Cornea Systems CT1904 19 inch LCD Monitor Review
The
CT1904
is the latest addition to Cornea Systems LCD monitor catalogue, and with a retail
price of around $680USD, I doubt this 19" TFT monitor will be sitting on
the shelves for very long. The Cornea CT1904 is blessed with the large screen real estate that people really want, with
very good viewing angles (85 degrees up/down/left/right), and with an industry standard 25ms pixel response time. The 3"
thick display panel takes up only a
fraction of the desk space of an equivalent 50LB monster 19" CRT monitor, and since
the CT1904 draws ~40W of power, it's also easier on the electrical budget.
The
brightness value of the display
is spec'd out at 250 nits (cd/m2)
which is good, but not record breaking. A contrast ratio of 500:1 should help
the Cornea CT1904 fare well in the tests later on though.
The display connects to a PC through either a standard 15-pin analog or digital DVI video connection. If you have a videocard
with a DVI signal output (the larger white connector) it's always best to use
that with an LCD since there is no need for the signal to be converted from
digital to analog, and then back to digital.
LCD
displays
are entirely digital devices and although they work well with either type of
signal, proper adjustment
is required to ensure that the analog signal will be displayed correctly. The CT1904 has its
"auto adjust" key front and center making such adjustments a one-touch affair.
| Cornea CT1904 Display: |
 |
|
| Screen Size: |
19" Diagonal |
| Resolution: |
1280x768 pixel |
| Pixel Pitch: |
0.294mm |
| Luminosity: |
250cd/m2 |
| Contrast Ratio: |
500:1 |
| Viewable Angle: |
85/85/85/85 |
| Pixel Response: |
25ms |
| Power Draw: |
40W |
| Bezel Colour: |
Metallic Silver / black |
|
|
| Approx. Retail Price: |
$680USD |
| Manufacturer: |
www.corneasystems.com | | Inputs: Analog, DVI, Audio jack, Headphone jack, AC
power |
|
 |
The control panel on the face of the Cornea CT1904 is very simple; consisting of a row of five buttons. With the
arrows you are able to navigate the OSD, but they don't seem to have any direct
control of brightness or contrast. The Auto key is easily accessible which is very
nice to see, and the select key will allow you to toggle between an
analog or digital input. |
I've always been somewhat undecided on the whole integrated speakers within LCD
displays as selling point. Measuring just 2.25" thick there really isn't much room to squeeze in any sound system of
merit within the CT1904. Often we find ourselves left with a wanky pair of tiny 1"-2"
speakers that are good for streaming news
reports and little else. Speakers that small always tend to distort music played
through them, so high volumes are never a good idea either.
Cornea
have embedded
a set of 2W stereo speakers within the lower bezel of the 19" CT1904 (see
the holes adjacent to the
Kensington security hold below, left), but as they are oddly directed towards the rear it makes
them somewhat difficult to hear. We tested out the speakers with some music and with streaming news (news.bbc.co.uk) to
get a feel for how they would
react, but without direct volume control it was kind of counter productive. The
volume can be adjusted through the displays OSD if need be.
Adjacent
to the audio input jack is a 3.5mm headphone jack. The location of the jack (at
the rear of the display by the stand) makes it inconvenient to plug into, and I
have a suspicion that most users of this display may never even realize
there is a headphone jack in the first place.
While it can be handy to have some audio built into
a monitor for office environments, I don't think the Cornea CT1904 has
it implemented in the best possible way. Of course it's worth remembering that is
an LCD display and not a pair of speakers , so as far as we are concerned, audio is a nice
feature, but the picture quality is what will make or break it!
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