Physical Views

The monitor comes packed in a standard box with foam cutouts holding the monitor and the seperate box of cables and manuals snug inside. The base of the monitor and the screen portion itself come seperated and snap together quite easily.

As far as adjustability goes, the screen is extremely limited. There are no height or rotation options, but the monitor can be tilted forward and back by about ten degrees. This should be sufficient for most people, but being 6'2, the screen is not high enough for me in and of itself. For taller people, the monitor will definitely need to be stacked on top of something, unless you prefer looking down on your screen anyways.

One thing that stands out immediately about this monitor is the high build quality. While it comes in at a very low price, the materials and assembly of the enclosure do not reflect this whatsoever. The plastic used over the entire body is very solid and has a slight grain to it, lending a nice sheen that does not come across as chinzty. All of the different molded parts are snug with eachother, and there are no unsightly gaps or misaligned plastic to mar the overall feel.

The only inputs on the back of the screen are for a VGA connector and a power plug, as Acer decided against including a DVI option.

The buttons for controlling the On Screen Display are fairly solid and provide a decent enough 'click' to not cause headaches adjusting the monitor. There were no problems with response delay as far as the buttons are concerned. One thing to note is that clicking the LED side of the power button will not result in the monitor turning on. There is enough button flex with the larger button that the monitor almost never picks it up if it's pressed in the wrong area. That was the only issue with quality we could come up with, and it's anything but a deal breaker.

Obviously the monitor is not in the same league as the Apple Cinema monitors as far as aesthetics and build go, but most people paying under $300 or so for a monitor of this size and performance potential aren't going to care. The look and feel of this display will be more than nice enough for 95% of monitor shoppers.