Acer AL1916W 19" Widescreen LCD

[zivan56]

Well my old Samsung monitor was starting to get very blurry after 3 years of use, so I decided I have finally had enough of CRT's altogether (I get headaches from them).

I found the Acer 19" Widescreen LCD at my local computer stores for a rather cheap $319 CDN, as most 8ms 19" regular LCD's were around $400 CDN. After looking at some online reviews, I decided to go ahead and buy it. Its been a couple of weeks since I got it, and I have not regretted it.

The screen itself is very clear and VERY bright. I have to emphasize the brightness part, as I had to keep it under 30% in order to be able to focus my eyes on the screen. Unlike some other LCD's, even at 100% it does not wash colours out too much (but I wouldn?t think anybody would use it at 100% anyways, its probably for when the backlight gets weaker).

Turning on the screen, you will see an Acer logo fade out for about 2 secs. After that, there is no noticable delay when turning the screen on when coming out of sleep (less than 2 sec to turn backlight on/display picture)

One of the strange things about this screen is the fact that it is 16:10, so you have to run it at 1440x900 in order to keep it in its native resolution. My ATI Radeon 9600 Pro had no problems supporting it, but some video cards may. I only play a couple of games, so Flight Simulator 2004 and Colin McRae 2005 had no problems running at the native resolution. No lag/tearing was noticable in games.

The connectors provided are only power and VGA (its a very low cost LCD remember), so there was nothing interesting in this part. The VGA cable is high quality, and it was a bit longer than the one I got with my CRT a few years back.

The controls on the screen itself are fairly basic, and I don?t want to go over them. Basically, you have everything you would find in a VGA port LCD monitor (including the "Auto" button). One thing to note is that you never have to use the auto button except the first time you switch to a new resolution (so it centres and adjust the colours). Compared to a Samsung 19" LCD monitor I have access to (which requires pressing the button every time I start a game in order to get the right colours), this one never has colour problems. I believe it stores the Auto settings per resolution as well.

The power button os standard, and glows a dull green when its on. However, when its in sleep, it glows a bright orange.

(I wasn't using flash for the above, so quality is not even close to what it is in real life)

Overall:

I highly recommend this if you like widescreen LCD's and don't want something like a Dell (or to pay the same price)

Pros:

- Very bright

- Good colour, was very surprised considering it was pretty cheap

- Auto button does not have to be pressed every time you switch between games/Windows

- Nice looking, cool orange sleep LED.

- Good price ($319 CDN)

Cons:

- When you change resolutions, expect a delay of about 1.5 secs; this is especially annoying during boot/startup of Windows.

- VGA connector (but it was expected for this price)

- Base stand is kind of large and strange looking

[Ashiaveli]

wow that is indeed an amazing price. i ahve my acer al1912s 19inch lcd..wish i had the widescreen :(

[alsheron]

I saw this monitor too, on Amazon and I was amazed that a widescreen TFT is so cheap.

Then i did a bit of research and found out it's only a 6 bit monitor. "ONLY" meaning that for me, someone who edits photo's and needs faithful colour reproduction, this monitor wouldn't be good enough.

For most people though, this monitor would be fantastic.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

That looks great!

[audioscheine]

i just bought the same monitor about a week ago.

awsome review... completely agree with you!

I just have one thing to add to the cons. The monitor seems to shake qite a bit, even if im just typing, i parked the side right upagaist the wall to stop this... but somtimes it moves away... its kind of annyoing

[dh5]

wow i wish i was playing Flight Sim on that baby :)

[Saadu]

This is sweeeeeet. I have a 1912. Would definitely go with Acer again if i have to.

I agree with ur cons too. Would love DVI input. Base stand is also kinda wide. But overall, a great product for my first TFT.

[Saadu]

This is sweeeeeet. I have a 1912. Would definitely go with Acer again if i have to.

I agree with ur cons too. Would love DVI input. Base stand is also kinda wide. But overall, a great product for my first TFT.

[AionXn_]

I was going to buy this but i decided to buy a Samsung

[zivan56]

I saw this monitor too, on Amazon and I was amazed that a widescreen TFT is so cheap.

Then i did a bit of research and found out it's only a 6 bit monitor. "ONLY" meaning that for me, someone who edits photo's and needs faithful colour reproduction, this monitor wouldn't be good enough.

Well if you are into that buisiness then you would probably not go for any LCD monitor altogether. I have noticed, compared to my old monitor, that the picture is sharper and less dull; but my monitor was 3 years old and text was hard to read above 1024x768. Compared to other LCD's for the same price, this one definately blows them away. If you want features like DVI/excellent colour reproduction, you will need to spend at least double the amount in order to get them. if you are just a regular computer user who games and needs an LCD, this one is pretty solid. :)

Also, note that my camera is over 5 years old, and the above pictures are not even close to what it actually looks like. Flight Sim looks way better than you see it on there.