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Hannspree’s HF237 has a full-HD resolution and comes in a glossy black case with simple lines.
It’s suitable for use with a games console or home entertainment system, as it has an HDMI input. There’s no separate DVI input, but a DVI-to-HDMI cable comes in the box; alternatively, there’s an analogue VGA input.
Although modern monitors are very good at auto-detecting the settings for VGA connections, you’re still better off using a digital connection. However, if you want to connect a games console or Blu-ray player as well as a PC, you’ll have to give up the HDMI port.
The menu system is easy to use, controlled via four buttons under the screen. There are only a few picture controls – brightness, contrast and colour temperature – with a user setting for the latter.
Picture quality is fine, with no banding apparent in our gradient tests and a bright, even backlight. Colours were slightly dull, mainly due to a green tint that showed up in white areas. Turning down the green using the colour temperature controls reduced this, but for more accurate colours a hardware calibrator such as the Datacolor Spyder3Pro is needed.
Contrast wasn’t great however, and turning on dynamic contrast seemed to make little difference. We noticed some ghosting, which makes action movies and games less enjoyable.
Despite its great price, the HF237 has problems with colour accuracy and contrast. It would be a great budget deal if it weren’t for the fact that you can now buy last month’s Best Buy BenQ G2220HD for just over £120. This screen has better image quality, with good dynamic contrast and vibrant colours, making it far better value.
