Philips 200WB7

At defaults, our test jury found the 200WB7's performance generally acceptable, but not great. It received high scores--even relative to the fierce competition--on our important real-life test screens of a Microsoft Word document and an Excel spreadsheet. On graphics, however, it often lost detail in very dark and very light areas; this was especially obvious on our grayscale test screen. Though we found the 200WB7's color pleasing at defaults, that same lack of detail hurt it on our group-portrait test. That said, it was simple to tweak the monitor for better performance. Philips's SmartControl screen adjustment software, included with the monitor, uses slider bars to make fine-tuning images easy.

It takes a little fussing to get optimal performance from the 200WB7. However, since it's also more physically adjustable than most monitors of its screen size, spending a few extra minutes could give you an all-around more comfortable monitor than you'd typically find elsewhere. And since it's very economically priced, spending those extra few minutes may be a fair trade for the money you save.

Laura Blackwell