Benq FP241W 24" widescreen monitor

Design

On a monitor this size, having a range of ergonomic adjustment is absolutely crucial. The Benq provides in this range, up to a point. There is full height and swivel adjustment, but we would appreciate it if the lowest height available was just a little bit lower. The Dell drops right down to desk level, whereas this is a good three inches off that.

The adjustment mechanism is pretty smooth, and the weight of the base is appropriately chunky. The monitor also pivots 90 degrees and adjusts up and down in that direction, too.

The monitor is very minimalistic, without even so much as some crappy speakers on the bottom. The bezel is merely centimetres wide, around the same size as the Dell, if not a little smaller. It doesn't look quite as snazzy as the Dell (who would have ever thought that sentence could exist?) but it does look happily silver.

Here you can see the pivot mode. A pair of these next to each other would look sweet!

The menu buttons are on the side of the screen, which keeps them from cluttering up the front view but can make it awkward to adjust picture settings - you end up having to crane your neck to see the buttons then move back to see the effect on the screen. However, given that you shouldn't really have to play with the settings beyond initial setup, this is hardly a major problem.

There are picture in picture modes, as well as adjustments for the usual things like brightness and contrast. There are also picture 'modes' which we'll come to later. Beyond that, there aren't a lot of other things to play with.