Rating: 5/10
Octigen want you to like this monitor. They want you to like it so bad, that they have stated proudly on their limited warranty statement that comes with it "Congratulation, you have made a good choice purchasing this monitor". Well, we'll be the judge of that thank you very much Octigen.
As for the figures, well the 17" TFT-LCD monitor comes with a response time of 16ms, which is a little over the ideal response rate you should be looking for - anything under 15ms. It has a contrast ratio of 450:1, which is again lower than many out there and a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024, which is more than sufficient for most games.
It looks okay, coming as it does with a silver and black panel and a black footprint. I do have a big problem with that footprint though. It isn't the smallest you'll find and it adds a fair amount of weight to the monitor (which is only 4kg in total). Also, it's really quite hard to manoeuvre which causes considerable grief as you try to alter the viewing angle of the screen. The amount of times the monitor fell over as I tried to adjust just isn't funny, although the office seemed to find it funny watching me struggle with it! Even worse, whenever you do move the screen slightly, it wobbles more than my tummy after a particularly sizeable Sunday Lunch.
The control panel is pretty basic looking and does the Octigen few favours, with small and cheap feeling plastic buttons controlling brightness, contrast etc, as well as the usual auto adjust button.
So what about the display performance? Well, it's not bad considering the price - colours are relatively crisp and sharp and the refresh rate does a sufficient job on games and movies alike. Sufficient is the word here though, with the Octigen never managing to produce images that jump out at you. I reviewed the Viewsonic VX724 a few weeks back and whilst that is admittedly about £80 more, the difference in both build and display quality is markedly superior - the Viewsonic comes with a response time of just 4ms and has a great viewing angle for you to adjust your screen with.
In fact, the quality is so different that I'd save your cash on this one and look elsewhere.
For more information, visit Micromart.co.uk