We used the monitor test program to give the 170MP's display a thorough going-over. The LCD panel proved itself to be very vibrant in terms of colour replication, and naturally had a very sharp image (at 1280x1024).

The LCD panel used in the 170MP boasts one of the highest possible sets of viewing angles at 80/80/80/80. That means if you look at the display from 80 degrees up/down/left/right there will be no distortion in the quality of the image you see.

Brightness sits very comfortably at 170cd/m2. This is slightly below the norm of 200cd/m2, but that is more of an analytical comparison than anything else. To this day we still have not been able to tell the difference between TFT panels sporting 200, 250 even 150cd/m2 luminance ratings. The contrast rating for the 170MP is quite good at 220:1. Typically 300:1 is on the high end of this scale, and 150:1 on the low end so the 170MP sits quite comfortably in the center of this scale.

Finally the dot pitch of 0.264mm assures this display offers industry standard pixel size that produces a very clean image without any distracting "griding" effects. While many of you have asked for the response times on the actual LCD panel, we've always had a very hard time tracking it down. In this case we couldn't locate any specs to pass on top you, so we'll have to rely on the good old 'fast moving text' test.

Basically we take a full page of black text on a white background and quickly move it up and down. If the LCD panel is slow some streaking will occur (the text seems to blur into a dark red generally). While no blurring was evident on this display, the response time seemed fairly average among the TFT displays we've looked at in the past.

Conclusions

When we first hear of flat panel displays with TV-tuners built in we thought was a nice feature, but nothing special. After giving the 170MP a thorough going over we were quite impressed with both its non-beige styling and sheer usefulness. The convergence of TV, video and the PC display into one low-power unit is a very good step for those of us looking to reduce the amount of energy consumed, and the convenience of watching TV while you work on the computer is simply great.

As the TV-tuner is included within the display, this autonomous feature imparts no extra strain (however minor it might be) on the computer's video card or processor which is an added benefit in our books. Finally, at a fairly reasonable price for a 17" LCD display, the SyncMaster offers a multitude of features that makes competition just fade away. While I have a few irks with the remote, these are fairly minor in scale. From what we've seen the 170MP is an excellent display with tones of features that we wouldn't hesitate to recommend should you be in the market for a 17" flat screen, for home, or work.