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24″ 1920×1200 pivoting LCD monitor $210 refurb

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Thomas Phinney

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[UPDATE 18 Feb 2009: They are all out of monitors, sorry! – T]

I tried to resist, but broke down and ordered one myself. Normally I don’t talk about hardware, nor directly shill for products. But I figure this will be of interest to a fair chunk of my readers…. But it probably won’t be around for long.

Now, this monitor is refurbished, but still, it’s an awesome deal at $209.99 including shipping: a refurb pivoting 24″ 1920×1200 widescreen LCD monitor. Pivoting means that you can rotate the screen to switch between landscape and portrait orientation.

They say in the ad it’s “comparable to” the HP monitor, but sources say that it’s literally the same monitor, that if you peel off a bit of tape on the back, there’s the HP logo (or in some cases there’s just a little block missing where the logo would have been inserted). PC Magazine reviewed the HP-​branded version a year ago.

Other details/​specs/​gossip:

  • Very big color gamut (much more than the average consumer monitor)
  • hard (impossible?) to calibrate
  • Very very bright
  • Glossy screen can be overly reflective, causing glare problems
  • Good viewing angles may not be as wide as one would like – from below is particularly bad (which ends up being from one side after you rotate it)
  • HDMI and VGA inputs, but no DVI (would require an adapter cable, but those are cheap)
  • Has audio in and built-​in speakers, but the speakers are not too great
  • Also acts as a USB hub with USB in and four USB outputs
  • You’ll need to download manuals from the HP web site. Depending on your video card, it may also be useful to download HP’s drivers as well. They have a “My Display” app that is reportedly helpful….

Comments

5 responses to “24″ 1920×1200 pivoting LCD monitor $210 refurb”

  1. Simon Robertson

    so has it arrived? is it as good as you thought?

    [Not here yet, supposedly shipped on Monday, though. – T]

  2. Simon Robertson

    oh and it looks like the link to buy.com no longer works.

    [Probably because they are out of monitors. I’ll update the post. Interestingly, the graphics links are still good. – T]

  3. Thomas Phinney

    It arrived yesterday, and I set it up this morning. It is indeed as good as I thought. The biggest issue is that ClearType and similar technologies are not adaptive to the screen rotation, so I find I want to turn them off when the monitor is in portrait mode. Still, it’s pretty awesome, and I’m thinking it was a good call.

    24″ widescreen is actually pretty darn tall in portrait mode, btw. I don’t think I would want it to be any bigger than that.

    Cheers,

    T

  4. Michael Rowley

    I have been using a similar monitor (Iiyama) to your new one for just over a year in portrait mode without doing anything about ClearType etc. I have noticed no deterioration in resolution, possibly because I mostly work full-​screen showing a single A4 page; but perhaps your younger and more practiced eyes may notice a difference. Your report will be read with interest.

  5. Thomas Phinney

    Yes, switching orientation is definitely an issue for ClearType and similar technologies, as one would expect. I don’t have a great solution for this.

    That being said, the monitor is working fabulously for its intended purposes!

    Cheers,

    T

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