Review of LG Flatron W2286L 22" Ultra Slim LED Backlit Widescreen Monitor

Are you sick and tired of those long-winded, overly technical monitor reviews that just bog you down with jargon you don't understand?  I am too.  All of those fancy specifications sometimes belie the crappiness of certain monitors, so it's generally better to trust "user" reviews or just plain seeing it in person.  Unfortunately, to get the best price, you gotta go online - which is what I did with this LG.  I trusted the company and they did not disappoint.

The Flatron comes in, you guessed it, a big flat box.

Handy "quick installation" instructions are printed on the box flaps, which is great for those non-geeky folks who want to get started quickly.

The normal trappings are included - a glossy, well-made stand, instructions & CD, power cable & cube, DVI-D cable, and VGA cable.

The first thing I thought upon removing it from the box was "wow... it's thin... and LIGHT."  The thing barely weighs anything, yet does not feel cheap.  It easily plops down on the included stand, which has a nifty screw on the bottom that makes it simple to attach securely.  The exterior is a sharp, glossy piano black.

On the back, you will find 2 HDMI inputs, a standard VGA input, as well as a DVI-D input.  There's also a headphone jack for sound output through HDMI.  I connected via DVI-D.

The amount of screen real estate is impressive - it feels HUGE compared to my old 4:3 17" LCD monitor.

You can really get lost in all the specs on this thing (if you're interested, I've posted them at the end of this review) but don't worry about all of that.  Yeah, it claims that it has a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio among other fancy things, but that doesn't really mean anything to the average user.

What I can tell you is that this monitor looks great.  Blacks are very, very black - no washed out greyness and incredible details are still apparent on even very dark images.  The picture is sharp and colors are very vibrant, almost to the point of looking unnatural.  (A lot of that can be solved with careful tweaking.)

That being said, the monitor comes really jacked up out of the box; you'll have to modify the settings to your liking. Apple OS X comes with a handy screen calibration utility that dramatically improved the appearance of the picture.  For me, the default settings were ridiculously bright and washed out.

Conclusions

I can't really cite many downsides to this monitor... the price is reasonable, it's nicely built, and looks gorgeous for the price.  One of the things I didn't like was the strange "touch sensitive" buttons on the front.  The menus are difficult to navigate and there are a lot of foofy, useless features like "photo fun" filters and other things most people will never even bother to use.  Fortunately, you won't spend a lot of time in the menus, unless you plan on doing most of the calibration through software rather than hardware.

All in all, if you want a great looking widescreen monitor that is a step above "basic," give the W2286L a go.  Purchase one from Buy.com, even!

Product Specifications

• LED Backlit LCD Monitor is perfect for today's demanding graphics and video intensive applications
• LG Smart Package includes Autobright, Live Sensor, Cinema Mode, Time Control
• 2,000,000:1 Digital Fine Contrast Ratio
• Features Photo Effect and EZ Zooming
• 16:10 Widescreen Format
• 21.995 inches (55.8673 cm) Flat Panel Active matrix-TFT
• LCD Anti-Glare coating
• Visible diagonal size : 55.8673 cm 0.282 x 0.282 mm (Pixel Pitch)
• Max Resolution: VESA 1680 x 1050 @ 60 Hz
• Dimensions (With Stand): With Stand: 51.97 cm / 20.46 inches 43.73 cm / 17.22 inches 19.84 cm /    7.81 inches