Philips 109s Monitor

PHILIPS Brilliance 109S 19" 
SVGA Monitor
Reviewed by Vincent Cheang (01/06/98)

Sound Card Specifications

Monitor Sreen Size (Vieweable Size) 19" Measured Diagonally (17.9" viewing)
Model Brilliance 109S 19" SVGA Monitor
Dot Pitch (Horizontal Pitch) 0.28mm Dot-pitch (0.22mm hor.)
Maximum Monitor Resolution '1600 x 1200' @ 75Hz
Features 1) of 1,280x1,024 @ 85Hz, 1,024x768 @ 100Hz
2) HITACHI flat-screen tube
3) On-Screen Display (OSD) & TCO II
Warranty Terms 2 years carry-on @ PHILIPS Factory
Or 2yrs On-site Warranty for certain dealers
Unit Accessories 1) Instruction Manual
2) Warranty Card

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Introduction

Large screen monitors have mostly been limited to the DTP and CAD/CAM professionals with the cost of such 21-inch monitors ranging in the $2,500 and up. For most home users, 15-inch monitors are now the norm with most vendors offering 17-inch monitor options. It is a quantum leap indeed to go from a 17-inch to a 21-inch both in terms of cost and size. To bridge this gap, a number of PC monitor manufacturers are now coming up with 19-inch offerings. A 19-inch monitor offers roughly 25 percent more screen room than a 17-inch display, often taking up the same space.

There are now a number of makes of 19 inches that are available in Singapore and the prices are also becoming more competitive. The most price competitive 19-inch monitor you can find right now is the Philips 109S which retails for a special trade in price of $999 as compared to other 19-inch makes which are now retailing in the $1188 to $1495 price range. If you shop around, you will even be able to get the 109S for a cheaper price.

Features

The Philips 109S is a 19-inch (approximately 17.9 viewable inches), 0.26-mm-dot-pitch, plug-and-play monitor with a small footprint. What this means to the user is a major increase in viewable area in a unit that takes up about the same amount of desktop space as a 17-inch monitor. Pushed to its maximum capabilities, the 109S can deliver a resolution of 1,600x1,200 at 75Hz. It can also be set to a more practical resolution of 1,280x1,024 and 1,024x768 at 85Hz and 100Hz respectively.

The 109S utilises a flat-square Hitachi CRT and has antireflection/antiglare coating. Adjustments are made on the six window On-Screen Display (OSD) via a rotary control which in my opinion does not make it very accessible and user friendly. Then again, how often do you have to tinker with the adjustments? Quite a lot as I found out subsequently.

The 109S offers several control options beyond brightness, contrast, and image geometry. You'll find controls for pincushioning balance, tilt, color temperature, position of the onscreen menu, and moiré. The 109S conforms to a host of power and emission standards, including TCO 95.

Moiré / Image Quality

Before I go into the image quality, let me introduce you to the concept of Moiré. Let me just quote this from www.displaymate.com

"Moiré patterns are a natural interference phenomena that appear in all color CRT displays. Moiré patterns appear as ripples, waves, and wisps of intensity variations that are superimposed on the screen image. They are most noticeable on high resolution displays that have finely focused beams.

Moiré patterns are a double-edged sword because you need to worry about them whether or not you see them. If you don't see them, it's possible that your display is producing a fuzzy image, which is the case in most improperly adjusted or poor quality displays. If you do see them, they're annoying.

A Moiré pattern arises because the pixels that are generated by the video board cannot be perfectly aligned with the phosphor dots or stripes on the screen. For some pixels the CRT beam hits the screen phosphors dead centre, and produces a bright pixel, and for others it hits off-centre and produces a dimmer pixel. The Moiré pattern is actually a map of their alignment over the screen. For colour televisions, a Moiré pattern can arise from the colour subcarrier.

Moiré patterns are not a defect in the monitor, but rather result from a practical limitation in display technology. In order to completely eliminate Moiré patterns, the dot or stripe pitch on the monitor would have to be significantly smaller than the size of a pixel, which is generally not possible. For example: to be completely free of Moiré, a 17 inch diagonal display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 would require a dot or stripe pitch of 0.12 mm, which is more than a factor of 2 smaller than anything available."

The Good & Bad

I have in the past used 14-inch, 15-inch and recently 17-inch monitors and Moiré was not something I had to contend with. With the 109S, I had my first encounter with it and it was something that really annoyed me especially with high contrast backgrounds. Driven by a STB Velocity 128, the Moiré effect was apparent in all resolutions and refresh rates that I tried although the extent varied. With the help of the Moiré horizontal and vertical adjustments, changing refresh rates, brightness and contrast controls, I managed to reduce these effects to a negligible but still noticeable level except for the 1280x1024. Unfortunately, that was also the recommended resolution to run a 19-inch with. This is apparently a problem that is prevalent in all 19-inch CRTs.

The 109S has good colour and image quality but I was only able to run at full colour at 1152x870 because of the limitations of my video card. Text clarity was very good even when set to 1600x1280.

Conclusion

If you are a hardcore gamer, there is nothing like having a big screen to complement to full gaming experience. Coupled with a Voodoo2 card, games will never look the same again and you will not want to go back to a 15 or even 17-inch again.

Ultimately, image quality and even moiré distortions are very subjective topics. Before you decide, I would advise you to test the monitor out on the various resolutions and see how annoyed you are with the moiré distortions, if any. Unfortunately, this is not that easy as most vendors do not even have a set displayed or even if they have, you can't fiddle with it. Bear in mind that the video card has a part to play in this as well.

Overall, if you are shopping around for a 17-inch or bigger monitor, do check out the 109S. Its low price makes the 109S an affordable option

PHILIPS Brilliance 109S 19" SVGA Monitor RATING

Overall Card Rating (Out of Maximum 5 Star)

Monitor Specifications ****
Price *****
Screen Adjustments ***
Image Quality ***
Text Clarity ****
Overall Rating ****

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Specifications
Specified Monitor Size/Specs: 19" 0.28mm Dot-pitch
Specified Manufactured location: Made in Taiwan
Brilliance 109S 19"
Estimated Price: $ 1027 (As of 1st June)

This Review is converted courtesy of,

Product Provided courtesy of Mr Vincent Cheang

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