Full Review

1 May 2008 - Hannspree are active in both the LCD TV and computer monitor market, and following the trend of the majority of manufacturers in this area has produced its 22in Verona XM in mind of both. It’s a stylish little number finished in a sleek gloss piano black – clearly the preferred design choice for modern displays. An attractive oval shaped stand coordinates well with the setup, and offers a simple tilt mechanism, though no provision for height adjustment or orientation.

Tucked underneath the screen you’ll find D-sub and HDMI inputs, but sadly no DVI connection, which might affect those whose graphics cards only offer this output. Finally there are a token pair of speakers built-in that will do in emergencies but are predictably tinny so won’t replace a dedicated pair.

We were pretty impressed by the original image in a Windows environment, though if you want to tweak this you won’t find any presets available for movies, photos and the like. You can manually adjust brightness, contrast and colour levels, or auto-correct the image if you end up overcooking things a tad.

The 22in display has a maximum resolution of 1680 x 1050 so you’ll have plenty of room on your desktop, and though the standard contrast ratio is a fairly meagre 1000:1, you can enable a dynamic contrast ratio control to boost things to a more palatable 2500:1. We had trouble discerning any difference in image quality or black levels with this switched on though, but thankfully the performance is impressive enough on its own.

Since modern LCD technology is pretty capable across the board, the ability to handle media playback and gaming is key in judging overall performance. We tested the Verona XM, initially through the D-sub connection, with some video content and overall were pretty impressed. Black levels are pretty solid and there’s good, accurate colour representation and image clarity. Strangely, HD video didn’t fare quite as well and wasn’t as vibrant as we’d like, with images appearing a little over-saturated. Though standard definition content doesn’t vary much if you run things through the HDMI connection, HD does fare better here; if you’re looking at watching a fair amount of digital video through the screen you shouldn’t be disappointed.

VERDICT
The Verona’s performance in both a Windows environment and when playing media and games is very good, and despite a few minor issues that’ll only affect the more discerning viewer it’s a very capable all-rounder. Priced at around £150 it represents good value for money as well, so provided you can resolve the lack of DVI input if it affects you, the Verona XM is an appealing choice.