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With more and more TFT monitors entering the display arena there’s no question that the desirability of this type of screen is increasing. You can understand why since they aren’t as power hungry as CRTs, weigh less, save space and are kinder on the eyes. So it’s hardly a surprise that competition among manufacturers is fierce and many are taking different approaches to design in order to pull ahead of the rest. One such company is BenQ, which has certainly come up with an interestingly designed LCD.

Starting with the most prominent feature, BenQ has included its Digital Photo Frame (DPF) unit, which is literally a USB memory card reader that slots into the top of the unit. This is compatible with CompactFlash, SmartMedia and SD/MMC formats and by marrying the USB port at the rear of the display with one on your PC you can copy from or to it. In essence, the DPF lets you view digital pictures as thumbnails or in full screen, or as a slide show even when it’s not connected to a PC. Personally, I would prefer to judge the quality of my images by previewing them in a professional photo-editing package, but it’s nonetheless a decent idea if you want a convenient way to look at your photos.

Moving on to looks, the FP791 seems quite large but it is in fact a 17in TFT with a native resolution of 1,280 x 1,024. The reason that it looks rather broad and tall is down to the embossed design. To the back, the silver coloured chassis is about a couple of centimetres wider at the sides than the dark purple bezel that surrounds the raised panel. Now, because there’s a contrast in colour and elevation between these two divisions the final result is quite aesthetically pleasing, although that’s really down to personal taste.

I like it, as the darker bezel is an effective frame for the picture and really makes it stand out. However, the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees that issues those TCO labels you see on many monitors, has implemented requirements in its TCO ‘99 and TCO ‘03 certifications for controlling the difference in contrast between the bezel colour and a white background. This might explain why the FP791 is only TCO ’95 certified, but to be honest I haven’t got an issue with that and if anything it enhances the picture as well as the look of the unit.

I do have one issue though and that’s the control panel on the front, which I find distracting. It’s simply too big and while writing this review I found my eyes being drawn to it every so often. The control panel also overlaps the lower portion of the bezel thereby interrupting what would otherwise be a clean and uncluttered frame, which in my opinion would be far more stylish.

That said, the touch-sensitive buttons, if you can excuse the pun, are a neat touch and not seen very often on TFT panels. There are six of them in total, providing simple, easily navigable access to all the usual settings such as brightness and contrast, vertical and horizontal image position, phase, and pixel clock. You also have three preset colour temperatures to choose from (9300, 6500 and 5800K), plus a user mode where you can individually set the RGB levels to your liking. The two buttons in the middle of the control panel also help with OSD navigation. Besides using them for manoeuvring around each submenu, they also offer direct access to the brightness and contrast settings as well as two (high and low) luminance settings. The button to the far left is termed the ‘ikey’ which when touched offers information on the current resolution mode and video signal. It also doubles up as the auto-adjust, which can be used in conjunction with a test screen found on the driver CD-ROM for automatically setting up an optimum picture.

When it comes to hooking up the FP791, there’s a choice between a D-SUB port and a DVI-D one. BenQ also bundles both cable types so whichever port you have on your graphics card, you’re covered. If two PCs are connected to the FP791, selecting either signal requires a long-winded dig into the OSD as there’s no dedicated signal source button. I also found that once the unit has locked onto an analogue signal, it’s a struggle to then make it auto-detect a digital one. In fact, after I removed the D-SUB cable I had to unplug the FP791 from the mains completely before attaching the DVI lead and firing up the PC.