Acer AL1721hm

You could table a dozen reasons for wanting a flat-panel display but perhaps the most convincing is to give you more space on your table.

It's no secret that these screens are significantly more slender than traditional monitors, whose three dimensions are directly proportional to the size of the cathode-ray tube contained within. As this is not a problem that afflicts the technology behind TFT displays, screens can get larger without cases getting deeper.

So it is that the latest flat-panel from Acer, the 17in AL1721hm, is just a touch over 5cm thick.

For your money you'll get a monitor able to display images at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels. If you're looking to upgrade from a 15in monitor, this means you'll have more room to work with application windows and menus, as smaller displays generally only run at resolutions of 1024 x 768 or lower. Moreover, the AL1721hm includes a DVI which, if your computer's graphics card has the ability to make use of it, will guarantee faithful reproduction of colours, brightness and contrast levels.

That said, a traditional VGA connector is also present and in our view, only the most eagle-eyed user would be able to detect the subtle differences between images generated by one or other of the connections. In other words, unless you're a graphics professional, consider DVI a welcome extra rather than a must-have.

We have similar sentiments about the AL1721hm's pair of speakers, which sit either side of the control buttons, underlining the display. They're adequate for relaying Windows' everyday pings and beeps but beyond that, we can't see why you'd want to use them. Of the aforementioned control buttons, there's nothing unusual: a common selection of luminance and position settings allow you to adjust the display's look to suit.

Contact: Acer 0870 900 2237
www.acer.co.uk