LG RE-15LA30

Fancy the stylish, minimalist look of a trendy advertising agency in your home office? LG has just the thing with its combined LCD TV and TFT display, the Flatron RE-15LA30.

But is it a TV or a computer display? The fact that you'll not find it in the PC peripherals section of LG's website, but instead hanging around with the LCD TVs, should give you a clue.

This is a 15.1in LCD TV with conventional coaxial aerial and Scart connections, but it has extra inputs for VGA as well as S-Video so it can be used as a monitor. It has a pair of integrated 1w speakers to take yet more hardware off your desktop.

Bear in mind, though, that watching a DVD, listening to music or playing a game using these as your primary sound source might not be the mind-blowing experience that you're after.

We don't like to fixate on the cosmetic aspect of devices we review but, in this case, it is the key to the product. There is no doubt that this is a rather sleek and attractive design, although the external power supply brick needs to be tucked away.

It has a very basic stand with limited back-and-forth tilt, but no height adjustment. Technically the display is competent but unexciting. The viewable angle is quite typical at 150 degrees horizontal and 120 degrees vertical.

At the maximum resolution of 1,024 x 768, the picture looks acceptable. It is difficult to get the brightness high enough to be comfortable, without making the colours garish. The greyscale shifts at the bright end are indistinct, but that's a minor complaint.

We plugged in a coaxial aerial lead and used the nifty auto-detect function to set up the channels. Picture quality was adequate, but a 15in TV is nothing to get excited about. It does seem like a very expensive way to keep an eye on Hollyoaks while you're at work.

Price: £710 (£604 ex VAT)

Contact: LG 0870 607 5544
www.lge.co.uk