ITWire

If you look at the announcement of the Acer G24 at face value, then you would think that with a contrast ratio some five times higher than the previous champion (the LG W2252TQ) that the claims of it having the highest contrast ratio LCD monitor on the planet were pretty watertight.

There are not that many full blown HDTV sets that can match this kind of ratio, it has to be said. However, it also has to be said that contrast ratio scoring is something of an interesting sport to say the least. One expert has said just that, calling it 'horribly ambiguous' in the process.

Gordon Kelly reviews monitors for TrustedReviews and has questioned the relevance of such figures. "There is no set industry standard, dynamic is not the same as static and allows for greater manipulation of the numbers and it isn't stated whether this is a grey-to-grey or colour figure (with the former easier to achieve it is almost certain to be that)" Kelly says, concluding "On the other hand, it is a huge amount so we'll be keen to get it into the office for testing."

In the meantime we are left with the press release which promises a monitor "designed to entice PC gamers" with a radical design and impressive specs. If by radical design Acer means bright orange bezel, then you have to question its sanity. Even Acer seems embarrassed, insisting the colour is actually metallic copper.

Every publicity image jumps out of the screen for all the wrong reasons, and unless you have invested in the equally 'metallic copper' Aspire Predator extreme gaming desktop PC it is hard to see how this would compliment anything, even in the often bizarre world of gaming PC design.

Beyond the orange exterior, what does the G24 hold in terms of display performance and how much will it cost? See the next page for details...

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