Eizo FlexScan L685 not for the fainthearted

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

When was the last time you did something crazy? I mean, something really crazy by most standards? In my case, it was about one month ago. What did I do?

Well, what could be crazier than spending my hard-earned US$1,250 on an 18.1-inch computer monitor? With a little research, anyone could tell you that, at almost twice the price of other LCD monitors of the same dimensions, it was far too much of an investment.

Besides its exorbitant price, what made it an even crazier investment was the fact that it was not really difficult to find fault with this product. Fortunately, I knew of the shortcomings before I made the decision.

* A Long Wait

To give you the background, let me tell you how I use my computer. Because of my poor vision, my face is usually no more than ten centimeters away from the surface of the screen. That was the main reason I had long wanted to replace my great and faithful 20-inch Sony Multiscan HG with an LCD monitor. Unlike the cathode ray tube monitor, a liquid crystal display radiates hardly any electromagnetic field frequencies. Therefore, an LCD should be safer for my health, as I work so many hours on my computer every day.

I must confess there had been times in the past that I almost impulsively bought one of the LCD monitors that I reviewed. Somehow, I managed to refrain myself from doing so, and I waited long enough before I took the plunge. I guess, this also gave me ample time to save money -- dollar by dollar -- to pay for the monitor of my dreams.

It was during one of my trips to the computer stores at Ratu Plaza that this monitor from Eizo caught my eyes. Incidentally, the name Eizo may not be as familiar to you as Samsung, Sony, NEC, or Viewsonic, but I have known the company since 1989, when I bought my 386 33MHz PC. At that time I was still enjoying my student years on the lovely island of Oahu, Hawaii. I ordered a 16-inch monitor along with that new PC from a company on the mainland. They only had one brand to offer -- Nanao FlexScan, so they sent me the heavy and chubby monitor. I did not keep it because I found the glass panel too curvy. If you have to bring your eyes very close to the glass panel to read the text, a curvy panel will make it difficult for you to read the entire lines of characters from left to right. I returned it to EPS within the money-back warranty period, and I bought a flatter, 16-inch NEC MultiSync instead.

Later on, Nanao, which was originally founded in Japan in 1968, changed their product brand to Eizo Nanao. In April 1999, the two related companies were finally merged to form Eizo Nanao Corporation, which is now a publicly listed company in Japan.

For many years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nanao was regarded the leader in monitor technology, along with NEC. However, in the second half of the last decade it began to lose out to NEC, Sony, and lately to Samsung. Now, all that may have changed with the introduction of this -- once again -- expensive Eizo FlexScan L685.

* What did I like about it?

What was it that I like about this monitor? First, the design is simply sexy. Eizo has followed the latest trend by using a very thin bezel -- less than 2 centimeters -- around the TFT panel. I was told that inside the plastic bezel there was a metal frame to protect the expensive components.

Secondly, and much more importantly, it has a high degree of brightness. Now, I never need the monitor's maximum brightness. In fact, I had to reduce it to almost the minimum until I reached a level that was really comfortable for my eyes. Eizo says that the brightness of this monitor is 250 candelas per square meter.

The contrast ratio, according to the product specifications, is 400:1. It may not be very impressive, but the actual performance looks better. The black characters in a Word document are easy to read. The color fidelity is great, too. The viewing angle is 170 degrees, both horizontal and vertical. It means that while I am staring at the bottom of the screen I still can glance and read the characters at the top without having to move my chin up.

I must admit that it took me some time to find the right settings that suit my preference. Each time the Reset button would return the brightness and contrast level to factory defaults, which are simply too glaring for me. By the way, the recommended resolution is the native 1280 x 1024. When I forced it to display at 1024 x 768, I lost a little of the monitor's excellent sharpness (it has a dot pitch of 0.2805 millimeter). The monitor's image-scaling and image-smoothing functions could fix this, but I finally chose the 1280 x 1024 resolution with the Large DPI setting rather than having to tinker with these features. The solution created another problem, unfortunately, as the list inside Word's Open dialog box, for example, became truncated. Some program dialog boxes follow the screen resolution, not the size of the font. For now I think I still can live with this.

A USB hub is included and can be found on the rear of the monitor. It has one upstream and four downstream ports. The monitor can be connected to two computers at the same time, and it accepts both digital and analog signals. Choosing which of the two signal sources to be displayed just requires you to press a button. You can give the priority to Source 1 or 2 using the On- screen Menu, so that the monitor knows which one to display right away each time it is turned on.

The monitor has a tilt and swivel stand, and the panel can also pivot to a vertical, or portrait, position. The height can be adjusted, too (you will have to raise it before you can rotate it to the portrait position).

Eizo offers an optional pair of speakers, i-Sound. It comes with a jack for a microphone. As usual, I am prejudiced when it comes to the sound quality of monitor-attached speakers.

To accommodate the needs of corporate users, the monitor has a unique serial number and can be managed remotely by administrators. A Kensington lock slot is also available to keep the monitor secured to your cubicle.

* What didn't I like?

I did have some items on my complaints list, though. First, the seven buttons that you use to adjust the screen can be confusing at first. The labels are hard to read, so people with limited vision like me cannot easily tell what each of the buttons is for -- until we successfully memorize their individual functions. The On-screen Menu is not friendly enough for non- techies, although it provides a lot of adjustment opportunities.

The power and signal cables are messy, despite the availability of a wire holder at the back of the stand. Eizo should learn from NEC LCD 1550V, which hides the cables and the connectors in a very elegant way. If you have a number of USB cables dangling from the hub, rotating the monitor to the vertical position can be a very messy exercise indeed.

While the panel can pivot to portrait, until now I have not figured out what software to use. Nanao does not provide the necessary utility to turn the landscape display orientation to portrait. Furthermore, unlike some other LCD monitors, there is no handle on the FlexScan L685, so you have to lug the entire monitor when moving it from one desk to another. At more than 8 kilograms, this is not a lightweight monitor. The adjustable arm costs a whopping $600 extra.

The FlexScan L685 has a more versatile sibling, the L685EX, which is targeted to computer-aided design and manufacturing and desktop publishing professionals with the addition of advanced color controls. However, if you really have money to burn, Eizo has FlexScan L985EX, a 21-inch LCD monitor that has the same sleek design and features as the L685EX. Like the FlexScan L685, you will not be disappointed when it comes to performance and quality of these two premium LCDs. At least I can tell you I am not disappointed with the Eizo FlexScan L685, although it has taken a huge chunk of my savings.