Hyundai ImageQuest L70S

Hyundai ImageQuest L70S

ImageQuest L70S Review, by Laura Blackwell January 26, 2005

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• Reviewed by: stevielynne

  Strengths: Awesome quality picture. My photos look absolutely gorgeous on this monitor...

  Weaknesses: Speakers - as everyone notes - but I use separate speakers anyway connected to my computer anyway.

  Overall: Awesome quality photos when viewed onscreen. Problem is, when I print (with my extra-high quality Epson printer) some of the gorgeous pinks, purples and blue hues that I see onscreen don't translate into the photos themselves. However, I have even taken my photo card to a professional and had copies made and I noticed no difference whatsoever in what I print at home and what I get from them - so apparently the monitor is picking up on some extra color pixels that just are not able to be printed. The 17" size is very good - once you make size adjustments to suit your personal style. I will definitely get another Hyundai monitor when I upgrade to a larger size and donate this one to another family member. I read some reviews elsewhere that complained about ghosting and/or missing pixels but I've never seen any problems such as these with my monitor and have owned it for almost a year.

• Reviewed by: ritrebor

  Strengths: Great looking monitor with nice picture

  Weaknesses: Speakers tinny and faint sound

  Overall: Great monitor for under $200 Set up easily and was up and running in no time. Picture looks bright and clear. I ended up buying 2 of these and both look great.

• Reviewed by: soundbonz

  Strengths: Good Image. Bright. Great for DVD's and Games.

  Weaknesses: Sound, but I don't use the speakers. Vertical viewing angle.

  Overall: I'm only writing this review to suggest that the "expert" reviewer might be a little loopy. This monitor looks terrific with very sharp text and great images. Best value for the money that I found. Had mine for over a year with heavy use and it still looks great. Horizontal viewing angle is very good. Vertical viewing angle from below is poor, but then again, so are most LCD monitors that I have seen. I bought mine for under 200 dollars. Can't beat it.

• Reviewed by: Razzmatazz

  Strengths: * Picture quality and clarity.* Brightness and contrast (450:1).* Fast response time (16ms).* Good viewing angle.* Sleek attractive frame.* Bang for the buck!

  Weaknesses: * Sound quality.

  Overall: In July '03, after MUCH, research and a lot of side-by-side in-store comparisons of picture quality, I bought an L70S for $300 because it outperformed most other, more, expensive "name brand" 17" LCDs. Two years later, in June '05 I bought another one for a 2nd PC (for $179, on sale) because it was STILL the best bang for the buck.Although the Hyundai brand name is not widely known and respected outside Korea, Hyundai is actually one of the world's largest makers of LCD panels. And Hyundai's LCD panels are used by NEC and MANY other "name brand" OEMs (who charge higher prices for a substantially similar "name brand" monitors).The "expert" in Pricegrabber's "expert review? claims lackluster picture quality, but I suspect that he failed to load the appropriate color management driver. Without that driver, the picture quality IS lackluster. But if you load the latest driver (which is included on the pack-in CD or can be downloaded from www.hyundaiq.com) the L70S will yield a truly excellent picture. Don't forget!I use one of my L70S monitors in my bright, sunlit kitchen, so I needed a bright monitor with good contrast. The L70S fits that requirement nicely. If you'll only use your monitor in a dark room, you may want to buy a cheaper monitor. Beware that there is no industry standard measurement technique for brightness and especially for contrast ratio. So you can't trust the manufacturer's numbers (especially between brands). You either need to do side-by-side comparisons, or trust some idiot like me.I have an ATI "All-In-Wonder" graphics card in my PC so I use my L70S monitor as both a work PC and a TV (for the kitchen and office/bedroom). Consequently, it was important to me to get a monitor that could display text and motion video well. In order for an LCD monitor to display motion video without motion blur, it should have a response time of 16ms or less. This is also important for fast-action video games. The L70S (16ms) displays fast-action motion pictures and video games with no motion blur.And because the viewing angle is wide, I can easily watch TV from anywhere in my kitchen or bedroom even though the monitors are not optimally placed in the corner of the rooms.Initially I wanted DVI inputs, but after much research I found that DVI is basically irrelevant for LCDs, because (unlike analog CRT monitors) each LCD pixel is a discrete lighting unit that essentially "snaps" to the right color, even if there is a slight drift or error in the analog signal on the way to the monitor. Do a side-by-side comparison of the same monitor with VGA and DVI, and you will see NO difference and NO reason to pay more for DVI.To me, 17" LCDs (which display 1280x1024 pixels "SXGA") are well worth the price premium compared to 15" LCDs (which can only display 1024x768 pixels "XGA") because you can view 67% more stuff on a 17" screen than a 15" screen. (e.g. You can view more of a web page or you can view, say, two pages instead of one.) However, virtually all 19" LCDs are also only SXGA, so although they may be bigger than 17? LCDs, they don't enable you to view more stuff. They just have bigger pixels. Even with my 44 year-old eyes, I have no problem reading a crisp 17" LCD screen, so I personally don't think that 19" monitors are worth the price premium. And I?d rather view a GOOD 17? LCD monitor than a mediocre 19? monitor. If you want to step up to UXGA (1600x1200 pixels) so that you can view even more stuff, you?ll probably need to get at least a 20? a 21? LCD monitor. Unfortunately, such monitors are very expensive. Besides, my graphics card isn't capable of UXGA output, so I'd have to buy a new graphics card too.With any LCD monitor, make sure that you change the screen resolution in your PC's "Display Settings" to run at the LCD's native resolution. Otherwise you will get a bad picture. For the L70S, that's 1280x1024. (You need to make sure that your graphics card is capable of that setting.) In Windows XP, to change your display settings, go to Start/Control Panel/Display/Settings.I have no dead pixels on either of my two monitors. My first L70S still works perfectly after 2 years of virtually daily use for many hours each day. That says something for Hyundai?s quality & reliability.The speakers on the L70S are small and produce a rather unappealing sound. If built-in speaker quality is important to you, you may want to look elsewhere. Personally, I've never heard any built-in speaker that would suit my taste, so I use external speakers. I would actually prefer to have NO built-in speakers and a smaller frame. But since that is rare, I'm happy that the L70S trades sound quality for a small, sleek frame with 5/8" (15mm) side boarders, rather than a thick ugly frame that wastes my precious desk space. The L70S has audio input & output jacks, so you can use the L70S's internal speakers and/or external speakers (including headphones).

• Reviewed by: ikalfus

  Strengths: bright colors and rapid response.

  Weaknesses: sound is not that great, but acceptable for price and size

  Overall: I was very excited when I bought this as I was moving up to a 17 in LCD monitor. Two months later prices have come down on 19 in screens dramatically and I guess I would buy a 19 in one now if I was in the market. However, I am very happy with this unit and intend to use it until it dies.