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Complete listing of June 1996 reviews
by Marc Spiwak
Your monitor can affect your comfort and endurance more than any other computer system component. The more time you spend each day at a monitor, the more important it is to have a good one. Sony's new sfII series of high-performance displays certainly fits that description. These monitors are targeted for mainstream use by people who demand a bit more.
The new monitors feature Sony's Super Fine Pitch Trinitron CRT and aperture-grille technology with thin vertical openings that allow more electrons to reach the color phosphors. This provides a high-contrast, well-focused image. As always, Trinitron tubes are cylindrical, or vertically flat, with an antireflective coating.
Sony increases the displays' reliability by reducing their component count. The sfII monitors are backed by Sony's three-year warranty, with two-year coverage of the CRT. The monitors are EPA Energy Star- and VESA DPMS-compliant. I tested two of these new Sony monitors, the Multiscan 17sfII and the Multiscan 20sfII. Both models are impressive.
The Multiscan 17sfII has as flat a screen as you'll see anywhere, with a narrow, near-flush bezel. Its appearance is sleek and stylish, and it offers a 16-inch viewing area with a corner-to-corner display. Sony has also tried to keep the monitor compact, so the 17sfII is a bit smaller than the average 17-inch monitor. It measures only 16.8 by 16 by 17.8 inches, and weighs almost 42 pounds. The 17sfII will fit nicely in the space occupied by many 15-inch monitors.
The 17sfII includes a convenient set of digital on-screen controls. There are controls for color temperature, picture geometry, size, centering, brightness and contrast. A set of four buttons (up, down, left and right) default to brightness and contrast controls, but if a mode button is pressed, the control buttons switch to that function. You can quickly set color temperature to either 5000K or 9300K with a pair of push buttons, or anywhere in between by pushing another set of buttons. Geometry controls adjust picture rotation and pincushioning. Size controls let you adjust the height and width of the on-screen image, and the centering controls center the image after you set its size. It takes a few minutes to get used to the controls, but then they are very easy to use. A reset button lets you recall the monitor's factory settings.
The 17sfII has a 0.25-millimeter aperture-grille pitch and resolutions as high as 1280x1024 at 60Hz. The monitor can be set for horizontal scanning frequencies from 31kHz to 65kHz and vertical scanning frequencies from 50Hz to 120Hz. Up to 10 user-defined modes can be stored in memory.
The 17sfII's overall picture quality was above average, with excellent linearity. Slight color impurities were visible in corners when a white screen was displayed. This might have been due to color misconvergence, and there was no adjustment available. Moire' patterns were noticeable in the display when viewing some of the test patterns from Sonera Technology's DisplayMate testing suite, which is designed to test for monitor imperfections. Regulation-picture stability during changes in brightness-could have been better, but overall this monitor performed better than most.
The 17sfII is a genuine pleasure to use. My only complaint is that the brightness and contrast controls have to be cranked up almost all the way to produce a pleasant picture.
The 17sfII has a big brother, the 20sfII. This behemoth, while small for a 20-inch monitor, is too large for my desktop, and perhaps a bit too large for everyday writing and editing. It measures 18.25 by 19 by 20 inches, and weighs about 65 pounds. However, the 20sfII, with its 19.1-inch viewing area and corner-to-corner display, is really intended for desktop publishing and image-processing applications.
The 20sfII has a 0.30mm aperture-grille pitch and offers resolutions up to 1600x1200 at 60Hz. It features horizontal scanning frequencies from 30kHz to 85kHz and vertical scanning frequencies from 48Hz to 150Hz. The monitor offers 10 factory preset modes for common resolutions, and can be programmed with up to 15 user-defined modes. The 20sfII also adds controls for color convergence.
Lines displayed on the 20sfII weren't quite as straight as those on the 17sfII, but it exhibited better results on all other tests. Overall, the 20sfII's picture is nearly perfect and a pleasure to look at. It's also noticeably brighter and a bit sharper than the 17sfII.
These monitors cover most PC users' needs. For everyday work, the 17-inch unit is fine, and for desktop publishing, the 20-inch model is even better.
Info File
Sony Multiscan 17sfII
Price: $1,099
Pros: Excellent monitor forday-to-day use
Cons: Price
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1x, NT
WinMag Box Score: 4.0
Sony Multiscan 20sfII
Price: $2,299
Pros: High-quality big-screen monitor
Cons: Size
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1x, NT
Sony Electronics
800-352-7669, 408-432-0190
WinMag Box Score: 4.0
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