When we first took the Viewsonic out of the box we were impressed at how light the LCD screen was, at only 6.5kg this makes it ideal for transporting to and from LAN parties. Plus the black finish does look the business but it does attract smudges and finger prints quite quickly.

Box contents consists of 1 x Audio cable, 1 x USB cable, 1 x DVI cable to connect your LCD screen to your graphics card, 1 x Analogue cable, two power cables, one for the docking station and one for connecting your monitor to your mains and a series of docking plates which are designed to fit various types of iPod.

The unit supports the following IPods, iPod with video, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod with colour display, iPod mini and the original iPod.

Basically you can plug in your iPod into the docking station in order to charge up the unit and listen to music or video clips using the monitors built in speakers, however though this sounds great you will need your PC turned on and itunes installed and a separate power cable plugged into the back in order to use it.

Also in order to get the speakers, microphone and USB hub that is built into the base to function you need to attach cables from the back of the LCD to the computers sound card and USB port, so if you want a clutter free environment you will be disappointed.

As for the specification, here is a brief list:

• Resolution: 1,680x1,050 pixels
• Pixel-response rate: 5ms
• Dot pitch: 0.28mm
• 280 cd/m2
• Contrast ratio: 700:1
• Viewing angle: 170 degrees horizontal /160 degrees vertical
• Connectivity: DVI, VGA, and 4 x Port USB Hub
• iPod dock, 2.5 Watt built-in speakers, headphone jack; eight-in-one media card reader
• PC/Mac Compatible
  

With all this said and done the quality of the screen was impressive, at first you have to adjust the contrast and brightest to suite your needs but there are several preset profiles that can be activated to suite your viewing preference, such as a cinema mode for DVDs and a Game mode.

These work well but are difficult to activate due to the controls that are built into the monitors front panel, if you have no finger nails or stubby fingers they will be extremely tough to press.

We sat and played several types of computer games whilst testing (in 3-4 hour sessions) and the Editor and staff all agreed the quality was excellent. The colours were vibrant and there was no sign of ghosting to be found. We played C&C 3, COH, Quake 4, Prey and Battlefield 2 - the later are all fast moving FPS games - and had no problems whatsoever.

Watching DVD movies was acceptable (but images were a tad washed out at times) and generally we did not have a problem with playback as we accepted that the quality would not be as good as an LCD bought for a lounge.

General Windows performance was great and the extra space does help when working in paint programs or typing word documents.

Sound quality through the 2.5 watt stereo speakers and 3 watt sub was actually quite good and we could happily listen to music, play games and watch movies.

The in-built microphone was a touch weedy as you need to be pretty close to the base unit in order to get your voice to be picked up cleanly.

The front mounted USB ports were useful not only for being USB 2 but also for accessibility and the 8-1 card reader was also put to good use.

As for value for money the Viewsonic fairs well with other 22" widescreen monitors, the inclusion of the additional features such as the USB hub, card reader and speakers are a bonus but you will need to clutter your desk space with extra cables as a result.