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BenQ Professional 17 inch Lcd Monitor review: BenQ Professional 17 inch Lcd Monitor

BenQ Professional 17 inch Lcd Monitor

Headshot of Justin Jaffe
Headshot of Justin Jaffe
Justin Jaffe Managing editor
Justin Jaffe is the Managing Editor for CNET Money. He has more than 20 years of experience publishing books, articles and research on finance and technology for Wired, IDC and others. He is the coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015), which reveals how financial services companies take advantage of customers -- and how to protect yourself. He graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in English Literature, spent 10 years in San Francisco and now lives in Portland, Maine.
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Justin Jaffe
3 min read
BenQ's FP783 looks quite unlike most LCDs we've come across, many of which have a conventional white, black, gray, or silver color scheme and a mundane, cookie-cutter design. The FP783, on the other hand, comes in an edgy combination of beige and off-white, with highlights that BenQ says are blue, but which look to us to be dark purple (as opposed to Deep Purple). The four-legged stand, reminiscent of Cingular's logo, is another inspired touch that serves to make the FP783 one of the sturdiest and most wobble-free LCDs we've ever seen. The design is certainly striking, but unlike other, more flexible displays, the FP783 isn't particularly adjustable. You can't swivel it, pivot the panel to Portrait mode, raise a neck for additional height, or remove the panel for wall or arm mounting. You can, however, tilt the panel about 35 degrees forward and a whopping 90 degrees backward, ostensibly making it easier to carry and store.
As you'd expect with such an expensive 17-inch LCD (approximately $800 as of May 2004), the FP783 offers good connectivity options. It provides both an analog and a digital input, and BenQ supplies cords for both. A detachable panel on the back of the monitor does a terrific job keeping cables organized and hidden. Stashed behind the display's left edge are two downstream USB inputs, into which you can plug a keyboard, a digital camera, or another peripheral without reaching around to the back of your PC. On top of the panel is a third USB port for BenQ's $40 detachable Webcam (sold separately). BenQ also offers an optional $40 set of 2-watt speakers with SRS surround sound, which we did not test. The FP783's standard image-adjustment controls, subtly tucked into the bezel's wavy right edge, are fairly easy to use, and we like that they include a dedicated auto-adjustment button.

One of the FP783's three USB ports sits atop the panel, well situated for a Webcam.

Tested on the digital connection at its native resolution of 1,280x1,024, the FP783 was a mediocre performer in CNET Labs' DisplayMate tests. Text looked readable and reasonably sharp, and colors looked vibrant and true enough for typical productivity use. But while BenQ claims a contrast ratio of 500:1 for the FP783, we found the contrast to suffer from somewhat washed-out blacks. We also found the display's viewing angles fairly limited, and we saw distortions when tilting the screen even slightly. Unlike that of BenQ's FP767-12, the FP783's 12ms pixel-response rate seemed to benefit its DVD-motion performance. Streaking and ghosting were minimal, and colors looked good, although we detected a bit of digital noise. Still, Samsung's SyncMaster 172X, one of the few other LCDs on the market with a 12ms response time, delivered above-average DVD playback, better overall image quality, and a comparably slick design for considerably less money.
BenQ covers the FP783 with a standard three-year warranty for parts, labor, and backlight. Should you need to return the display to BenQ during the warranty's first year, the company will replace it with a refurbished unit within 48 hours and pay shipping costs both ways; BenQ will pay for shipping one way during the second and third years.
CNET Labs DisplayMate tests  (Longer bars indicate better performance)
CNET score  
BenQ FP783
69 
Sharp LL-T17D4
67 

Brightness in cd/m²
Measured with the Minolta CA-210  
BenQ FP783
246 
Sharp LL-T17D4
218 

Find out more about how we test LCDs.