I’ve been helping a friend choose a 17” LCD computer monitor. Although I’m still sticking to my trusty old CRT monitors it was interesting to have a look around at what’s available today.
I spoke to a friend of mine who generally knows about this kind of stuff and he’d just bought an AOC monitor from Refresh Computers. Refresh sell two AOC models, the LM720A and the LM727, and both sell for £249 inc VAT. I checked around and for that price it was hard to find a similar 17” LCD/TFT from a recognisable brand at this price so the choice just came down to which AOC model.
It appears the LM727 could be a slightly later model but the main differences are that it is height adjustable (very good for posture 
) and can pivot from landscape to portrait. I have another colleague who has a “pivotable” LCD monitor and he’s always saying what a great feature it is especially for photo editing etc. Both can do 1280×1024 resolution and both have built-in speakers. Since most people buy an LCD monitor because they are short on desk space, built-in speakers seem like a good feature to have too (although personally I’d definitely keep using my Bose PC speakers). The LM727 also has some other minor improvements in the contrast and viewing angles over LM720A so the LM727 has to be the one to go for.
The pivoting requires some special drivers to tell Windows to flip from landscape to portrait. I was very glad to see that these drivers can be downloaded from the support section of AOC’s web site. You must have at least Windows 98SE for these drivers, so be careful if you have the bog standard Windows 98 (how can you tell? Well right-click on my computer and choose Properties. Also bog standard 98 didn’t support USB – do you have any USB devices attached?).
Refresh also sell a matching AOC USB hub for the LM727 at just £14.95 - that’s got to be a must-have too.
No Gadget Rating on the AOC LM727 this time as I haven’t seen one in the flesh (plastic?) yet, but if I were buying an LCD monitor today this is the one I’d go for.
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