Conclusion, awards, right2reply and where2buy
So, time to sum up the iiyama PLX486S-B1S.
Let’s start off with the cons for no other reason that I can see my frowning face and this reminds me of the biggest niggle, that damn reflective screen. In certain light conditions that highly polished, reflective surface is annoying. So a bright room and a dark game mean you’ll spend more time trying to ignore yourself than just playing. I suppose it’s good for girl gamers though as they can check their make-up as they play.
My only other minor niggles would be the lack of a microphone socket and the size of the bezel. The latter is a question of personal preference and I’m spoilt by my current LCD’s small surrounds. The missing microphone socket could be an issue for gamers without USB headsets and in pretty much every gaming situation the built in speakers are pretty much redundant. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, just that I can see most gamers never using them.
Right, let’s look at the pros, starting with the panel and, if you didn’t get it earlier, it’s bright. Oh my gosh is it bright. I swear, if I stuck this thing on my roof and displayed a white screensaver planes from Luton would be landing here and getting all confused at the lack of a terminal. It’s like the visual equivalent of that Maxell advert where the sound blows the guy about... iiyama are doing the same thing, but with light.
Image quality and colour depth make my screens look a bit dim and woolly which, seeing as they’re hardly a year old, was kind of depressing. Running them side by side is like having a Ferrari for a rental car knowing you have to go back to a 92 plate Volvo estate... bugger.
Click for larger imageThe extra features, such as the light sensor and motion sensor are very sensible additions which make using the PLX486S-B1S a pleasing experience. Although neither are turned on by default, they’re both well worth looking at, the light sensor especially. In a dark environment the PLX486S-B1S can feel too bright and having the ability to automatically tone down the brightness is a great idea.
Next there’s the response time and image quality within games. To be honest I couldn’t 100% say that the 2ms accelerated response time made any difference or was in fact noticeable. Overall the PLX486S-B1S delivers a crisp, sharp image with no ghosting that I could see, even going to light to dark images as fast as I could spin my mouse. The 1280x1024 native resolution is fine for many of the current shooters out now and worked as it should do for detail at far distance in-game.
Finally, and this is the first time I’ve mentioned it, there’s the price. This alone, even without all those extras bells and whistles, should be enough to put the PLX486S-B1S as a possible on your shopping list. From an e-tailer like SCAN you can pick up one of these beauties for just £193.60 including the VAT... Yep, that’s a 19” LCD panel with a sub 5ms response time and speakers for under £200 quid. That alone makes the iiyama PLX486S-B1S a strong favourite.
So to sum up, for gaming the PLX486S-B1S is very, very good, only let down by the reflection from that shiny screen. But given that sub-£200 price and the fact that you get a pretty good feature set with some clever and useful extras, you’d be daft not to consider the iiyama PLX486S-B1S.
Pros
Wow, it’s bright!
FAST response times
Nice colour depth giving improved image quality
Useful extra features such as motion and light sensors
Smallish desk footprint
Cons
Screen a bit too reflective for my liking
Bezel a bit chunky
No microphone input
iiyama just wanted me to hate my LCD panels... and it worked.
HEXUS Awards
iiyama PLX486S-B1S
HEXUS Right2Reply
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