ASUS VW266H Monitor Review

OSD and View Angles

The On-Screen Display is familiar to anyone who has previously used an Asus monitor, and if you haven't then it's about as intuitive as these things can get. 

Firstly we have the Asus splendid presets, which we will demonstrate on the next page. Moving along we have the obligatory Brightness/Contrast adjustments. Proper calibration of your monitor to the light conditions that are wherever you will use it is vital. More often than not monitors, like televisions, are shipped with everything to the stops so that it will stand out in the brightly lit shop. Whilst insane brightness, contrast and huge saturation might be important in the sales world, at home or in the office we much prefer something that is easy on the eye and produces good colour reproduction.

Speaking of colour, or "color", that is the next thing along in our OSD. There should never be a reason to adjust the color [sic] temperature as minor swings to either the warm or cool end of the spectrum can be adjusted in a much more delicate manner.

Finally system setup which is, barring the reset of some ham-fisted adjusting, something you'll never need to use.

View Angles

Ah viewing angles. There are two real differences between the cheaper, and thus the one that nearly everybody owns, TN panel and the more expensive IPS or PVA types. The first, and far more important, is colour reproduction. TN panels are limited in the amount of colours they can display at any one time and so in graphics work it's almost vital that you choose a more expensive panel as befits the importance of your work. At least 90% of you will never notice the difference, and of those remaining 10% barely any will actually care.

The second thing that is oft quoted is viewing angles. Simply the ability of the monitor to produce a consistent image whether you're looking at it standing up, laying down or walking past. To be honest I've never held much weight to that. A lot of monitor snobs will belittle a panel saying "oh but if you look at it from three feet below and at a 100° angle the colours are amiss". I don't know about our OC3D audience but I'd wager not many of you lay on the floor below your desk and play games or watch movies. I reckon you, like the rest of us, sit in front of it. It's not even as if the primary usage for a display of this type is as your main family television and so you have to make sure that your Dad snoozing by the fire has the same picture as your Grandma staring out the window.

Anyway, given that inexplicably some people demand to know if it still looks great whilst they do handstands up the other end of the room, here are some viewing angle shots. As you can see for such a large panel it's very consistent. This Lagom.nl test picture is an extreme example used for calibration and testing purposes. In average use it's even less noticeable. Should you feel the need to do the Macarena in the middle of a Photoshop session.

   Standard position

                                           6 inches above                                                              6 inches below

                                              To the left                                                                  And to the right