Expert's Rating
Pros
- Good text
- Impressive image quality
- Easy to use on-screen controls
Cons
- Limited display maneuverability
Our Verdict
HP’s 2009m is an affordable 20-inch widescreen display that produced impressive image quality in our subjective tests. We saw nuanced, accurate skin tones in photographs, and found small fonts easy to read. The screen has a glossy, anti-reflective coating that gives the display a nice sheen—and thankfully, the coating also seems to enhance the screen’s readability rather than detract from it.
The 2009m’s 16:9 aspect ratio and 1,600-by-900 native resolution makes it appropriate for showing HD content. However, the 2009m does not have an HDMI connection—-it offers only VGA and DVI ports. The ports are set in at the back of the display; to plug in cables, it’s actually easier to lay the display down on its face, which isn’t the best (or most convenient) thing to do.
Jury tests
| Text | Very Good |
|---|---|
| Color Fidelity | Very Good |
| Uniformity | Very Good |
| Motion | Very Good |
Scale = Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor
How we tested: We connected the display to a 2GHz Mac mini with 1GB of RAM running Mac OS X 10.5.6 to make sure that it properly recognized by the Mac OS and then used a series of screens to look for light leakage as well as dead and stuck pixels. We then connect the display to an WindowsXP PC with an EVGA 7950GX2 1GB PCIX Quad SLI graphics adapter. We note the performance of the display with its default, out-of-the-box settings and then calibrated it to 6,500 Kelvin with a gamma of 2.2, using a Gretag Macbeth Eye-One Display 2 colorimeter. A group of jurors rated each display as Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, or Poor while evaluating a number of on-screen images for color, text, motion and screen uniformity compared with a sampling of similar displays.—Testing by Jeff Kuta, Kalpana Ettenson, and James Galbraith.
If the lack of an HDMI port and the placement of the existing ports aren’t deal-breakers for you, the 2009m won’t disappoint. Our motion tests showed little visible blurring, a good sign that the display should be a fine choice for watching movies or playing games.
To access the easy-to-navigate on-screen controls, you must use buttons that are set into the lip of the bottom bezel. The display can swivel only on its stand, and tilts with a slightly aggressive push. It cannot pivot.
Macworld’s buying advice
Despite a few drawbacks—no HDMI connection and little physical adjustabililty—the 2009m is a very reasonably priced monitor that offers great image quality.
[Kalpana Ettenson is a senior editor for PC World.]
Specifications
| Size | 20 inches |
|---|---|
| Native Resolution | 1600 x 900 |
| Connections | 1 DVI, 1 VGA |
| Viewing Angle | 178 degrees |
| Brightness | 300 cd/m2 |
| Response Time | 5ms on-off |
| Contrast Ratio | 1000:1 |
| Dimensions (height x depth x width in inches) | 19.8 x 7.2 x 14.6 |
| Special Features | speakers |
| Warranty | 1-year |