Product Reviews

Eizo's reputation as a maker of high-quality displays is well deserved, and there's no danger of it being damaged by the FlexScan S2110W 21in display.

At 1680 x 1050 pixels, it's the same resolution as Apple's 20in Cinema Display, but has an extra inch of diagonal space. It also has a slightly wider and black bezel, and significantly deeper body when compared with Apple's entry-level model.

It's a third more expensive again than Apple's 20in model, but on paper it's a more highly specified device. It's brighter (450cd/m2 compared with the Cinema Display's 250cd/m2) and is capable of displaying considerably more contrast (1000:1 versus 400:1). Furthermore, with a maximum response time of 8ms - double that of the Cinema Display - you'll see less smearing with fast-moving video.

And the good news is that all these specs translate into superb performance. The screen is indeed very bright, and there's bags of contrast. Detail is crisp and text is a pleasure to read.

There are two separate ICC profiles supplied for two different temperature/gamma combinations. Good as these are, though, regular calibration with an

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add-on puck is preferable with a display as precise as this. Leizo makes its own model, but a calibration puck from any of the major manufacturers will do the job.

The on-screen display (OSD) enables you to fine tune the picture to a remarkable degree. You can adjust saturation and shift the hue in the picture as a whole, or to specific colour channels, and save these settings - along with certain combinations of gain, temperature and gamma - in each of the five picture modes. In untutored hands, messing with these settings will cause no end of colour calibration woes, but dedicated professionals will be pleased with the level of control offered.

The controls are a little fiddly to use, thanks in part to the way the four-way arrows used to navigate most of the OSD are positioned in a straight line, and partly because they're touch-sensitive buttons, unmarked except for being debossed into the bevel. True, you won't touch them most of the time, but when you want to adjust something, you'll need to squint to get the light just right to see the controls.

The display is mounted on a curved stand that alters the angle of the monitor as it raises and lowers it, which means you can't adjust the height as much as you like. It does swivel through 172, though, so you can show what's on screen to your colleagues or clients, and the master angle of tilt can be adjusted.

There are monitors capable of the same resolution that cost less than half the price of the Eizo FlexScan S2110W, and some more expensive models that are even better suited to mission-critical colour work. However, if you're in the market for an outstanding widescreen display for high-end creative work, this should be on your wish list.