Planar PX191

The PX191's displayed crisp text and colorful graphics, retaining excellent details in both dark and light tones. For example, the PX191 earned the highest score in its class for its ability to display the lightest and darkest shades in our gray-scale test (perhaps as a result of its high 700:1 contrast ratio). However, the PX191's price of $780 was second-highest among the models it competed against at the time of our review, and about $50 above the average.

Very flexible, the PX191 can smoothly swivel, tilt, and rotate from landscape to portrait mode. (Planar provides Portrait Display's PivotPro software for reorienting the screen.) Height can be adjusted (via a telescoping neck) up to a generous 4.3 inches from its base. You can manually adjust the red, green, and blue colors, but the monitor lacks an option for choosing the sRGB color space, or gamut, which would allow you to automatically match the colors of sRGB-compliant devices, such as printers and digital cameras.

Although the PX191 is a bit pricey, it's a good performer (especially for text) and is among the most pliable monitors in its class.

Richard Jantz