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The W243h is the first monitor we’ve reviewed from Edge10. It’s also the cheapest 24in display in our Labs this month, and considerably cheaper than some of the 22in monitors that have lower resolutions than the W243h’s 1,920×1,200. Fortunately, in this case cheap doesn’t mean poor. The W243h’s picture quality is excellent. Out of the box the picture was too washed out and the brightness was set so high as to ruin the black level. However, with both brightness and contrast lowered, we found the W243h produced a pleasant picture. The screen has a cold, clinical tone compared to the vibrancy of the other 24in models, but while working or browsing online this made for a clear and sharp desktop. Our tests showed a slight bluish hue to the backlight, which slightly affects the black level, but the white level was good and even. Games and movies suffered a little because of this coldness, but the picture remained sharp and detailed. Fast motion proved no stumbling block, despite the 8ms response time being the slowest here. We saw some banding in our gradient tests, but the colours were evenly distributed and were generally more accurate than we expected at this price. Edge10 has somehow managed to squeeze an adjustable stand into the budget, too. This lifts through 12cm and pivots 90 degrees for tall documents or images, but we found that it never looked absolutely straight in portrait mode. It has both DVI and VGA inputs, and the limited 2W speakers add to the value, as does the three-year onsite warranty, which may provide extra peace of mind.
Edge10’s W243h has much to like. There are better monitors than the W243h here, but its low price makes it our pick of the larger-format models. It’s not quite good enough to justify a Best Buy award alongside Samsung’s 2693HM, but the W243h packs in an awful lot for not very much money, and wins our Budget Buy award.
