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Now onto the nitty-gritty issue of image quality. By default – and after an auto-correction had been instigated - the overall picture took on a reddish tone. In spite of this, skin tones exhibited a natural appearance, whereas transitions from highlight areas to dark ones in our test images looked smooth.

However, with Displaymate’s more sensitive greyscales and colour ramps several issues cropped up. For instance, banding in the 256 greyscale test was apparent together with some relatively uneven gradients and compression towards the dark ends of the colour scales. Colour purity also looked rather punchy but upon closer inspection around the periphery of the panel the vibrancy looked more subdued. Viewing angles were also quite shallow when observing the screen from above, roughly 30cm from centre. Nevertheless we were impressed that there was only a minimal colour shift. DVD playback looked a little mottled too, but like all of the monitors on test, any discernable motion smearing was absent.

Verdict

All in all, the Sony SDM-S204H threw up a mixed bag of results combined with design. The design is different but not that functional, whereas the settings were quite comprehensive but the image quality was unremarkable. At the end of the day it’s the third most expensive display here and it is difficult to recommend, when far cheaper displays out perform it in design and image quality.

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