Summary: These are my impressions based on using this very recently released monitor on the first day. I thought I ought to write a review as I found next to nothing on reviews for this monitor elsewhere, although I suspect the reviews of it's close cousin released earlier, the VE248H, (mostly good but with a few features brought in question) are applicable to the VE247H in most cases. In other cases like mine, however, there are some notable differences to be observed with the VE247H vs the comments for the VE248H. I did not open the box to my new purchase for a few days for fear of finding bad things in this monitor and then having to repackage it and return it. But despite reading a few bad reviews on the slightly elder cousin, my research did not lead me to any better cost-effective monitor, and despite some tiny imperfections, I am very glad I finally opened up the monitor and set it up!
I upgraded from a once great but dying 17" relatively flat Daytek CRT monitor to this one to milk my nearly decade-old Mac for all it's worth. What a contrast! The display definitely allows sharper resolution and good if not better color and contrast even though these old CRT's sometimes STILL beat LCD's for such things! I'd say the display even looks better than that of my 24" iMac's LCD that's less than a half decade old. The use of LED backlighting over the usual florescent lamps seems to deliver on the more even distribution of light that this technology has promised. While the industry is showing promise in improving color correctness over LCD using other technologies (often more expensive than LCD and sometimes less responsive for motion), I'm sure this monitor will still impress photographers, and as for videographers like myself, it seems VERY impressive and responsive. I was hesitant to buy this monitor as I had read reports of "ghosting" (particularly in high contrast areas) with this monitor's close cousin the VE248H LED-backlit LED monitor. Here are some Youtube examples of this, but I dispute that this will be so much a problem for most users or will seem quite so severe - and some user reviews actually report seeing no ghosting at all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbxOK4VLXZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZxJMJxWVFk&feature=related
I actually could not USUALLY detect ghosting (or motion trails if you will) when moving objects that highly contrast against their backgrounds - such as a black pointer over white background, and I think that the DVI connection insures a high level of sharpness in the display. I DID however notice an odd bit of white ghosting when the mouse pointer was moved against a grey background (typically at the top of Mac OS X windows), and moving such a window with a black text title over grey (but not over white) renders a text title ghost in white - much as in the first Youtube video above. I probably would not have noticed such things if not for reading the reviews and seeing the videos warning of ghosting and LOOKING for such things, and since I had never had my old computer generate such a high res (1920x1080) image before, I suspected at first that perhaps the problem was due to how the operating system draws and refreshes the GUI. This problem - albeit not much of a problem really in my mind - is evident on all Splendid modes, although I did not try to set up any specific settings to try to eliminate the ghosting. This bit of ghosting MIGHT have concerned me if I was a gamer. The important thing for me personally as a videographer and movie watcher is that with videos, I perceive no ghosting whatsoever in testing out videos of high quality formats. The only imperfections I saw was with DVD's themselves for how they are encoded (blocky color gradations) - magnified by the great detail of this monitor! With an HDMI input and the possible use of a "Theater" color mode, Blu-ray discs will look awesome I'm sure! I know they already look great on my Acer non-LED LCD that I use elsewhere - a great option if you find one that's a fair bit less expensive than the ASUS and $ is an issue. I almost bought the Acer H233H (wanting to buy ANOTHER tried-and-true Acer) until I found the ASUS monitor for less $, although I've since found an H233H monitor sold elsewhere for about $50 less.
In conclusion, being money conscious and not wanting to "overkill" a monitor for an old Mac, I am more than happy at least initially with my "bang-for-the-buck (yet doesn't seem cheap)" ASUS LED-backlit LCD monitor! I don't regret not getting it's cousin the VE248H which is only slightly larger but actually not as potentially bright, nor do I regret not getting a more expensive Samsung despite their high ratings. I'm uncomfortable paying too much $ when I'm still waiting for the better-than-LCD technologies that are out there to mature (like OLED) - even though they are or will likely be much more expensive for quite a long time. I'd only pay more for a Samsung, or get an HDMI Acer for less.
Show less
Manage updates with the Download App
Rebate 
Savings, Selection & Service since 1971 
