ModSynergy.com - Review 72 - Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD Monitor Review

Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD Monitor Review

LCD monitors are becoming more popular as each day and year passes by. Soon we will see the flood of standard LCD displays everywhere in every home. LCD displays have many advantages over the traditional bulky CRT monitors. Today we will be reviewing a LCD display from a company that is relatively new but knows how to make monitors.

Welcome to the Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD Monitor Review!

About Cornea Systems

"Founded in 2001 and headquartered in San Jose, CA, Cornea Systems Inc. is a subsidiary of Cornea Technology, the third largest TFT-LCD display manufacturer in Korea. This state-of-the-art facility employs only the most innovative engineers, guaranteeing quality products that surpass customer expectations. Cornea Systems has sales offices in Japan, Germany and the United States".

The Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD display arrived to us in great condition via FedEx. I noticed that it traveled through Korean Air. The box was still in good condition with minor cuts on the box. When I opened the box there was good protection to the TFT-LCD display. There is two big pieces of Styrofoam protecting it from any shaking and damage.

I laid the display on a desk to take pictures of it. The display was very light and I was relieved it did not weigh as much as my CRT monitor. It weighed about more than half of my Philips CRT. It is so light that you can carry it with one arm. The look of the CT1704 display was sleek and elegant. It has a silver and black color scheme going for it and had excellent paint quality. The fit and finish of this display was excellent. The Cornea CT704 has a thin trim. It is about 1 inch wide. This can be great if you go dual monitor setup. You have the ability of tilting the TFT-LCD upwards but the way it comes is perfect so you don’t lose any image quality when tilting. It was actually hard to find a way to tilt the Cornea. I suggest reading the manual as I did.

Another benefit of LCD-TFT than CRT’s is it is space saving and that holds true with the CT1704. Now I have more space to save on my desk than before. If you have a small table, this LCD can fit in any small space. The stand is very stable too.

Specifications

Panel

Size: 17" (43.18 cm)
Pixel Pitch (h × v): 0.264 mm × 0.264 mm
Viewing Angle: Left:+80°, Right:-80°, Up: +50°, Down:-70°
Liquid Crystal Mode: Normally White (TN)
Display Area (h × v): 13.3" × 10.64" (337.92 mm × 270.34 mm)
Display Colors: 16.7 million
Contrast Ratio (typical): 400:1
Brightness (typical): 250 cd/m2
Response Time (typical): 20 ms
Scanning Frequency: Horizontal: 31-82 Khz
Vertical 56-75 Khz
Lamp Life Time (typical): 50,000 Hrs
Recommended Resolution 1280× 1024 / 60 Hz
Surface Treatment: Anti-glare, Hard-Coating 3H

In/Out

PC Analog (15-pin D-sub) Separate Sync.
Audio Stereo in (PC), Stereo out (headphones)
Speakers (built-in): 2 Channels (2 watts)

Function

Scaling: Up/Down
Tilt Angle (font/rear): +3° to -20°
OSD Language: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

Power

Power Supply: AC 110-240 V, 50/60 Hz
Power Consumption: 40 watts
Power Management: VESA DPMS compatible

Other

Color(s): Silver/Black (2-tone)
Warranty: 3 yrs parts, 3 yrs labor, 3 yrs backlight, 3 yrs Advanced Cross-Ship
Temperature Operation 32°F-104°F (0°C-40°C)
Storage -20°F-60°F (-4°C-140°C)
Dimensions (w × h × d): 15.85" × 16.54" × 7.12" (402.5 mm × 420.0 mm × 181.0 mm)
Weight Net: 9.5 lbs (4.39 Kg)
Gross: 13.15 lbs (5.97 Kg)
Regulations: MIC, FCC-B, UL, cUL, VCCI-B, CE, CB, TUV-GS, ISO13046-2, EPA Energy Star
Other Features: VESA Standard Wall Mountable (100 mm)

As you can see by the specs, the Cornea display has a typical response time of 20ms. When you are out choosing a TFT-LCD display always look for less ms., which translates into less or no “ghosting”. More on this later. The display supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 @ 75Hz. At this resolution I found no signs of flickering. This monitor is flicker-free.

When you purchase this display, you receive the following:

Turning to LCD towards the back, you now have the black color scheme. You have the basic connections underneath the rear that includes the VGA monitor connection, Audio In and out ports, and the power connection plug. This monitor does not support DVI so you would have the added benefit of better picture than that of the original 15-pin VGA.

Installation

Installation is pretty straightforward and basic. For the audio, you connect one end to your PC sound card and the other back into the “In” port of the TFT-LCD display. I did find a flaw while installing the VGA connection. When I try to screw in the cable behind the TFT it doesn’t fit and screw in. This is because where the pins screw in, it is too far inside the LCD than supposed to protrude outwards.
PICS

Using the display - My analysis

I have used the Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD Monitor for about two weeks and here is my analysis.

The image quality of the Cornea CT1704 is excellent. It produced vivid color and was east to read. This monitor was bright as well. The desktop fonts were a little hard to read and I suggest turning on Clear Type on Windows XP as it allows the font to become bigger thus easy to read. The color as I said is excellent. Whites were white, reds were red and black was black. There was no dead pixels in the time I used this display which is a good thing. Everything was sharper than I could ever imagine over my CRT. As you can see from these shots, don’t produce a big flicker on the screen as opposed to CRT because they give out less radiation.

The Cornea CT1704 gives you good viewing angle and better from what I have seen with other LCD’s. If you look from a side angle you still can see a good amount of what is on the screen.

The options menu is very good giving you a healthy amount of options to choose from. It is a transparent menu that is easy to navigate. They include the following options:

Auto-Adjust
Brightness
Contrast
Position
Image
Volume
Color
Language
OSD Adjust
Miscellaneous

What I love is the Auto-Adjust and the Auto button on the front, which is the same function. This button is awesome. What this does is recalibrate the position of the monitor to the right picture. So for example if the screen is too the left and is cut off, the Auto function will automatically find the right position and fit the image onto the screen.

Playing games

The TFT-LCD is amazing. The color reproduction is excellent and things were sharper than before. The LCD even made games look like they had less jaggies than before. This is also due to the fact of the dot-pitch of 0.264. Don’t get CRT and LCD dot-pitches mixed up. A LCD display of lets say .27 is better than a dot-pitch of a CRT monitor of .22. It’s all because of the better process and image reproduction of LCD displays.

There was little ghosting present. Ghosting is the effect given of like a blur when moving around quick in games. You have a bit of ghosting with this monitor. Not much that it distracts you from the game you are playing. Just a tiny bit. The brightness of this is really good. Every game I played was bright and easy to see. When the game is dark is where you will see the monitor become too dark to see.

I also noticed that games felt smoother than my CRT. This could be because of higher video rate than my CRT.

Sound

The sound quality of the Cornea CT1704 is nothing to write home about. Its fairly basic sound quality with just two watts of power for each speaker. Let’s put it this way. It is good for easy listening and click sounds. Almost like laptop speakers. It is clear and easy to hear with great treble but with less bass.

Here is a movie of the sound quality of the Cornea CT1704 playing a DVD. Right after that is the Auto function in action. The sound solely depended on the quality of the camera but it’s nice to hear first hand anyhow.

Movie - 524KB, WMP 9 Required

Conclusion

The Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD Monitor is a great monitor to buy. The image quality was great; it has built-in speakers and has good amount of options in the OSD menu. However, it had no DVI support for better image quality and there was a minor VGA cable problem trying to screw it in.

As this is my first LCD-TFT display review, I have learned advantages and disadvantages over the traditional CRT.

Advantages

+ Space saving
+ Image Quality
+ Style/looks
+ Flat out rocks!

Disadvantages

- Price

Overall I can recommend the Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD Monitor to anyone looking for a new change and better quality. I almost did not want to give up using it and going back to my CRT. When you use a TFT-LCD you will never want to go back to CRT anymore…Period.

I rate the Cornea CT1704 17” TFT-LCD Monitor a…

9/10!

Pros and Cons

+ Sexy style
+ Space saving
+ Built-in speakers
+ Quality
- No DVI support
- VGA cable problem
- Tilting it is hard first time and only up and down

I would like to thank Cornea Systems for making this possible. Visit them here for more products and information.

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