NEC MultiSync LCD2690UXi

NEC's 26-inch wide-screen (25.5-inch viewable area) MultiSync LCD2690WUXi rendered text and graphics well. (For more information on our image-quality test, see "How We Test Monitors.") It produced sharp detail in pictures of fruits and in clothing. The monitor did a good job at displaying different shades of gray (an indication of good monitor contrast), but it particularly excelled at the darker end of the spectrum. It also legibly displayed various sizes of text in office documents.

The monitor's boxy design consists of a thick back panel and stumpy-looking stand. It has a full set of physical adjustments, a combination usually offered in only the most expensive monitors. It tilts and swivels, and has mechanisms for pivot and height adjustment. It doesn't comes with software that automatically rotates on-screen content, so you'll have to manually adjust the display orientation through the operating system's display settings. You can move the panel quite high with the height-adjust mechanism. The MultiSync LCD2690WUXi also provides both DVI-D and DVI-I connections, as well as both cables. It has VGA for analog sources.