BenQ's attractive FP767-12 delivers enough image quality for typical home use, but it isn't quite all it's cracked up to be for gaming and video.
The BenQ FP767-12's rounded, two-tone bezel and chrome-colour speakers give it more pizzazz than other 17-inch LCDs, such as Sony's sober SDM-X73 or Planar's pedestrian PE170. The FP767-12's black-and-silver design recalls the era of chromed-up cars and two-tone shoes (it also comes in white and purple or white and silver). The rounded, black bezel runs three-quarters of an inch along the top and sides of the screen. The bezel's bottom two inches house a silver-coloured control panel and set of speakers, which reminded us of the grille on a 1954 Cadillac Eldorado.
But for all its hints of golden-era car design, the FP767-12 is disappointingly stationary. Its base is an unremarkable plastic slab that doesn't prevent the screen from wobbling. The panel neither pivots nor swivels, and you can't raise or lower it. You can, however, tilt it about 30 degrees backward, and the panel will come apart from the base for use with a wall-mounting kit. There's a small slot in the base's back edge to gather the power and signal cables.
The BenQ FP767-12 has very few notable features. There's just one analog signal input--no DVI, S-Video, or USB ports. This display's sole extra, a pair of embedded, single-watt speakers, delivered disappointingly soft and trebly audio in our tests. Thankfully, however, the image-adjustment controls are simple and easy to use. There is an automatic image-adjustment button, but you can make a number of manual adjustments, including contrast, brightness, geometry, and colour alterations. BenQ also supplies its iKey calibration utility, which you can install on your PC and use to optimise the display.
The FP767-12 was an average performer in CNET Labs' DisplayMate tests. Text was readable and reasonably sharp. Colours looked bright and well saturated, but differences between shades were not well differentiated at either end of the grayscale. In our DVD and game motion tests, the FP767-12 suffered from background noise, foreground blurring, and some jagged images--not any worse than most other LCDs but certainly not significantly better. As a result, we can't recommend the FP767-12 over a standard CRT for video or gaming. Samsung's slightly more expensive SyncMaster 172X--the only other LCD we've looked at with a comparable pixel-response time--delivered somewhat better motion performance.
BenQ covers the FP767-12 with a standard three-year warranty for parts, labour, 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--a generous touch.
BenQ FP767 17.1-inch LCD
Company: BenQ
Price: AU$899
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 130 336
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