Acer S231HL

If you're in the market for an attractive 23-inch monitor that won't strain your budget, consider Acer's S231HL ($199 list). This svelte LED backlit monitor offers three video inputs and generally good color performance, but it has trouble displaying portions of the grayscale and is susceptible to color shifting when viewed from a side angle. As you might expect from a monitor in this price range, features are scarce.

Design and Features
At 0.70-inches thick the S231HL is thinner than most monitors, but not quite as thin as the AOC e2243FW ($149 list, 3 stars) (.50-inch). The cabinet juts out to around 1.2-inches towards the bottom. Razor-thin piano black bezels frame the 1,920-by-1,080 TN+ panel, which sports a matte coating that cuts down on glare while remaining non-reflective. The cabinet is perched atop an oval base (also piano black) that allows you to tilt the panel forward and backward, but doesn't support height, swivel, or rotation adjustments.

Beneath the lower bezel are five buttons that are used to activate and navigate your way through the settings menu system. Pressing any button brings up an on-screen quick-launch menu with function icons positioned above each button. Shortcuts include e-Empowering (for selecting picture modes), Auto Adjust (for automatically adjusting clock and focus with an analog signal), Menu (which opens the main OSD menu screen), and Input (to select one of three video sources). There are five picture modes including Movie, Standard, Text, Graphic, and User; the Standard mode offers the best all-around picture, but you can take advantage of the User mode to create your own custom mode with specific color and luminance settings. The Main menu offers very basic picture settings such as brightness, contrast, and color temperature. Here you can manually adjust clock and focus settings as well. Other settings include Wide mode (aspect ratio), screen position, and DDC/CI (Display Data Channel/Command Interface) on and off.

At the rear of the cabinet are HDMI, DVI, and VGA video ports, but you won't find any USB ports or audio jacks, nor are there any built-in speakers. Still, it's nice to have at least two digital inputs, which allows you to switch between your PC and another external device (such as a gaming console) without having to swap cables. The S231HL comes with DVI and VGA cables in the box and a nice three year warranty covering parts, labor, and backlighting.

Performance
The S231HL is an average performer; it handled the DisplayMate Color Scales test without issue, producing uniform colors that scaled evenly from dark to light. It had trouble displaying the lightest swatches of gray on the 64-Step Grayscale test, however, and dark grayscale performance was only marginally better. Pass on this monitor if you require grayscale accuracy for things like photo editing. Small text was legible down to 5.3 points, the smallest font on my tests, which is good news for anyone who deals with multi-page documents and spreadsheets.

Off-angle viewing is less than stellar. While viewing images from a side angle I noticed significant color shifting where light blue colors actually appeared tan. The screen also darkened when viewed from the top and bottom angles, a common characteristic of inexpensive TN+ panels.

The panel's 5-millisecond (g-g) pixel response kept ghosting and smearing to a minimum. I tore through several rounds of the street racing game Split Second while connected to my PS3 console via HDMI and the action was smooth with no noticeable lag. Blu-ray movies also looked great in full (1080p) HD.

The S231HL uses LEDs for backlighting and doesn't require lots of power, but there are more energy efficient monitors to be had. It used 26-watts of power during my testing while the 24-inch Asus ML248H ($209.99 list, 3.5 stars) used 23-watts. Neither came close to the Lenovo LS2421p Wide ($219.99 direct, 4 stars) and Gateway FHX2402L ($229.99 list, 3 stars), both of which used 16-watts.

Decent color quality at an affordable price make the Acer S231HL a compelling choice for anyone seeking a 23-inch monitor for everyday use. However, you don't get many bells and whistles with this monitor and its viewing angle and grayscale performance are less than stellar. If you have an extra $20 to spend, the Editors' Choice Lenovo LS2421p Wide is a much better deal; it has four USB ports, uses less power, and offers a bit more screen real estate.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Asus PA246Q with several other monitors side by side.

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