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BERLINEA
10 70 40, 17-inch Monitor
STANDFIRST
German-based
Belinea are a relative newcomer to the UK but in just over a year they've built
up an impressive range of affordable monitors. We've been looking at their latest
17-inch model, known to its friends as the 10 70 40
COPY
There’s
something slightly odd about Belinea monitors. With most other manufacturer’s products
there is usually a distinctive design theme or some sort of conformity across
the range. Often the only visible differences between one model and the next,
is screen size and price. They have other ideas at Belinea, the styling of
their monitors varies considerably, it's almost as though they have come from
different factories.
The
10 70 40 which has a 17-inch screen is a case in point. To begin with it looks
unusual, the screen surround is trapezoid in shape. Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder, so we’ll leave you to make up your own minds; suffice it to say that
at first glance we thought it must be some kind of detachable shop display
card, and were quite disappointed to find that it didn’t come off. The top and
sides are unusual too, it looks as though it’s made of perforated pegboard, at
least it is well ventilated.
In
industry-speak this is a step-up model, it is aimed principally at SoHo and
multimedia PC users, with a captive video cable, terminated with a standard
15-pin D-Sub plug. Its housed in the same cabinet as LG's 17-inch entry level design,
but this one has a higher performance Hitachi tube, with a dot pitch of 0.26mm.
It is a multi-synch design with a claimed maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200,
though this is a tad unrealistic on a 17-inch screen, (even assuming you have a
suitable graphics card). The preset range of display modes covers the most
commonly used Vesa standards, up to and including 1280 x 1024 pixels at 75Hz.
Front
panel controls are spread out in a neat row below the screen. Brightness and
contrast adjustments share a pair of buttons, all other functions are accessed
from an on-screen menu display. They include picture geometry (vertical/horizontal
size and position, pincushion, trapezium, parallelogram and rotation), plus colour
balance, red and blue gain and degauss. It supports Vesa and EPA Energy Star power
management functions, though it's not especially frugal with maximum power
consumption quoted at 150 watts, this drops to 5 watts in full standby. There's
a push button standby button on the front panel; the main on/off switch is on
the back panel.
PERFORMANCE
Previous
Belinea monitors we've looked at gave a good account of themselves and so we
expected a fairly easy ride with this one. After the usual warm up there was
nothing to worry about in the general display department. The image is sharply
focused up to the edges of the screen on all resolution settings, up to 1280 x
1024 with no moiré patterning to speak of. Ntest and CheckScreen monitor test
software confirmed that geometry and convergence were both spot on and there's sufficient
adjustment to get a crisp, well-defined picture on all display modes. There is
a problem though, and it's quite a big one. Power regulation on our sample was
poor and the tests, which include rapid changes in brightness in small and
large areas of the screen, produced significant 'ballooning'. It's enough to be
quite distracting on dynamic moving video and games, though it should go unnoticed
on relatively static displays.
SUMMARY
It's
good value but the iffy screen regulation is a concern. We would be reluctant
to use this monitor for anything more demanding than word processing or the
kind of applications where screen brightness remains fairly constant. Under
those circumstances it stacks up well, but if our sample is anything to go by,
desktop video, or anything involving a lot of sudden changes in luminance
levels, is asking too much of it.
How
Much?
£300
Tube
size
17-inch
FST
Visible
display area
300
x 225 mm
Dot
Pitch
0.26mm
Max
Resolution
1280
x 1024 pixels
Max
refresh rate
auto
scan to 85Hz
Dimensions
444
(w) x 448 (h) x 434 (d) mm
Weight
17kg
Belinea,
telephone Maxdata (01189) 362900
CV
RATINGS
Features 8
Performance 7
Ease
of use 8
Value
for money 8
Overall
Rating 85%
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