Despite the absence of a DVI input, the monitor is fairly sharp. There should be no problem with using it for office applications.

But games are where we were expecting this panel to show its stuff. And we were very pleasantly surprised. After long months of waiting, we finally have a 19" LCD that is set up for gaming. Indeed, on a purely subjective level, the feeling of being immersed in the game is amazing. It's hard to go back to a 17" when you've experienced the thrill of gaming on a 19".

Again, if there's one application where the somewhat low resolution of 19" LCD monitors is not a problem, it's games. The native resolution of 1280 x 1024 is amply sufficient to let you play the most recent games under optimum conditions. The LCD92VM is a real treat for the eyes for gaming. Yes, it is less responsive than the best 17" LCDs, but that drawback is fully compensated for, in my opinion, by the feeling of immersion a 19" can offer. Don't wait to try it.

On the other hand, this monitor's pixel interpolation is not as good. True, it's a 19", and we know not to expect miracles, but the NEC is a little behind the others on this score.

Video and multimedia are a bit less euphoric. There's a good deal of sparkling on color masses and the viewing angles are narrower, obviously, than with an MVA/PVA panel. The vertical viewing angle, which is particularly limited, accentuated the panel's lack of uniformity, and halos of light could be seen when the monitor was displaying black. As for sound, once again the built-in speakers are simply unusable.

Conclusion

NEC has produced a good monitor - fast, affordable, and with quite good color fidelity. Obviously it's a far cry from truly high color quality, but that's the price to pay for finally being able to play games on a 19" screen.