calibration
If you'd like to make it any better, you can download a calibration profile to bring the deltaE down to 1.5.
Great news for gamers: the IPS226V is fast enough to keep them happy. Despite being advertised as a 6 ms display, it's actually almost as responsive as a screen with a 2 ms TN panel. The fast movements that are so common in FPS games like Doom, Unreal and Call of Duty look perfectly fluid.
There are no problems with input lag either. It's definitely there, but it's so insignificant that your feeble human eyes won't be able to spot it. It won't have any impact on your next round of multi-player gaming.
That pairing should allow it to boast wide viewing angles and reduced energy consumption, but the icing on the cake is that the new monitor is said to have an excellent contrast ratio, unlike other IPS monitors (rare exceptions like the Dell U2211H aside), which don't have a good reputation in this field.
Hardware: lots of room for improvement
This is one of the monitor's real weaknesses: it might well be nice to look at, but it's hardly a model of excellent usability. Although all the basics are there, including VGA, DVI and HDMI inputs as well as a headphone output, the stand only allows you to tilt the panel back a few degrees. There's no way to adjust the height of the display and, like that, it's not worth more than two stars.
Colours: a quick stop in the menu
Straight out of the box, we couldn't spot any obvious problems with the IPS226V's colour reproduction. But when we began our tests, we noticed that it wasn't quite perfect. The colour temperature is a little too high, giving a slight blue tinge to the picture. The deltaE climbs beyond the threshold of 3.0, below which we categorise the colours as accurate.deltaE before and after calibration
To fix the problem, we had to switch to 'manual settings'. We set green to 41 and blue to 41, which brought the deltaE down to 2.7. That might not quite be good enough for professional photographers or designers, but the colours are accurate enough for everybody else.
If you'd like to make it any better, you can download a calibration profile to bring the deltaE down to 1.5.
Responsiveness: fluid movements
Great news for gamers: the IPS226V is fast enough to keep them happy. Despite being advertised as a 6 ms display, it's actually almost as responsive as a screen with a 2 ms TN panel. The fast movements that are so common in FPS games like Doom, Unreal and Call of Duty look perfectly fluid.| Responsiveness | ||
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This graph illustrates the monitor's ghosting time.
The shorter the time, the faster the monitor.
The shorter the time, the faster the monitor.
There are no problems with input lag either. It's definitely there, but it's so insignificant that your feeble human eyes won't be able to spot it. It won't have any impact on your next round of multi-player gaming.
Pros
- Wide viewing angles
- Accurate colours after calibration
- High contrast ratio (especially for an IPS display)
- Low energy consumption for an IPS display
Cons
- Design could be more user-friendly
- Other IPS displays have wider viewing angles
Conclusion
The IPS226V definitely deserves its five star rating, and with a combination of accurate colours, wide viewing angels, great response times and a good contrast ratio, it puts in an almost flawless performance. Still, both the Dell U2211H and U2311H offer the same but with a more user-friendly design.
OUR SCORE
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