Purchased one of Gateway's 21" wide screen dissplays for my new system 2 weeks ago. Thought I'd post a little review. I have not actualy played with many of the Displays extra fetures such as PnP. I did not get it for the fluff but as what it is at it's base, a 21" wide screen display.

The quality of the image on the screen is very nice. I was a bit wowed by it at first. I get clener cripser images then I did with the screen on my 8890. To be fair that would be a screen with 3 year old LCD tech. None the less I loved wat I was seeing when I first started to play wiht the screen. I kept saying to myself that this thing was huge. I pushed the screen back a littler further on the desk, still felt huge. Scooted back further from the desk in my chair, still huge. Its big... so big. Yet since it is an LCD it does it without having the overwhelming feeling like you have an SUV parked on your desk. Very nice, nice indead.

Stand is solid and very easy to adjust. The only bad thing about it is that there is no way to lock it in place, at least that I have seen. Not a big deal really. There is a little cable clip on the back of the stand shaft to help hide your cables and it works fine.

The menu buttons are impossable to see from the front of the screen. I have found them a bit difficult to use because of this. They are also a bit flimsy. Big deal? Not so much. You don't adjust the secreen settings on a regular basis. Usualy you set your settings and your don't mess with it so the difficulty of using the buttons and flimsy feel don't make for any substantial issue.


The Problem...

Brightness, oh the brightness. I think that a lot of people would not have issue with what I am about to bring up but, it is very problematic for me. It is annoying enough to the point where I am about to take it back and go with another display.

What is the issue? The birghness settings. I set my screens at a relitively low level of brightness. You only need enough light to do what you need to do. I don't need my room lit up with a level of light comprable to a bright sunny day. As such I don't need a bright screen to keep from being washed out. How is this an issue? Normaly it's not. Just turn down the brightness jsut like I have done for every other screen I have ever used, simple and easy. That is the catch.

If the screen brightness is set below 90 then the power unit in the back of the display begins to emit a hi pitched buzz. The lower the setting, the higher the buzz. It is loud enough at the 65 brightness (the setting I am comfortable with) so that I can hear the screens bumble bee imatation from the other side of the room (15ft). Now my computer is louder then the screen, so is the noise from my fridge in the kitchen. The issue is that it is high pitched, and gives you a splitting headache, kind of noise.

I returned the first screen I got because it was obviously defective. I checked out the demo while I was waiting for the new screen at the store. It had the buzz. Not good. Took the replacemnet screen back home and set it up, same thing. Apparently it is a design problem that as far as I can tell is consistant with all of the screens. All 3 of the screens I have had the chance to examine have had the same issue.

Truth be told is this a major problem? Mabe yes, mabe no. It depends on the user. The noise would bother some such as myself but not be a problem or even noticed by others. Many people would never even bother to set the brightness of their screen at less then 100% anyway. I did see one review where the person returned this screen because it was not bright enough. Makes me wonder if he uses his computer with a welding hood on.

Now, are there work arrounds for me with this issue? Yes. I am slowly dinking with the display controlls in ATI's Catylist Control Panel to get a setting that I am happy with and has good results. Since the display is set at 100% brighness and the software is then toning it down there is no buzzing issue to be had. There are some software issues though. I need to do some more testing but it seems that if I swap form a game to the desktop it takes a second for the desktop to snap to the sofware adjusted brightness. So for a breif moment I get blinded and then everything snaps back to a less then "help I am stranded on an arctic glacier on a sunny day without any eye protection" kind of a setting.

All in all a good dispaly but with one very frustrating issue for me. I should mention that it has a DIV plug but it does not come with a DVI cable, oh and the screen is freaking huge!

one of my friends went though 3 units untill he got one that diddn't buzz, so it IS possible to get one that will be quiet.

Hummm... mabe I should just hook them up in the store untill I get one that doesn't buzz. It's too bad Gateway doesn't heve any brick and morter stores any more. Wouldn't mind doing that there but, hate ot walk into a Curcit City and blow though all of the screens they have in stock.

heh, yeah. The ones that DID buzz were different volumes of buzz, so maybe you could get one thats at least quieter.