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Many LCD monitors are becoming LED backlit, with their considerably less power consumption, brighter contrast ratios and faster response times. Today we’re taking a look at one of the latest from LG, the Flatron W2486L 24-inch monitor.

The Flatron W2486L is a 24-inch monitor with a 1920x1080 (full HD 1080p) resolution, a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 2ms response time that’s perfect for gaming. One of the things you’ll notice right off the bat about the W2486L is how thin it is–measuring only 22mm thin. The oval base and neck of the W2486L glows in red and pink tones, complementing the red power button and touch-sensitive OSD controls on the front of the monitor. Since we’re on the subject of design, there are no height adjustments available to the user, only the ability to tilt the display 25 degrees.

On the back you’ll find two HDMI ports, a DVI-D port, analog VGA port and a headphone jack all conveniently placed on the back (as opposed to facing down like most monitors) for easy access.

LG offers a variety of unique features to the user through it’s on-screen display menus. The Smart menu allows you to turn on or off the ambient light sensor for automatically adjusting the display’s brightness, depending on the lighting in the room and an automatic monitor power-off function (set to either one or two hours). The Fun menu gives you access to 4:3 aspect ratio mode (no clue how that is fun), and three photo effect buttons with settings for Gaussian Blur, Monochrome, and Sepia. The Engine menu gives you four distinct presets (Normal, User-defined, Internet, and Movie) for color settings depending on the content you’re currently viewing.

In our testing, the OSD was painful to access, since each button is invisible and only accessible by touch. Sometimes only one menu would actually appear and we wouldn’t be able to navigate through it, and sometimes the menus wouldn’t show up at all. This could have been a defect with our model, but user reviews on various websites show that the OSD is hard to access.

In our movie playback tests, colors didn’t pop as much like on standard CCFL-based LCD panels, and appeared washed out. When we loaded up games like Battlefield 2142, there were no signs visible of lag or ghosting during fast-paced movements. The W2486L also has a cooler tone that takes a little while to get used to, and something that we wouldn’t recommend for photographers or designers who live by exact color representation.

LG also sells a smaller 22-inch version with a 1680x1050 resolution. The LG Flatron W2486L retails for around $350 depending on where you find it. As of press time, the monitor is not available from Amazon.com, only it’s smaller 22-inch brother.

Pros

• Strikingly slim design.
• Fast response time.

Cons

• Washed out colors.
• Lacks height adjustment.

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