BenQ FP 93VW

Best4Reviews rates the latest budget-priced 19-inch flat panel widescreen LCD monitor from BenQ

We all appreciate that sometimes a bigger (preferably widescreen) and higher resolution monitor screen is better - especially when it comes to having open and working across several applications at once, playing a computer game or watching 'Lost in Translation' on DVD. Or perhaps you'd like a larger screen to use at home with your notebook or laptop?

Though BenQ's FP 93VW boasts a 'mere' 19-inch screen (its actual display area measures 408.2x255.1mm), that's still larger than most offered with PC bundles, and, with its shiny white tough plastic screen surround and metal base construction that clips neatly into place, it looks like something that would easlly win over Apple Mac users on a budget too.

Indeed, there's enough space on the flat 'foot' of the base stand to stash an iPod.

Certainly nothing about the FP 93VW feels cheap, it's reasuringly weighty (6.05kg) when lifting into place on your desktop and, screen size aside, it appears at the outset that there have been very few compromises made in the build department.

If I've a gripe from the handling perspective it's that, unlike pricier alternatives, you can't swivel or pivot the BenQ to adjust its viewing angle. That self same viewing angle is a maximum 150° left to right, or 140° up/down.

Ensuring that the monitor is s future proof as possible, the BenQ FP 93VW comes supplied with both analogue and digital input.

The BenQ FP 93VW's other main specifications include a 1440x900 screen resolution (WXGA+), 16.2 million colours, a 4:3 aspect ratio, 700:1 maximum contrast and screen brightness measured at 300cd/m2.

Connect it up to your laptop via the supplied 15-pin analogue cable and the screen automatically and instantaneously resizes the picture. If your laptop isn’t widescreen to begin with, the image on the BenQ stretches to fit. BenQ claims the FP 93VW features a fast response time. Contrast and brightness can be tweaked via the five buttons that run discreetly down the left side of the device (the sixth being the power on/off button).

Press these and a selection menu pops up on screen – a further disappointment being that, infuriatingly, it doesn’t stay there long enough for you to be able to implement a selection unless you had that selection concrete in your mind beforehand. Also, you can disable the menu once you have decided on the selection that works for you with a note of caution, as this then proves nigh on impossible to re-instate (there's no advice in the manual on how you do this either).

Set to its default settings the monitor is certainly bright, even if picture clarity didn’t appear quite as sharp as that of my smaller XGA-resolution laptop. Therefore it’s probably better suited to watching DVDs or gaming – where crispness isn’t as essential – than all-day word processing or image editing. Still, as an extra for the kids' bedroom or a way of giving tired eyes a break from a 12 or 14-inch screen, the BenQ 93VW presents an inexpensive option.