NEC PA271W Professional LCD Monitor Review
Design
You can remove the stand altogether if you prefer to mount the monitor elsewhere, such as a flexible arm. All you have to do is lay the panel flat (on a non-abrasive surface), press and hold the Quick Release Lever, and pop the stand off of the display. NEC includes four screws specifically for this purpose.
If this is your first rodeo with a pivoting monitor, bear in mind that most displays don't automatically adjust the on-screen picture from landscape to portrait and vice versa. You'll find these controls in your Display Settings, which you can access by right-clicking an empty space on your Desktop, selecting Properties, and navigating your way to the appropriate menu. And whether you're rocking an Nvidia or ATI video card, you'll find options to setup a hotkey combination for this process.
In addition to its ability to pivot, the PA271W also supports tilt and swivel functions. You can adjust the tilt up to 30 degrees, which is more than enough to show your boss what you've been working on as he looms over your shoulder. The monitor swivels about the same distance, though we wish it went even further than it does.
For those of you who plan to run a multi-monitor setup, the PA271W's bezel measures about 11/16th of an inch. That's slimmer than HP's ZR30w we recently reviewed, though both displays share a bulky backside. At nearly 3.5 inches at its thickest point, the PA271W's panel packs some junk in the trunk (note that we're referring to just the panel alone, which doesn't include the stand). The upshot is that NEC was able to cram a boatload of features into its panel, the KVM switch being particularly noteworthy.
NEC didn't include any integrated speakers, which usually end up sounding tinny on most monitors anyway.