FlexScan a flat-out winner

Want to see the state of the art in flat-panel displays? Eizo Nanao Technologies

Inc.'s FlexScan L771 will knock your socks off.

For starters, the L771 offers the largest screen we've seen in a flat-panel

liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor, with a 19.6-inch viewable display.

The advantages of a flat-panel display over a CRT monitor are a lot

more obvious with larger screen sizes. If you have ever had a 20-inch CRT

monitor on your desk, you will immediately appreciate the L771's slim footprint.

Instead of dominating your entire desktop, the L771's 8-inch depth means

you can free up a lot of space. And because the unit weighs in under 20

pounds, you can easily reposition it on your desk.

Not only is the L771's display expansive in two dimensions — height

and width — and thin in depth, its quality is extraordinary. The thin film

transistor LCD delivers crystal-clear images, and runs at a recommended

resolution of 1,600 by 1,200 and a vertical scan rate of 50 Hz to 85 Hz.

That means rock-steady images, even at very high resolution.

And there are some other goodies in this package, too. First, the unit

delivers four downstream USB ports for conveniently attaching peripherals

on your desktop. The unit also supports two video inputs so that you can

connect two computers to the monitor. Switching the input from one computer

to the other is done simply via a button on the front panel.

The only knock on the L771 is that it doesn't offer an external control

for quickly adjusting brightness. Instead, you must use the software utility

combined with control buttons on the front panel to make such adjustments

manually. On the plus side, the software utility does an excellent job of

automatically optimizing the display's brightness and color.

Alas, such an elegant high-end display as the FlexScan L771 doesn't

come cheap. With a suggested retail price of $5,599 (although we found

it on the Internet for as low as $4,346), the unit can put a real dent in

your departmental IT budget.