ASUS VW266H Smart Contrast Ratio Technology automatically adjusts the luminance of the backlight for better displays according to the image contents, and improves the dynamic contrast ratio to 20000:1, which results in more realistic depictions of night scenes during games or movies.
List Price: Unavailable
Sale Price: See "More Info" for price.
Rating
This is an excellent monitor for the price. At 25.5 inches diagonal, this is a huge screen (by the standards of PC monitors). The pixel size is slightly larger than my old 1680×1050 21 inch monitor, so I get more pixels without having to squint at the screen– in fact the VW266H is slightly easier to view.
The only two downsides to this monitor are the stand and built-in speakers.
The stand only allows the monitor to be tilted up and down; no other adjustment is possible. Given that an Ergotron mount with full adjustment (and the ability to rotate the monitor to “portrait” orientation; this monitor can make an awesome e-text reader) costs about $100 at the moment, I can forgive Asus for not including a more capable mount– it would have increased the cost by a pretty penny, and most people can live without it.
My gripe with the speakers isn’t that they don’t sound very good– what do you expect from speakers built into a monitor?– but that they turn off when the monitor goes into standby mode. This can be good or bad, depending on your particular circumstance. For me, I’d rather the speakers always stay on.
Rating
I had a 22″ Acer LCD monitor before getting this one, and I was amazed when I hooked this Asus monitor up. Yes, the size is big, but more importantly, the picture is stunning and is much, much better than the Acer I had. Everything is sharper, including text and colors. There is a button on this monitor that switches the screen view from standard, theater, gaming, etc., and there really is a difference. Asus convinced me that not all monitors are the same. Now, be prepared for a good possibility of getting dead pixels. My second one, although not perfect, is acceptable to me. That is why I paid a few dollars more and bought from Amazon, because of their return policy. You will definately find this model cheaper elsewhere, but you take the risk of getting stuck with it if it is not to your liking.
[…]
Rating
This 25.5″ screen has a lot of bang for the buck:
1900×1200 resolution – 11% more vertical space than Full HD.
0.287mm pixel pitch – text is smooth and easy to read even if I place the monitor at the back of my desk.
2 ms response time – smooth video playback.
HDMI, DVI, VGA and component inputs – More connections than most monitors in this price range.
This monitor is definitely the best price I have seen for these specs[…]. A previous reviewer pointed out that this monitor has backlight bleeding and color variations. This is quite common for TN panels, but it is still quite suitable for home and general office use. I would say that most computer users wouldn’t notice this or view it as a deal breaker unless they have a very specific need. Graphics artists know to get an IPS or better (for a much higher price).
As other reviewers have noted, you can get a VESA (100×100) monitor stand if you want to adjust the height. I’m using this one: Neoflex LCD Stand, Black which allows me to rotate from portrait to landscape.
This monitor gets five stars for giving its target audience more than their money’s worth. I’m very happy with this purchase.
Rating
I bought this monitor to replace a 2-year-old Samsung 22.5″ monitor, which was showing signs of immanent demise. (The back-light was repeatedly failing 1/2 seconds after I turned it on.) I bought my old monitor two years ago, at a then-wonderful price. I bought this monitor for almost the exact same price. It not only has 35% more surface area than my old monitor; it has sharper resolution, and it took less than five minutes to set up out of the box versus far more time for the old one (with the same computer). I am a close follower of global LCD monitor prices; I find that, even knowing that prices fall significantly every year, this monitor is a tremendous bargain relative to current competing options. Out of the box, the colors on this monitor are far too blue — but so what! All you need to do is spend two minutes to learn how to get to the color menu, and ratchet down the blue component. Well done, ASUS! (A company I had never heard of before this purchase.)
Rating
this 2009 model is wonderfully light weight, enjoys low power consumption, while being 15% larger than most 1920×1200 screens. a 3 year warranty from this well respected company is very reassuring with no dead pixels out of the box. I bought two (one landscape, one portrait) running off the same cheap NVidia card mounted on cheap Monoprice VESA arms, with my 4 years old XP P4-CPU, and I couldn’t be happier. it will be years till the new 30″ 2560×1600 screens get cheap, so best to buy this ASUS now. don’t wait for Thanksgiving sales, as prices won’t be much cheaper and a great item like this could experience shortages.
the only Con I see is the light weight plastic case means screen boarders have to be a bit thicker than some other 24″ of the same resolution, so if you are doing a single desktop across Four screens, you might find the thicker boarder between panels a bit annoying. this screen is not as good with black on black as so called gamer screens costing double, but most black on black complaints with the VW226H can be alleviated with Video card driver updates direct from the card manufacturer and not from MicroSoft Windows updates.
Rating
After doing a lot side by side comparisons (top contenders Acer, HP) I bought a ASUS 242 (HD, 24 inch) for my wife. She questioned the two extra days I spent doing market research but all her complaints vanished instantly as soon as i turned it on. She loved it at first sight. She is hard to please and her first reaction was simply “wow!” This is how much better she felt this monitor was compared to her previous Dell 19 inch LCD. I am an ageing academic who is about to adopt reading glasses and who spends a lot of time in front of the computer writing and reading. I used her monitor to see how i felt and i loved it too. I pulled an all-nighter to write a paper with a stiff deadline and so much liked the experience that I went ahead and ordered the VW266H for myself. Again Wow. The things that most impressed me are the size (could comfortably work on two full size pages side by side in Word), the resolution (text and images are really crisp even the 6 pt fonts), the connectivity (HDMI, components!, DVI, VGA, and the user interface), and the speed (2ms). It has several presets that work well and do make a difference (standard, game, scenery, etc.). I have external speakers so I do not use the built in ones. I connected my laptop with VGA / Windows vista and after reboot the computer recognized the HD monitor and adjusted itself to its full resolution. Simply gorgeous. Probably the view from an angle deteriorates quickly and it will not satisfy a color purist who is disturbed by greens that do not strictly comply with ISO standards of purity and uniformity, but for the rest of us, normal users that look straight at the monitor and can do with 32 million slightly imperfect colors I would say this is a great monitor. It works right out of the box. It has a lot of connectivity options. And the price is right. I would suggest taking a close look at this one.
Rating
Just orded this 11/23/2009, set it up and what can I say – this monitor rocks, got it for $279, and when you add in the $30 dollar rebate it is only $249. Sharp picture.
The monitor’s brighness is very good, and the dot pitch beats out HP and Dell’s for hundreds of dollars less (16.7 million colors at Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch
of 0.287 mm x 0.287 mm.), where as the competitors are more like .301 mm. Fast 2ms (gray-to-gray) response time (vs the competitors at 3 to 5 ms) and offers maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. Not to mention the warranty …3 years vs all of the competitors which only offer 1 year. This monitor replaced a DELL 1905 flat panel. Very Very satisified.
Rating
Overview:
This monitor was cheaper than other monitors and has great features. A 2 ms GTG response time (BTW GTG is different than BTB so a 5ms BTB can be faster than a 2ms GTG). It’s HUGE! nice looking and came in well packaged. Also a big plus, you can change the inputs from dvi to vga to component, to hdmi so you dont have to keep swapping cables! The stand can adjust viewing up and down but cannot move the monitor up or sideways. Came with DVI cord, VGA cord, Power cord, Audio 3.5 cord, and manuals/cd. The speakers are okay but not great, however there is a audio out via 3.5mm jack which is a plus! ASUS MAKES GREAT COMPUTER PARTS AND NOW I LOVE THEIR MONITORS!.
PROS:
HUGE SCREEN
NO Dead pixils
Came with many cords
Built in speakers
HDMI
Inputs
Audio in/out
Reliable ASUS NAME
CONS:
Takes time to adjust color
Speakers can be better
Doesn’t make me dinner
Conclusion: For 288.99 no tax and free shipping this thing is a steal! I love it, hooks up to my ps3 and computer no ghosting!
5 Stars beacuse of great color (when adjusted), and many features!
Rating
I have owned this monitor for six months now and it has been one of my best purchases in years. I wanted a some what large monitor to use on my glass computer desk which consist of my PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and an original Xbox. First, this awesome thing is full 1080P (1920X1080P) via HDMI, DVI, VGA and even component! it’s also widescreen 16X10 and not 16X9, confused? it looks a bit taller and larger than other monitors of the same screen size (25.5).
All 16X9 material like PS3 and Xbox 360 games are upcoverted to 16X10 meaning your gaming world will look just a bit more skinny and taller, this makes the games look awesome though, I have switch to 16X9 mode a couple of times (you get slight 1 inch thick black bars on the top and bottom) but original 16X9 looks weird to me now, characters look fat etc similiar to when a full screen picture is stretch to fill a widescreen display. You will love gaming on 16X10 trust me it looks wonders without any loss of picture quality. I have my PC on VGA, my 360 on HDMI, my PS3 on DVI (via hdmi to dvi) and my original xbox on component running in 480p (note that this component input is capable of full 1080p though) I noticed that 480p on this monitor looks so much better than my old Sony 32 inch HDTV, games like halo 2 and ghost recon look like 720p games! I recommend to not use the build in speakers though (who does?) buy yourself some nice PC speakers and just use the audio out jack from the monitor and your set.
The 2ms response time is brilliant on first person shooters with no ghosting at all(ghosting is what makes the screen blurry when turning or slowly moving in games). The bluish tint was there with factory settings so take a few minutes to adjust the brightness and saturation, or use these:
SPLENDID : Scenery. BRIGHTNESS 100. CONTRAST 100. SHARPNESS 100. SATURATION 73, ASCR: OFF (VERY IMPORTANT) COLOR TEMP: Cool, SKIN TONE: Reddish. ASPECT CONTROL: FULL (BUT USE 4:3 FOR NON WIDESCREEN GAMES) and for xbox 360 go to your display settings and choose “1080p” from HDTV SETTINGS, choose “standard” from REFERENCE LEVELS, and choose “YCbCr709” from HDMI COLOR SPACE, for PS3 is all automatic so don’t worry about it. There it is! enjoy!
Rating
I originally posted this as a comment to an unhappy review but would like to share my comments with a broader audience:
You need to spend some more time and have a little patience. So many reviewers are not likely to be wrong. We’re not all dummies.
I got this monitor, I have some but not a lot of experience with photography (OK so that’s a lie—I taught some courses), with some searching on the web I was able to get a starting point and eyeball settings for the monitor myself… standard mode, DVI: Brightness 100, Contrast 80, Sharpness 54, Overdrive 40, Custom color temp: RED 92, GREEN 80, and BLUE 50 (what a correction) makes mine stellar!
When viewing head on from a couple feet away the whites and grays are very pure—whites are beautiful snow-whites without a hint of any tint, grays are neutral, colors vivid, sharpness and clarity of text and images is pretty stunning. In fact this monitor is now the standard and better adjusted than others I am seeing, mine and other people’s.
Beats 2 other nice branded monitors I have. Viewing side to side doesn’t change the color shift, but viewing from below a little bit makes a noticeable shift—OK, so don’t do that.
Amazing value for the money. Of course not perfect. Agree that out of the box first impression can be bad. Maybe very bad. If sharpness is not adjusted right really can look like cr*p. When all set right this thing can outperform much pricier monitors—its beauty can be revealed. I am VERY picky about my displays. When set correctly, this thing has amazing blu-ray playback—can show grain and the slightest flaws in all but the most perfect source material.
When this thing shipped the ASUS QA team was on vacation or wearing funny tinted pink sunglasses, or something was miscommunicated verifying the calibration settings or something went wrong or there was some limitation in the software or hardware for the default settings. Fortunately you can customize to overcome this problem.
Those complaining about bad text display and color shift just don’t have the settings tweaked right. OK the company could have done a better job at the out of the box settings, but if they did you’d be paying a lot more for the monitor—c’mon, do the extra work and we’ll keep the secret to ourselves.
Go back and spend some more time calibrating—well worth the effort.