Philips 109B20 Monitor

The 19in 109B20 is one of the latest monitors that uses Philips' patented LightFrame feature. This software only works with Philips' specially equipped monitors and allows the user to selectively raise the brightness and contrast of an open window or area of the desktop.

The idea behind this is to duplicate the way a television uses an extremely high beam current to produce vivid images. On a high-resolution monitor a high beam current would lead to blooming. Indeed, if LightFrame is used to highlight text, blooming and streaking are obvious. However, applying it to an image or DVD movie gives results akin to a television.

The CRT is housed in a space-saving chassis with a narrow back and flanks that curve downwards and to the front of the unit. The bezel is narrow too, enhancing the size of the display. Around the back, all you'll find is a captive D-SUB cable. On the front is the familiar set of on-screen display (OSD) buttons comprising four arrow keys and an 'OK' button. Access to the settings is efficient thanks to the intuitive OSD menu system and informative prompts.

All the usual settings for screen position and geometry are available but colour convergence controls are absent - a shame, as horizontal colour registration was a little out on our test unit. This aside, there are settings for moire, zoom, and a choice of five languages.

The shadow-mask tube possesses an 18in viewable diagonal and a dot pitch of 0.25mm. The maximum resolution is quoted at 1920 x 1440 at 60Mhz, but most will find 1280 x 1024 at a flicker-free refresh of 91Mhz more suitable. Overall image quality is good, with impressive colour purity and vertical resolution. Text is in focus across most of the screen, but is affected by a slight colour misconvergence along the bottom. As for geometry and power regulation, they are difficult to fault.

contact
Philips 01756 702 892 www.philips.com