The Chimei that landed on my desk is a mix of positive and negative attributes. Initial impressions for this panel  was good – mainly due to its sub P10k price and the fact that it sports a 1680 x 1050 resolution on a 19" widescreen format. This being a 19” wide LCD, its imposing size combined with the delectable price gave it a good amount of desirability, and cynicism at the same time.

                                              Simple or utilitarian? It's your call.
 

General impressions on the brand based on previous reviews are of the “cheap and cheerful” kind, but considering that most PC component manufacturers start off in this way, I’m not unduly worried that Chimei is going to stay satisfied with fielding average products for general consumption, It remains to be seen whether they are stepping in the right direction with this new release named the CMV 958D.

                                             Looking at it positively, the font and size makes it easy to see.

This LCD is a 1680 x 1050 WSXGA resolution, TN 6-bit panel, which are surprising stats for an LCD in this price range. Rarely will you see a 19" widescreen sporting a 1680 x 1050 panel. 16.2 million colors, achieved through dithering, is nothing to be disappointed at, but due to this it is an unspoken fact that this LCD is not meant for precision display jobs like graphic editing and the like. Whereas a “true” 24-bit LCD displays 16.7 million real colors, it achieves this without dithering – each and every color available to it isn’t the result of combining some other color from a neighboring pixel – resulting in amazing clarity, color reproduction and sharpness.

                                             DVI, VGA, an audio input jack and a power connector line the rear.

Other specs include a natural 1200:1 saturation (amplified to 4000:1 with Dynamic Contrast Ration) and 330 cd/m2 brightness. Response time of 5ms and 2 onboard speakers complete the more basic listing. On paper, there is not much more to differentiate this release from previous value-centric offerings. The question now shifts to whether it gives enough for the stated price, and whether the inevitable compromises taken detract too much from the proper usage of a monitor of this level. First off, the cabinet is quite solid, but looks and feels plasticky, and the lettering and other marking does not help. This is especially evident with the control markings – these use a large-ish font that wouldn’t look out of place on an educational toy, detracting a lot from an otherwise streamlined look at the front of the LCD. The blue – LED power indicator in the shape of the typical power symbol is a nice touch however. Strakes at the bottom decrease the bottom portion's apparent width, especially important in this age of slim design consciousness. The base is solid, but it is borderline small for the mass it is supporting, with a tendency to lift up when adjusting the tilt of the monitor.

                                             No fancy mechanics here;only tilt adjusment is available.

Speaking of adjustments, the monitor only offers tilting; height is fixed.  OSD adjustments are achieved using the buttons lining the bottom portion of the cabinet – these have a somewhat rubbery feel and average action when pressed. While comprehensive, the OSD controls did not enable me to find a proper balance in the DisplayMate testing, which may be problem either with the on-board controls or with the panel itself. There is a single DVI and VGA connector at the rear, joined by a speaker input and the power connector. Power brick/transformer is thankfully on-board. The DisplayMate testing revealed flaws that frankly were expected, but are for the most part not any more serious than other brands in this price range. Specifically, grey-scale testing revealed a very good progression from black to just-barely-visible gray, but black levels itself is a bit of a let-down, even with the high stated dynamic contrast ratio of 4000:1. Totally white, using the 255-step test, reveals good performance, with no dead or stuck pixels that we could detect. Also fortunately, there was only very little bleeding along the top and left sides of the panel – a problem we noted from a previous chimei product.

                                             Nothing to see here. Move along.

Bringing everything to fore, the specifications, besides that of the higher-than-average native screen resolution, and the testing did not reveal anything quite so special about this LCD for it to rise above its peers, and it is after all quite easy to ignore the talk of white shading, contrast ratios and such – most of which is hardly noticeable to the ordinary consumer anyway -  and instead concentrate on the fact of its low price that nets you a more than capable monitor that can give you lots of high-resolution screen space, adequate performance in movie viewing, gaming and daily productivity tasks, and do so without undue drama and minus any glaring quality control faults – an area where Chimei has improved a lot in the past few years.

                                             Slim and pretty, as with nearly all LCD monitors.