Customer Reviews

ACER V173B ET.BV3RP.001 17-Inch LCD Monitor

5 star:		(122)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I rated this monitor 5 stars because of the bang for the buck.

Pros:

Sharp
Great price
Very bright
Great refresh rate

Cons:

Does seem a little small if you have been on a 24inch iMac but what doesn't?

Review:

I bought this monitor for our backup computer which is an old Gateway PC running Ubuntu (free computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux). The old CRT monitor was over 10 years old and was fading into history not to mention it was huge, hot and took a lot of energy.

This computer is mainly used to check e-mails, surf the web etc. and I use it to check how photos I re size on the big iMac look on a smaller screen. So I thought this little 17" should be just the ticket.

Setup:

I unpacked it plugged it in and bang it was up and running!! No need to do anything all the settings were perfect right out of the box.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for an easy to setup 17" LCD monitor and want bang for the buck this is it!!!

I highly recommend.

10-27-2008 Update:

This little monitor continues to impress me. It seems almost as sharp and bright as my 24inch iMac which has always been my bench mark for the perfect monitor. But it's a heck of a lot cheaper. How do they make the price this low and the quality this good?

Pros: excellent picture, fast refresh, compact size, very little heat generation, wide viewing angles, looks nice.
Cons: have run it near constantly for a month playing games and surfing with no problems yet so it may have none :)

I purchased this for my 78 year old mother to replace her old, CRT monitor. I purchased it 1.) for the low, low price 2.) on the basis of two positive customer reviews. Exceeding all possible expectations, the monitor arrived in her home within two business days -- free freight. She hooked it up by herself and is babblingly ecstatic with the results. ("I don't even have to use my glasses to read it!!")

I bought this monitor to replace a 15 inch Dell Trinitron that started popping and smoking one afternoon last month. I take a lot of digital pictures in my work and for pleasure. Color fidelity isn't a life or death issue but I appreciated how well the Trinitron did its job.
So, I had some apprehension about buying this monitor but the price made the decision easy. I haven't seen a better deal anywhere. I was very pleased to find that the color and resolution of this monitor satisfied me completely. I am very pleased with this purchase.

I have had this monitor for about a month and I am very happy with my purchase. I am running Windows XP on a six year old Gateway computer. I received the monitor in just two days. I would recommend this monitor for anyone who wants an LCD for an analog connection (VGA).

The first change I made was to run the monitor at the highest screen refresh rate that's appropriate for this monitor. I've always found the higher the refresh rate, the better the image on the screen due to the reduction or elimination of flicker. However, keep in mind the monitor must work harder in order to do this. The manufacturer had the default settings for the highest resolution and the slowest refresh rate. If you change the refresh rate, check to see if the manufacturer's software changes it back to the default the next time you start up your computer. If so, you can uninstall the manufacturer's software to prevent this from reoccurring. To change the refresh rate: Display Properties (right click the desktop, choose properties), Settings tab, Advanced button, Monitor tab, put a check in the box "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display", after checking the box - my highest Screen refresh rate was 75 Hertz.

The following is for those individuals who find the size of text too small at a high resolution. At first, I tried different resolutions to make the text bigger via Display Properties (right click the desktop, choose properties, Settings tab). I didn't take long to realize this monitor should only run at 1280 x 1024 resolution for the best image quality. In order to compensate for my 48 year old eyes (going to need bifocals soon), I changed the DPI Setting (Display Properties, Settings tab, Advanced button). I recommend starting with Large size (120 DPI) and using that for awhile before making any more changes. If you find that to be too big as I did, choose Custom setting and reduce by about 5 percent to "119% normal size (114 dpi)". I found this Custom setting comfortable. If you still find it to be too big, reduce by another 5 percent and repeat until you find what's best for you.

There will always be some web sites where the text is defined as very small and very difficult to read. One option to get around this problem is to copy the text into a word processor and then change the font and size of the text to your liking. Another option (suggested by a comment to this review) is to use the zoom feature of Internet Explorer located in the bottom right corner of the screen. It can be identified by a small magnifying glass with a "+". You can click on the magnifying glass to change the zoom percentage.

Easy to set up, clear images, bright colors and finally I have a monitor I can move around without hurting myself and I can actually work off my computer desk with all the extra room.

This is an excellent buy for the money and purpose of our home computer. There are no internal speakers so be prepared to buy those separately, but we got the Logitech S120 2.0 Multimedia Speakers for around $12 and they work great for our use. Have always had good experiences with Acer brands.

I agree with all the reviewers who say this is a great screen at a great price. I like that's it's relatively square, rather than widescreen (with all the resulting resolution-adjustment issues).
What I didn't realize before I got the monitor and set it up and used it for a few days was how important the stand is in any monitor. The stand for this monitor is heavy plastic, non-height-adjustable, and balanced. I originally thought the stand did not allow for any front-to-back tilting, either, but another review made me reexamine the stand and I was eventually able to tilt the monitor back. Yay! I would change my review to 4.5 stars but cannot seem to adjust my original rating.

The color is good, it's a little small, but a great bargain. Installation was easy, I have no complaints.

The display itself works great. Two things to watch out for: 1) tilt is limited and may not get you the angle you need; 2) cable connections on the back are fully exposed, a factor if you care about aesthetics as when the monitor won't face a wall. Other than that, it looks like a great display.