Sony SDM-HS75PB Tyldesley

It's probably a sign of just how cut-price the PC market is, but while most of us would think nothing of spending an extra £100 to buy a Sony widescreen TV over the Goodmans equivalent, we're not always so discerning when it comes to branded monitors. Perhaps it's because the disparities between different 17in TFTs aren't as acute as those between different 17in CRTs were, when £100 could mean the difference between a monitor like a goldfish bowl and a lovely flat Diamondtron screen. Maybe we're all too aware that most TFT panels, regardless of brand, come from the same six factories in Taiwan and South Korea. Or perhaps it's just common sense; besides the big name, what are you actually paying for?

Part of what contributes to the Sony SDM-HS75PB's price is its design. The Shuttle XP17 is gorgeous, but the SDM-HS75PB calmly shunts it into the shade. With its clean lines, smooth curves and understated cool, the SDM-HS75PB is the Tom Cruise of desktop displays - streamlined, focused and also a little bit smaller than you might expect.

The SDM-HS75PB's matt black fascia does little to distract you from the screen itself - the stand curves smoothly out from the surround, and the controls are all hidden beneath the front bezel. It's a simple, elegant design.

On first impressions, the SDM-HS75PB also reminded us of the XP17 in a less welcome respect. Although the photo-frame-style stand employed by both monitors is a lot more effective in Sony's hands, there's still no way to adjust the height of the screen. Like the XP17, the glass-fronted screen looks as though it could be distractingly reflective. However, when powered up, the sheer brightness of the screen wins through, so reflections don't pose the kind of problems they do on the XP17.

Both D-SUB and DVI-D inputs are provided, with a button to easily switch between them, plus an auto setting that instantly gets the best results from the analogue connection. There's also a switch enabling you to select from preset modes for games, movies or general PC use, plus an 'eco' option which automatically adjusts the backlight settings as the room's light level changes. The games setting is the brightest - someone at Sony must be familiar with the gloomy locales beloved of first-person shooters. But if you must do everything yourself, you still have a wide range of settings to play with.

So, does the extra money yield extra performance? The SDM-HS75PB is one of Sony's flagship X-black TFTs, so it uses a special glare-filter and prism-sheet technology to make the display brighter and capable of higher contrast. The technical specs verify this, as the contrast ratio is 600:1 and there's an ultra-rapid 8ms response time.

We take marketing talk and numbers with more than a pinch of salt - especially when it comes to response times - but it has to be said that the SDM-HS75PB is worthy of its top billing. The lightning-fast fight scenes of 'Kill Bill Volume 1' show the Sony has nothing to fear from a quick katana cut. Clarity is perfect, colour reproduction is superb, and there's no blur at all. However, even this didn't prepare us for the SDM-HS75PB's superb performance in the Far Eastern epic 'The Last Samurai'. The monitor reproduces the entire range of the film's rich colours, capturing even the most subtle tones and detail. There was some graininess visible in darker areas - a problem with most high-quality screens - but the SDM-HS75PB is a great TFT for watching movies.

It's equally adept with still images. A dedicated sRGB colour mode and the high-quality colour reproduction make it easy to obtain the best tonal balance from photos and achieve the expected results when you print. But if the SDM-HS75PB is going to endear itself to anyone, it will be to the dedicated gamer. The strong contrast and deep blacks bring out the best of in-game graphics, emphasising every speck of detail in the shadows of Doom 3. Things are just as impressive in Need for Speed: Underground 2. Fast-moving racing games, in which response times need to match a fluid 60fps, put a heavy burden on a TFT, but the game's rain-washed streets and neon lighting have never looked so ravishing. Any visible blurring was a result of the game's overcooked visual effects, and not any deficiencies on the part of the monitor.



CONCLUSION

This is a great TFT for any task, and it's fantastic for games and DVD playback. If these qualities are important to you then you can splash out the extra cash with confidence. After all, you wouldn't stint on spending £100 to get an extra 20fps from your graphics card, so why get tight when it comes to showing off those shaders? For value for money, the Sharp LL-172G-B remains our TFT of choice, but the SDM-HS75PB is a star worth paying for.

Author: Stuart Andrews

Sony SDM-HS75PB