Introduction
Never to be sold in quantity? *sniff*
I'd started this review a week or so ago, but yesterday's news about Hercules pulling out of the LCD market made me scrap what I'd written and start fresh. It's kind of weird reviewing a product that's never likely to be sold in any kind of quantity. The review was glowing too, I'll give the game away from the start. It's a brilliant display, so I'm quite sad that people won't get much of a chance to pick one up.
Hmm, so what to do about the review? Then it dawned on me, I shouldn't do anything. A little preface to the whole thing, outlining that the monitor is in short supply as of the time of writing, pick one up now if you can. There, done. Onwards to the real thing.
I've been a fan of the Hercules 920 PRO ever since it arrived for review last year. Up until then, LCDs had been happily sailing under my radar, either too expensive, poor at fast motion performance, too small or just plain weren't sold in the UK. I'd had a really expensive Samsung 770TFT back in the day, £1600 of 17" LCD with the most abysmal fast motion performance you've ever seen. That thing left ghost trails with the Start menu in Windows, never mind trying to play Unreal Tournament. So when the 920 PRO arrived, although I'd lusted after some recent Apple panels and seen what current LCD quality could be like, especially in terms of fast motion performance, I was geniunely surprised with what it had to offer.
A gamers panel first and foremost, it still managed to get everything else right. Geometry performance was faultless, as you'd expect from a recent LCD, colour reproduction seemed subjectively excellent and it was stylish to boot. When it went back to Guillemot, I was genuinely disappointed. It's not often I care that much about a product we have in for review.
So with the 191 BLK recently appearing on their website, I put in the request for a review sample. It arrived a few days later and I've fallen in love with LCDs again. Here's why.
