HP L1730 17&QS&QS Flat Panel Display 2T TCO (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-P9625A)

Reviewed by: dwires

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Landscape/Portrait rotating -- VGA and DVI input -- Good brightness and contrast -- Decent viewing angle -- Price -- Built-in Speakers (at least it has them)

Weaknesses: 1280x1024 resolution -- Built-in Speakers (weak sound, but that's normal for built-ins) -- No headphone-jack, mute, volume control

Overall Evaluation: The image is quite good. Much clearer, better contrast, and more vivid colors than the CRT it replaced. I put the DVI input as a strength, but when I switched to using the DVI cable directly (instead of running the VGA cable through a DVI-to-VGA adapter from my video card), I really didn't see any difference. The image was still good with the VGA cable before I switched. Maybe I'm just used to my 15" 1600x1200 laptop LCD and my old 21" CRT, but I'd prefer a higher resolution so I can see more data. (Of course, that would mean a higher price, though). The ability to switch to portrait mode makes up for it in some cases, though. The only thing about viewing in portrait mode is that the difference in angle means a slight difference in brightness on different parts of the screen for the two eyes. That can make it hard to give attention where you want it, but you get used to it after a while. It would be nice if rotating the screen would automatically notify the pivot software to rotate the image as well. It doesn't do that, though, and it probably can't do that since there's no USB connection (and therefore no hub). Overall, if I had to make the same decision again, I'd probably buy the same monitor.