Picture the scene, you have all watched Wall Street or Capital City or some such other film glamorising the dealing floor of yet another fictitious Bank or Broker well alas the harsh reality is…..

I work in a space of about 6 square inches with the back of my desk piled with 5 computer screens displaying the latest market prices, news, charts and all the other information I need for my clients. The screens themselves are ancient, Noah had similar on his ark!!

But no longer thanks to my wonderful IT department luv em!! For they have installed 5 Phillips brilliance 150P screens and I now have a desk again. Allow me to explain why I am so happy about this

SPACE

These screens are amazing they are 15” monitors but with a display comparable to that of a 17” monitor but the actual space taken up is 60% less than a standard monitor.

The dimensions to this screen are 402 x 418 x 176mm (including the pedestal) for those like me who prefer inches 1.6 x 1.7 x ¾.

STYLE

The monitor is the usual creamy tan pc type colour, any confirmation of the exact colour definition gratefully received. The screen stands on a tiny foot. Above this and below the display area are two speakers located at the very bottom right and left corner of the screen.

The on off switch and the adjustment buttons are polished metal and do look very cool.

I have to say though the desk looks so cool and hi tech with these screens

DISPLAY

As I mentioned previously the actual display is comparable to that on a standard 17” monitor giving a really nice sized screen view. For those techies amongst you the actual display size is 15” (304 by 228mm)

Now for some serious technical specification courtesy of http://interspeed.co.nz/~pccentra/general/generalm onLCD150b.htm

Resolution and preset modes
Maximum resolution 1024 x 768
14 user definable modes
14
factory preset modes: H.freq.(KHz) V.freq.(Hz) Standard
640 x 350 31.5 70 IBM VGA
720 x 400 31.5 70 IBM VGA
640 x 480 31.5 60 IBM VGA
640 x 480 35.0 67 MAC
640 x 480 37.9 73 VGA
640 x 480 37.5 75 VGA
800 x 600 35.2 56 VGA
800 x 600 37.9 60 VGA
800 x 600 48.1 72 VESA
800 x 600 46.9 75 VESA
832 x 624 49.7 75 MAC
1024 x 768 48.4 60 VESA
1024 x 768 56.5 70 VESA
1024 x 768 60.0 75 VESA


Now I am not a major technical person here but this does seem to me to be a really good range of customisable settings to suit any requirement.

This screen will also accept analogue and digital inputs giving a wider range of connectivity either through standard video or utilising digital transfer at up to 12 mbs.

For me the important thing is that the colour and contrast are razor sharp, and when viewing three or four real time updating graphs this is a serious consideration if you do not want to go blind after an hour watching the screen.

Usability

Phillips recommend that the best display setting is 1024 x 768 at a refresh rate of 60Hz this was no problem to set up through my control panel but I like to play so to take you through the shiny silver buttons

The on off switch is the biggest and the boldest with a little green light to indicate that power is available. (In case you hadn’t noticed the stuff displayed on the screen!)

To the left of this is the menu button that brings up the main on screen menu:
Volume
The first option is volume to adjust the built in speakers. This is just a simple slide to select set up
· Languages
There are English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Japanese language settings available
· Adjust Position
Both horizontal and vertical adjustment
· Brightness and Contrast
Allows general settings and specific colour enhancements
· Video Noise
To be honest I have no idea
· Adjust Colour <
br>Sets the colour definitions
· OSD Settings
Again too technical
· Product Information
Gives the serial number of the screen
· Reset to Factory Settings
Does exactly what it says on the screen
· Input Selection
Gives you the choice of analogue or digital input
The navigation using the arrow keys is simple and each selection is confirmed by pressing the main menu button

The next keys allow navigation through the menus and if in standard display allow the brightness to be adjusted

Next are the volume adjustment keys for the speakers

And finally the auto button that is a short cut to restore factory settings

Speakers

The speakers are only 1 watt each but the location at opposite sides of the screen does give a fairly good sound. Lets face it though you do not but a screen for the sound quality and I would recommend external speakers every time.


Conclusion

I would probably not buy this model but would plump for the Brilliance 150b the difference being the speakers. I do not see a need for speakers to be built into the screen but for work purposes they are great, sky news and Reuters TV are perfectly clear.

These screens are expensive at nearly a £1000 each but in the scheme of things the resolution and the saving in space more than makes up for the cost. I would love one of these at home I wonder if work will notice???