Asus PW191 Widescreen LCD Monitor
Subjective Analysis
To assess the Asus PW191's performance, we also performed a couple of subjective tests during DVD playback, gaming, and general everyday use. We set the panel to Theater mode for movie playback, Game mode while gaming, and Standard mode during general use.
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DVD Playback: With the Asus PW191 connected to a GeForce 7800 GT using the latest Forceware v91.37 drivers and Intervideo's WinDVD Platinum 7, we watched King Kong to see how the monitor performed with fast motion and vibrant colors on screen. The PW191's horizontal / vertical viewing angles of 150 / 130 degrees meant that we didn't have to view the monitor head-on to enjoy the picture, and the glare-type covering definitely seemed to enhance the vibrance and contrast. We did have to adjust the panel to compensate for slightly pink flesh tones, however. Once the adjustment was made though, we made it through the rest of the movie without issue.
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Gaming Test: To see how the Asus PW191 handled some fast-paced gaming, we fired up Quake 4 and burned through a few levels (our job can be tough sometimes). This game's dark environment and rapid action make it particularly taxing on an LCD, but the PW191's 8ms pixel response time proved to be fast enough for FPS gaming. While playing Quake 4, we're pleased to report that we did not see any noticeable ghosting, and colors were vibrant and pleasing to the eye. During particularly dark scenes, the reflections caused by the glare-type display would be occasionally distracting, but it wasn't a major issue. Also note that this panel's widescreen 1440x900 resolution is "low enough" that virtually any mid-range video card should have no trouble gaming at the native resolution with acceptable frame rates.
General Usage: During a few weeks of general use, browsing, editing text, etc., the Asus PW191 performed very well. Once adjusted to our desired brightness and contrast levels, we found the PW191 to be easy on the eyes and thought its resolution provided ample work area for most tasks. We wished we had a bit more real-estate while editing high resolution images in Photoshop, but that's what more expensive, larger LCDs are for. We also experimented with lower, non-native resolutions and found that the PW191 still produced relatively sharp images (it's always best to run an LCD at its native resolution). We also disabled our screen-saver and left some open windows on-screen for extended periods of time and found no image persistence to speak of.
