Cornea CT1704

Cornea is a newcomer to the UK LCD market, and arrives here with a range of LCDs, including this competitively priced 17in model built around a Samsung flat panel.

The tilt-only CT1704 looks the part, with a brushed aluminium effect and a pleasing outward curve to the lower part of the bezel. Here you will find five control buttons arranged in what could only be described as a wonky fashion, with unequal spaces between each button. That aside, these consist of a menu button, select button, left and right cursors, and an auto button that will automatically adjust the picture to the optimum position.

The options in the OSM (on-screen menu) are laid out well and cover most needs, including phase and clock adjustments for syncing the screen with the graphics card.

Disappointingly, the CT1704 only has a D-Sub port, which means you are limited to an analogue input. A USB hub is absent, but you do get a pair of small speakers intriguingly built into the rear of the chassis. The sound quality is typically weak, and the plug on the D-Sub cable shrouds half of the left speaker.

As far as image quality is concerned, the factory-preset picture was a tad on the cool side, but is improved by fine-tuning the individual RGB signals. Our colour scales revealed evidence of compression in the highlight ends of the range, yet greyscale graduations were rendered more smoothly. In our DVD test, motion blur is lessened thanks to the decent 20ms response time, whereas the high contrast ratio helped with detail resolution in static images. The CT1704's viewing angles in the horizontal plane are good, but raise your head past 50 degrees and you notice the rapid deterioration in illumination and colour.

Contact: Anders Electronics Plc 020 7380 8181
www.anders.co.uk

Specifications:

• 17in diagonal
• 1,280 x 1,024 resolution
• LCD-TFT
• D-Sub, stereo audio in/out, cables
• 5kg
• 403 x 181 x 420mm (w x d x h)
• 270cd/sq m (max)
• 500:1 contrast ratio
• 160 degree horizontal, 50 degree up/70 degree down viewing angles