 "Awesome value, crisp text, reliability unknown but worth it. Buy it!" | 2009-12-08 |
| - Reviewed By matt from Colorado, USA |
This review is for the I-Inc iF281 which is practically identical in features to the HannsG HG281DPB, but apparently only sold at CompUsa and TigerDirect:
Just got it today so limited experience. But for features and price I am extremely happy with the I-Inc iF281 (IF281DPB).
Apparently I-Inc is an *even cheaper* sister brand of the HannsG brand, both of which are under the HannStar company from Taiwan.
The I-Inc IF281DPB is almost identical in specs to the HannsG HG281DPB, except:
- The power consumption spec appears to be smaller on the HannsG (more on this later).
- The HannsG has a different bezel that is piano gloss instead of the flat black of I-Inc.
- The HannsG has a 3yr (partial) warranty whereas the I-Inc has a 1yr (partial). By partial I mean that parts and labor have the full warranty term, but the LCD Panel itself *may* be less. (more on this later).
I will use this for 8 hours/day of sw development so lots of staring at either white or black editor background screens.
So my need is for text editing, not photo or graphics editing, and not for watching video or gaming. For my needs it appears to be a fantastic value.
The first week of December 2009 it was 250 at CompUsa but 320 at TigerDirect, not sure why as now CompUsa is also 320. What an amazing deal!
Observations:
-The value is impossible to beat for a 28" with 1920 x 1200 res. Most monitors at 23-26" are 1900 width, but stop at 1080 height and NOT the full 1200 which is great for added desktop area.
-Nice clear fonts, easy to read text, not fuzzy. A 28" is optimal as the pixel pitch is large at .309mm. So for older eyes the fonts are bigger than they would be on a slightly smaller one like a 23-26" at 1900x1200, or a 30" at higher resolution.
-I am happy with the quality, but the reliability and warranty is unsure and suspect in the long run, but again worth the money vs the alternatives.
-Yes it is way too bright out of the box, but this is adjustable to look fine, white is not too strong and blacks are black now (not washed out greys).
-The bezel is not glossy but flat black and I like this better than the HannsG models with piano gloss that adds glare. The screen has great non-glare coating (unlike some HP's).
-The monitor stand tilts and swivels just enough, but does not raise and does not rotate to portrait. Height is good - for me eye level is about 3/4 of way up on screen.
-I hooked it up to a year old Compaq laptop using its DVI output to the monitor's HDMI input. This cable (DVI<->HDMI) is included in the box. I did not try the VGA input, perhaps it is poor quality as others have declared, I don't know.
-I have it running side by side with my 3 yr old Samsung 225BW 22" on the VGA input. I can adjust the I-Inc to look pretty much the same to my eyes.
-To me I don't see any issues with some areas of the screen being darker than others any more than I would expect from side viewing any TFT LCD monitor. I don't notice any stuck pixels.
Details:
The manufactured date shows July 2009. Others have said this is a 2006-2007 model but I don't think so from this supplier at this writing. This date may be important for 2 reasons:
- Some have complained that theirs runs very hot and is rated for 100W vs 65W for the HannsG. But my experience is that it does not feel hot at all, just similar to my 22" Samsung. I wonder if the old units are now gone and the newer power supply design is now used?
- The warranty on the I-IDT website as of 12/2/09 lists "1 year for parts, labor, and LCD panel" but the warranty card in the box (from 7/09) lists "1 year for parts, 1 year for labor".
Obviously my concern is that it is the LCD panel that needs the warranty! My take on this is that the shipped box has older printed warranty cards (labeled I_LCD1_W_USA_R03) but I purchased based on the only information I could find, which was on the website. Hopefully I will never need to find out.
- In comparison, the HannsG warranty on their website shows 3 years for parts and labor, and 1 year for LCD panel.
Other clarifications:
Right out of the box when cold it was a bit fuzzy for fonts but that went away after it warmed up and it looks totally sharp. It's not like the old CRT days when focusing beams might not look sharp on a low end CRT brand name.
And the brightness defaults to 100 and that was WAY too bright and made blacks look like grays.
But again the good news is that after using the on screen menu to adjust brightness (I use 1-10 and even 1 is bright) and adjust contrast & color, I can get it to look just like my 3 yr old Samsung 225BW 22" with its brightness at 70.
The input select (VGA or HDMI) is in the on screen menu and takes 3-4 button pushes (not a concern for my usage).
You can also set custom settings for R, G and B color which dims the overall brightness as well, and by turning those way down you can then crank contrast back higher. I have R=80, G=80, B=50, Contrast=50 and Brightness=10.
Summary:
+ Great value, true 1200 height resolution for PC monitor use, not just made for 1080p video box inputs.
+ Sharp text display, turn down the brightness and contrast and it has good blacks and not painfully bright.
- Reliability is unknown, and warranty is definitely suspect, (but CompUsa offers extended warranty if desired).
- They make a different model for higher dynamic contrast for more money, probably better for some users.
- No remote control or tuner as it is a PC monitor and not a TV.
It has the features I need and I don't mind gambling on the reliability for this price!
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 "This thing is pretty sick" | 2009-12-01 |
| - Reviewed By S. Mcguire |
I paided $[...] for it at [...], took another posters advice and its already dropped to under $[...] this past week.
I bought this as an external monitor to my macbook pro and so far it works great (after some adjustments to my preferences) The picture is very clear and sharp but I haven't figured out how/if I can make the resolution super small so I can open like 4 windows at the same time.
My main usage (VGA) is through the macbook pro for music production using Logic Studio, It cuts the workload time down because its alot easier to see the screen, you don't necessarily see MORE of the screen which I was hoping for but maybe I just haven't figured it out yet.
The sound out of the monitor is pretty good and very loud, not very accurate if you are using the built in speakers to reference sound, but I also have an Apogee Duet with some Yamaha HS50s and the HS10 monitor/sub system hooked up.
^^^^ever since I connected the monitor I've been getting a noticably loud hiss/white noice coming from my monitor chain, probably because there is so many cables going in and out of my Mac but if anyone knows how to fix this without using a ground wire please comment back
I also have a PS3 connected via HDMI which looks great on the Hanns G 28", only thing is that I cant get the sound to play through my monitor speakers and sometimes it switches back and forth between HDMI and VGA on its own. |
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| "Great monitor but terrible menus" | 2009-11-28 |
| - Reviewed By 78wizard from Fairfax, VA |
| I love the size and performance of this monitor. But be warned that to do a simple thing like switch input requires at least 6 menu selections using invisible buttons. My previous monitor had one button on the front to switch input between two sources. I don't know if I will be able to stand going through the menu every time as I do this a lot. |
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 "Great when it works" | 2009-11-23 |
| - Reviewed By Jim B from La Honda, CA United States |
| I bought one of these monitors off Amazon about a year ago and it has worked fine. I love the larger pixel pitch for my old eyes. I bought a second unit a couple months ago for use at work, and within one month it stopped working (white screen of death). Evidently this is a fairly common fault with this monitor. Since Hanns G has no local service depot, I had to mail it back to them in Southern California for repair. It is now fixed but a lot of hassle for a monitor that should be more reliable. |
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| "Great Monitor for a good price" | 2009-11-16 |
| - Reviewed By nikoomba1 from Guatemala, Guatemala |
Hello Everyone!
I recently purchased this monitor (15 of october 2009, give or take a week)
and i haven't had any problems with it, the only drawback (or feature if you wanna see it that way) is that its bright, at its "normal" setting the monitor is very bright, so its best to lower it at the lowest possible brightness so it wont hurt your eyes.
the images on the monitor look very good, i honestly dont have any comparison to monitors of this size since it my first 28" inch monitor.
but from the expirience with this monitor its very good.
i can put it on 2 categories , watching movies and playing games:
I give it 5 stars on playing games and 4 on watching movies.
first on playing games, playing MMO's and playing FPS games is a very nice enjoyable expirience with this monitor, it has a very good image quality and also in FPS games its a good advantage to see more.
in watching movies, the main problem with watching movies in this monitor is mainly with the viewing radius, you can watch ok if you are on the same level of the monitor, but if you go below the level it can look washed or even less bright, so if you wanna make it your movie pc, you might wanna think on that, but its not a REALLY bad problem you just have to shift it slightly and it will look better.
so to sum up, its a good monitor to play games and are on a budget and ok for watching movies, for the price i bought it ($360) it only makes even better. |
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| "Love these - NO glasses" | 2009-11-07 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
Love these monitors from Amazon ... the Hanns-G 28 inch is great, have 6 of these now, two rotated 90 degrees for emails and chat windows, and the rest normal. I run 4 monitor set ups in 1920x1200 with 2 rotated for emails and chats. Do not have to wear my glasses surrounded with these, created horseshoe configuration and nothing further than 18 inches from face. color is as good or better than all others and so far "NO" failures, also run 30 inch dell, which I do not like as well as these. Definitely pick these over any others and do not bother with 24inch when you can have these ...
I take off my glasses at the computer and easy on the eyes ... |
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Expedited Available
