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Acer LCD Monitor Review – P166HQL
This is a review of a low cost, really nice, Acer LCD Monitor – the P166HQL which has a 15″ screen.
A few days back, my old LCD monitor started malfunctioning. So I decided to buy a new monitor for my PC. The one I eventually bought was Acer P166HQL LCD monitor.
Read on for the details.
Acer LCD Monitor - P166HQL
The monitor is sleek, good looking and light weight (1.52 Kg). Acer P166HQL is not a 17″ LCD monitor but a 15″ one.
This is what you will find inside the box.
The exact specifications of the LCD monitor are as follows.
P166HQL Specifications
Driving system – TFT Color LCD
Diagonal screen size – 15.6″ (40 cm)
Pixel pitch – 0.252 mm(Which gives it a PPI (Pixels Per Inch) of about 100.45).
Dot clock – 160 MHz
Max screen resolution – 1366 x 768 @ 60Hz
Display colors – 0.26M colors
Brightness – 200cd/m2
Contrast – 100000000:1 Max (ACM)
H-Frequency – 42-52KHz
V-Frequency – 52-68Hz
Maximum screen size – 344 mm (Horizontal) and 193 mm (Vertical)
Power consumption – 10W (ON mode), 0.46W (Sleep mode), and 0.35W (OFF/Standby mode).
No in-built speaker.
Acer LCD monitor details
The Acer P166HQL has 5 buttons placed underneath it; which can be used to adjust the brightness, contrast, and other monitor settings. Unfortunately, the buttons are not labeled.
Acer LCD Monitor - P166HQL underside.
The power button is conveniently located at the right side and has blue and amber back lighting.
The power button sports nice blue/amber back-lighting.
The monitor has a contrast ratio of 100000000:1 Max. Not surprisingly, the LCD monitor in its default setting was too bright for me. So the first thing I did was to reduce the brightness and contrast values to more acceptable levels.
LinuxAndFriends.com website as viewed in the monitor.
In the beginning, it took me some time to get comfortable staring at a shorter, rectangular screen because, my old LCD monitor (Benq FP567s), which is also a 15″ monitor, has a square shape and a much bigger screen height.
However, after a few days, I stopped noticing the difference. More over, because of the higher screen resolution (1366 x 768),the space on my Desktop virtually doubled.
Acer LCD Monitor Box mistakenly shows it as an LED monitor.
The Acer LCD monitor (P166HQL) is all plastic but the build quality is good. However, it has got a glossy finish and is a natural finger print attractor.
Linux users should feel happy as the Acer P166HQL is automatically detected in Linux. Ubuntu Linux detected it simply as an Acer Monitor and displayed the desktop at the correct default resolution of 1366 x 768. Fedora Linux however went one step further and detected the make (P166HQL) of the monitor as well. So this makes the Acer P166HQL LCD monitor Linux certified.
I paid for the Acer P166HQL LCD monitor a mere USD $78 -(Indian) Rs 3950. To my knowledge, LCD monitors don’t come any cheaper than this. In India, Acer offers a 3 year onsite warranty for this monitor.
Pros of the Acer P166HQL
- One of the lowest priced monitor.
- Decent build quality.
- Consumes less power – A mere 10W when running.
- Good brightness levels.
- True plug-and-play in Linux and Windows.
- Good resolution at 1366 x 768.
- Comes with 3 years onsite warranty.
Cons of the Acer P166HQL
- Glossy finish. Attracts dust and finger prints.
- May cause eye fatigue due to glare when used near an open window during day time.
- Many games do not occupy the whole screen because of the non-standard dimensions of the monitor.
- Brightness levels were a bit too high for my tastes.
- The buttons for adjusting the monitor settings are not labeled. So I had to figure out their functions by trial and error.
- The box incorrectly labels it as LED. But it is actually an LCD monitor.
Bottom Line
If you are looking for a budget friendly 15″ LCD monitor for your computing needs, then the Acer P166HQL might suit you well. Priced at under $80, this is one cheap bargain as far as LCD monitors go.
However, the glossy screen of the LCD monitor reflects light like anything. If you intend to use it at a place where lots of natural light streams in, then you might want to buy an anti-glare screen as well, to avoid eye fatigue. Or better still, buy another monitor – preferably one that is less glossy and with a square dimension screen.