Just when we thought the desktop monitor market couldn't get any more staid, LG comes along and spices it up a little bit. The new W53 SMART Monitors series includes a few "smart" additions like ambient light detection for Auto Brightness adjustment (like some laptops have), a Cinema Mode for blacking out the rest of the screen when video is playing, a timer to remind you to take breaks (like right now, for instance... you feel yourself getting very sleepy...) and a proximity sensor to activate the monitor controls when your hand approaches the display, and hide them when you're not tweaking anything. Sizes range from 18.5- to 27-inches, and the models 21.5-inch and up do 1920 x 1080p Full HD at 16:9. The displays also offer contrast ratios up to 50,000:1, and 2ms response times. The lineup should hit worldwide this month.
[Via
Engadget Spanish]
posted Apr 6th 2009 9:44AM
Ouch, something tells me that these will cost more than my apartment
So basically, LG will pack their monitor with many useless features, plus some annoying ones (like that proximity sensor which every time an user want to adjust height or tilt of the monitor activate the monitor set up). I like the 50 000:1 contrast ratio though.
I want my display to display stuff... and optionally look nice. A timer to remind me to take breaks? cmon.
This seems, IMHO, to be adding features for the sake of adding features rather than meeting unfilled requirements.
Agreed. Just give me some sort of non-TN panel (I love IPS) and I'd be more than happy without any of this extra crap.
It should be a capital offence to make or buy a 1920x1080 computer monitor. 16:9 is great for television but simply doesn't provide enough height for computer use where most of the information is presented in vertically. Look at engadget; like most sites it only uses a small portion of the screen horizontally but scrolls down vertically for tends of thousands of pixels. Cutting down the vertical resolution is the last thing we need. Monitor manufacturers are screwing us by sacrificing performance in order to increase their margins.
23" is $250-280 CDN and the 24" is about $350-$380 CDN.
I actually bought the 23" 2 weeks ago at Future Shop, nice monitor. The 16:9 23" is actually slightly wider than a 16:10 24".
On the note about the 16:9 vs 16:10 I do agree about the space issue, but with the HDMI inputs and such and frequent lack of a 1:1 mode to keep 1080p content from HDMI sources from stretching to 16:10 I think the new 16:9 format will keep more people happy.
Many of the manufacturers are realeasing 16:9 PC displays now (Samsung, etc...)
So I raise my hand to the screen to point someting out to a colleague, and some config menu pops up?
That's hardly going to be annoying at all...
No, I think it'll make the controls glow red on the front of the display, a la Dell XPS One.
Actually, I think what it means is that when you get your hand close to the controls, these light up so you press them, no config menus or anything in the way of the screen (unless you do touch them)
Kinda look likes the bevel on Samsung's TOC series but less sleek.
Just when you thought monitor prices were going to settle at a nice LOW point, along comes LG to bring in features that "everybody is going to want. Really!" And now every major manufacturer is going to pack in all the weird features that they can dream up, giving excuses for random price hikes under the guise of adding value. Thanks, LG.
If it is not LED backlite i am not interested.
Looks like a pricey one?
Actually they're pretty reasonably priced.
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10119042&catid=
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10119037&catid=
The 23" was only $249 CDN last week and the 24" was on sale for $319 CDN.
Also - on the comments about the proximity sensor... Basically the controls are all touch, and there's a light for each "button".... Those lights are dim unless your hands come near them, and you have to be near the actual buttons as well, not just the display. You still need to touch the actual unit to bring up anything onscreen, so you won't be getting a brightness adjustment on the screen just by waving your hands around.
I can take a video and post to show this if it makes it more clear as well.
Finally a desktop monitor with an ambient light sensor! I have been waiting for years. I hope this becomes the new trend. Don't really care about the other "smart" features though.
Yeah I agree with the not having LED thing. They can add all these features that aren't exactly necessary, but no LED?! They might as well!
I wonder how my boss will feel about my monitor telling me to take a break.
i am not liking this 16:9 trend for computing. 16:10 is more than wide enough.
I think the 16:9 trend is smart, they can then mass produce the same LCD panels used for small TVs and monitors which lowers the cost for us.
i see what you're saying but IMO it's not worth it. the most common computing tasks are vertically-oriented, such as web browsing and document editing.
Dear LG
We power users want 8bit panels, LED back lights, 16:10 panels, and integrated web cams(with win7 x64 drivers). Remeber we promote your products to our families and customers. If you think advertising your product yourself helps, well it doesnt. Most non tech people ignore advertisements for tech products, and google displays ads based on where someone browses so it is only tech people who see your online ads.
Great, now I need to decide between this or the Samsung TOC series. Any suggestions?
this looks sick
ooo i like this, give me the 27 inch but i grown to love my 16:10 screen
I got one of these recently - they are cheap here in Japan,, 20,000 yen for 24" , strange but the 21.5" also was 20,000?
Really clear, really smart
I just bought the 23" W53 for my mac. I don't think I like it!
Right away I'm seeing some ghosting of the icons on my desktop. Then when I open an image in Photoshop I notice the image appears lighter toward the bottom of the screen and darker toward the top. Then when I try to access some of the settings like "AUTOSET", etc., a message appears on the screen say "OSD LOCKED". What does that mean?