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By Marc Spiwak
KDS' new VSx-7 monitor is a feast for the eyes with its clear, crisp picture and clean, modern design. It's also got some auditory attractions such as speakers that mount to the base of the monitor, which will save you some desktop space.
The 17-inch monitor has a 15.9-inch corner-to-corner viewing area, an antiglare screen and a 0.28-millimeter dot pitch. It maxes out at 1280x1024 at a 60Hz refresh rate, or lower resolutions with refresh rates up to 120Hz. The VSx-7 is also Plug-and-Play compatible and Energy Star compliant. It has an on-screen display.
Once you get used to the buttons, it's easy to adjust contrast, brightness, position, size, pincushion, trapezoid, rotation, color temperature, and red and blue gain.
The speaker assembly that mounts to the monitor's base swivels but doesn't tilt. Another jack on the speaker assembly receives an audio input from a sound card. A convenient volume control is located on the left side of the speaker assembly. Although the speakers are more than adequate and reduce desktop clutter, they'll disappoint the audiophile.
The VSx-7's overall picture quality is commendable. Its display is bright, clear and easy on the eyes, with no visible flicker. I used Sonera Technologies' DisplayMate software to gauge the monitor's picture quality. That program's test patterns indicated that the corners of the display were slightly out of focus, but this was not distracting. All other aspects were good, except dark-to-light transitions, which were fairly unstable. It might be distracting during full-motion video. In short, this is an easy-to-live-with 17-inch monitor.
Info File
KDS VSx-7
Price: $649
Pros: Price; multimedia capabilities
Cons: Underpowered speakers
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1x
KDS USA
800-237-9988, 714-379-5599
WinMag Box Score: 3.5
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