LG W2353V review

LG's 23-inch, 1080p W2353V is a very good-looking monitor. Styled rather like an expensive flat-screen TV, its gentle curves and glossy black finish mean it's suited both to the home and office. Also offering several gaming and multimedia features, as well as convenient controls, it's available for around £170.

Touch-sensitive controls
This monitor looks much more expensive that it is. LG has really gone to town on the styling, without producing something garish or gimmicky. Its clean lines are uninterrupted by control buttons. Rather than tuck such buttons out of sight, in a place where they might become inconvenient to use, LG has replaced them with touch-sensitive switches, which show up as a row of red LEDs at the touch of a finger. These LEDs are usually turned off, so they're not at all distracting while you're working.

The detachable stand offers only simple tilt adjustment, so this display doesn't really have the ergonomic chops required for prolonged office use. You could, however, mount it on a suitable monitor arm using the VESA mounting point.

Decent images
The display itself is a pretty standard TN panel with 176/170° viewing angles and the kind of colour response that's typical of models in this price range -- neither exceptional nor terrible. It's finished with a matte, anti-glare coating that we find much more suitable for general use than the high-gloss coatings found on some displays.

The touch-sensitive controls are designated by LED lights that turn on at the touch of a finger. When the LEDs are turned off, there's nothing to distract you from the display

In our tests, we found the W2353V's image quality to be pretty good. Contrast levels are fairly high even without the 50,000:1 dynamic-contrast mode enabled. Colour reproduction is also pleasingly accurate, while the range of displayable colours is around average for this type of display.

Its 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution are ideal for gamers and multimedia enthusiasts, allowing for the display of 1080p pictures and video without the need for scaling or other compression of the image. This means you could connect a Blu-ray player to the HDMI port provided and enjoy the highest level of quality from your discs. The W2353V also offers VGA and DVI inputs.

If you're going to use the W2353V mainly for work, you may find the pixels rather small, but LG's EZ Zooming feature works in conjunction with the supplied Forte Manager software to allow you to step the resolution down a notch by touching one of the front panel controls. This increases the size of on-screen text and icons but allows you to easily switch back to 1080p without having to delve into the Windows control panel.

Good menus
The display's on-screen menus are large and clearly laid-out. Inside these menus, features are grouped together according to function. Under the 'smart' heading, there's an auto brightness function that combines ambient light reading with analysis of the video data source to automatically alter the screen's brightness to a comfortable level, whether you're watching video in a bright office or shopping on eBay late at night in a darkened room.