By James E. Powell

The new name among PC monitors is really an old, familiar friend. EIZO may not ring a bell just yet, but the company's former name-Nanao-is well known. One of EIZO's newest display products, the FlexScan TX.C7S, is a 17-inch Trinitron monitor that proves to be a mixed blessing; its picture is sharp and clear, but its new single-adjustment-button approach may leave you frustrated.

The monitor has a 15.9-inch diagonal viewing area and supports resolutions up to 1280x1024 at 86Hz. It has a 0.25mm aperture grille pitch and an antireflective coating to reduce glare. I tested the FlexScan TX.C7S with Sonera Technologies' DisplayMate and found its picture bright and rich with intense color, and crisp text and graphics.

The monitor's front panel has a power switch and the single adjustment button, alongside a light indicating power or power-saving mode.

You can adjust just about everything on the TX.C7S, but you'll have to do it with the one front-panel button. The button has an arrow imprinted on each edge, and it pivots at the center. When you press it firmly in the center, the on-screen menu appears. Press the left or right button edge to select the options you want to change, such as brightness or contrast, then press the top or bottom edge to increase or decrease the settings.

In my tests, the touchpad-style button didn't respond well consistently. You can adjust the settings using the Screen Manager Pro software, if you can spare a serial port to connect a cable between your system and the monitor.

Display adjustments include color temperature (4000 to 10,000 degrees Kelvin), contrast, degauss, horizontal and vertical size and position, pincushioning and trapezoidal adjustment, tilt and convergence.

This monitor's price tag is about $150 less than that of its predecessor, the T2-17, and it has a square look that's also sleeker. Typical of Trinitron monitors, you'll see two thin black lines, at about one-quarter of the way down from the top and one-quarter of the way up from the bottom. You probably won't notice them as time goes on.

The monitor meets the new, tougher TCO 95 standards for electromagnetic radiation, environmentally friendly materials and visual ergonomics.

--Info File--
EIZO FlexScan TX.C7S
Price: $1,125
Pros: Sharp, color-rich display
Cons: Display adjustments
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1x
EIZO Nanao Technologies
310-325-5202, fax 310-530-1679
WinMag Box Score: 3.0