ASUS PM17TU LCD

In an attempt to identify all of the ASUS LCD's strengths and weaknesses, we compared the panel with an LCD which is considered one of the best displays money can buy. Here, we chose to use the Dell 2405FPW which is 24 inches big and $853.60 worth of visual bliss. Armed with some impressive specifications, including a 12ms response rate and a native resolution of 1920x1200, we would soon see how strong of a product the ASUS PM17TU LCD truly was.

Relative Performance Stiff competition

Placing the ASUS panel directly in front of the Dell 2405FPW, we quickly see that we are dealing with significantly less screen real estate. Obviously, the core difference between each panel is the fact that the Dell is a 16:10 widescreen LCD whereas the ASUS panel is a 4:3 aspect ratio. Although this standard aspect ratio is a limiting factor when watching widescreen DVD's and attempting to have multiple windows open side-by-side, the 4:3 aspect ratio is ideal for gaming as there are still only a handful of games that support widescreen resolutions.

To clearly depict the difference in effective visual area on each panel, we used the same Microsoft Project file and displayed the same information on each screen at the appropriate native resolution for each panel. As you can see in the images above, the 24" screen of the Dell 2405FPW on the left is easily able to display the entire project. As we would expect, the 17" screen of the ASUS PM17TU is only able to show a fraction of that information with some fields having to be hidden from view. As time goes on, more and more games will begin to support widescreen aspect ratios. Given the enormous advantage in terms of useable screen space a widescreen LCD provides, it is questionable how wise an investment in a 4:3 aspect ratio LCD today truly is. Regardless, you can see in the table below the ASUS LCD fares extremely well against the premium Dell 2405FPW despite being significantly cheaper.