Medion Akoya P57005 (MD 20147)

The Medion AKOYA P57005 monitor, also known as the MD 20147, first caught our attention when we saw it on sale online for a great price.  Does the combination of a 27'', 1920 x 1080 pixel display with HDMI, DVI and VGA inputs and a low response time with a very friendly price tag make it good value for money?

Hardware: VGA, DVI, HDMI and some speakers

Medion has gone back to basics with this monitor.  Without any accessories, all it has to earn some extra points in this section are its VGA, DVI and HDMI inputs and a pair of speakers.  That's not worth more than two stars.

Colours: exceptional results!

The excellent colour reproduction more than makes up for the lack of customisation.  Even with its factory settings, the AKOYA P57005 has perfectly accurate colours, with a deltaE score, the average discrepancy between the ideal colours and those shown on screen, of just 1.9.  When this value falls below 3.0, any remaining difference is invisible to the naked eye.  It's incredibly rare for us to find a monitor this good without having to tweak the settings ourselves first.


The contrast ratio, on the other hand, was less impressive than we might have hoped.  At no higher than 660:1, it's a long way from the average of 850:1, which would have helped it gain an extra star.

Gaming: not really 2 ms

Responsiveness
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The tech spec that accompanies the AKOYA P57005 boasts a 2 ms response time, but it fell a long way short of that during its trip to our lab.  Our tests showed a ghosting time of around 18 ms, which puts it closer to a typical 5 ms TN monitor.  That means we can't really recommend it for avid gamers, because fast-moving objects will end up looking blurry.  In an FPS game, where objects are flying all over the place, it soon becomes annoying.  That leaves us to think this monitor is much better suited for use in your office.

It's a shame that the AKOYA P57005 can't keep the promises made in its documentation, because with just 16 ms of input lag, it could have been great for gaming if it had been just a little more responsive.