I bought this monitor to replace my 21″ one which I planned to move to my server. The aspect ratio really stinks. Vertical display space is REALLY reduced over what I get with my 21″ one. That reduction makes spreadsheets, CAD drawings, documents much less readable/workable.
I didn’t read the specs closely enough and really got bit. So, buyer beware.
I’ll keep the 21 as my everyday monitor and stick this thing on my server. I’d have been much better off with a “cheapy”.
What a disappointment! It’s like looking thru a long, skinny window turned sideways.
Since I wrote the review I’ve done some checking. It seems all the larger monitors have a crappy aspect ratio like this one does. I’ll not be throwing away any of my old CRT ones — may have to go back to them if I’m the odd-man-out in this wide & narrow monitor market. It’s for sure, though, the monitor manufacturers and dealers have gotten the last nickel they’ll get from me for one like this one.
My previous monitor was a Gateway FPD2185W that I was quite happy with, but a few days ago it simply refused to turn on.
I bought the Acer H243H based on its specifications and set it up.
The good things:
- it was inexpensive
- the display is bright, really bright
The bad things:
- this display is bright, really bright. I turned down the brightness a lot, but overall I still don’t trust its color fidelity
- the stand is cheap. It has no heft, you can’t adjust the height of the monitor or swivel it. You can adjust the tilt, but not very far. Because the stand is short and the monitor can’t be tilted up very much, my viewing angle is way above the perpendicular. As noted below, that is a problem because of the image changes with viewing angle.
- this is a personal preference, but the plastic used in the stand is glossy and has some kind of metallic particles in it to make it look glittery. To me this is just cheesy. The plastic bezel around the display is high gloss. I don’t like this, as I can see the reflection of my hands typing. It may look high tech, but job of the bezel is to be invisible, not attention getting.
- as another commenter noted, the menu system is terrible. the touch sensitive inputs are not reliable, and there is a lot of lag between touching a button and seeing the effect on the screen.
- THE BIG ONE. Unlike the FPD2185W, the display intensity and color is very viewing angle dependent. Brightness drops off somewhat with left/right viewing angle, and it shifts quickly with up/down viewing angle (bright up, darker down). Worst of all, there is notable color shift in the up/down plane. Text which is black on white when looking perpedicular to the screen develops color fringes when the top/bottom angle changes.
I invest a lot of time scanning and retouching old photos. While I can optimize the results for a given viewing angle, I can’t trust that it will appear anything like that on a different monitor. This is a problem in general, but rightly or wrongly, my FPD2185W gave me more confidence that had a relatively neutral display.
This one is going back. I wish I hadn’t peeled all the stickers off of it before I set it up.
Rating: 3 / 5
In summary, Acer H243H is cheap. Great screen. But you get crappy features with the cheap price.
Poor quality control: Bought H243H from Fry’s Electronics for $200. On the 1st unit, the screen is damaged. There is a 1/8″ watermark. It is like when you press on old LCD screen, you can see water like effect on the screen. The defect was like that, except permanent. It is near the center 2/3 of the screen. I don’t see how this got past quality control. Got a replacement unit at Fry’s.
I didn’t check for dead/stuck pixel on either unit. But there was nothing obvious that I can see. I never run application to check for dead pixels. If I don’t see it, then I don’t want to know about it.
The screen is excellent. Text looks great. The brightness and contrast has a wide range, so you can find the settings that works for you. I’m surprised how bright the display is. I am now running at brightness=38 and contrast=40 (out of 100). Plenty of room to adjust if you are in a bright room.
Sensor touch button. It is so frustrating to use the controls. It is so poorly engineered. There is a learning curve. Initially, Acer sensor touch works maybe 33% of the time. I tried Samsung and LG sensor touch buttons at the store; they are responsive and works great. There are 2 issues with the sensor touch button. First is that sensor is not sensitive. Second is that there is lag in OSD response. After like 1 hour of trial and error as I was calibrating the screen, I learned some tricks with the sensor controls. Use your thumb and cover the entire button area. Leave your thumb there for 1 sec, rather than a quick press. As the button is activated, it lights ups. But OSD has a lag and won’t show up for another sec. So be patient. Good thing is that once you have your settings right, you don’t have to use the controls again.
Speakers. This is a joke. The speakers are placed on the rear of the monitor pointing upward. You get a weird sound effect like you are in cave. And the sound is low and crappy. This is not a big deal as I plan to use external speakers anyways.
Buzzing sound. Some online reviewers complained about buzzing sound from the unit, with severity varying with brightness. Yes, if I hold my ear to unit, I can hear it. But I don’t hear it when I sit back and with the PC on. Actually, I also checked my 22″ Dell LCD monitor and Sony LCD 40″ HDTV. The Dell also has a buzzing sound and similar to Acer. Sony LCD HDTV actually has a much louder buzzing sound. Not noticeable under normal condition, but it is there if I put my ears couple inches from the unit.
The plastic surface is glossy. So I do see reflection. This is very noticeable and obnoxious with the reflection from my TV.
Rating: 3 / 5
I already had purchased two of these monitors for use at home. Could not pass up chance to buy another as a replacement for my work office monitor. Great size, color, clarity at an unbeatable price. You will not be disappointed.
Rating: 5 / 5
I upgraded to this monitor from an Acer 19″ widescreen based on the quality experience I had with that device. This monitor is no different – a great value.
Pros:
Great picture. After updating my video drivers I am now running at 1080p and all that extra real-estate pays off when working in Adobe Illustrator. I no longer feel cramped and the tunnel-vision experience that was kicking in with the 19″ I previously used is gone.
Connectivity: HDMI, DVI, VGA – this monitor can hook up to pretty much anything I could throw at it, although I have not yet attempted to use it as a PS3 monitor.
Design: Simple design should fit in with any decor.
Cons:
High-gloss finish shows dust immediately. This is more a testament to my dusty house and my lackluster housekeeping skills.
No height adjustment: I realize that this feature is absent due to the price point, but it would be perfect with height adjustment.
Built-in audio: I am not unhappy with the onboard sound (I honestly have not used it), but it is totally unnecessary for my application. I would prefer to trade the audio for height adjustment.
All the cons are very minor and nothing against the performance of this monitor. I have been very happy with this device and would recommend it to everyone in the market for a 24″ monitor.
Rating: 4 / 5
March 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: 
Posted in 
Tags:
I bought this monitor to replace my 21″ one which I planned to move to my server. The aspect ratio really stinks. Vertical display space is REALLY reduced over what I get with my 21″ one. That reduction makes spreadsheets, CAD drawings, documents much less readable/workable.
I didn’t read the specs closely enough and really got bit. So, buyer beware.
I’ll keep the 21 as my everyday monitor and stick this thing on my server. I’d have been much better off with a “cheapy”.
What a disappointment! It’s like looking thru a long, skinny window turned sideways.
Since I wrote the review I’ve done some checking. It seems all the larger monitors have a crappy aspect ratio like this one does. I’ll not be throwing away any of my old CRT ones — may have to go back to them if I’m the odd-man-out in this wide & narrow monitor market. It’s for sure, though, the monitor manufacturers and dealers have gotten the last nickel they’ll get from me for one like this one.
Rating: 1 / 5
My previous monitor was a Gateway FPD2185W that I was quite happy with, but a few days ago it simply refused to turn on.
I bought the Acer H243H based on its specifications and set it up.
The good things:
- it was inexpensive
- the display is bright, really bright
The bad things:
- this display is bright, really bright. I turned down the brightness a lot, but overall I still don’t trust its color fidelity
- the stand is cheap. It has no heft, you can’t adjust the height of the monitor or swivel it. You can adjust the tilt, but not very far. Because the stand is short and the monitor can’t be tilted up very much, my viewing angle is way above the perpendicular. As noted below, that is a problem because of the image changes with viewing angle.
- this is a personal preference, but the plastic used in the stand is glossy and has some kind of metallic particles in it to make it look glittery. To me this is just cheesy. The plastic bezel around the display is high gloss. I don’t like this, as I can see the reflection of my hands typing. It may look high tech, but job of the bezel is to be invisible, not attention getting.
- as another commenter noted, the menu system is terrible. the touch sensitive inputs are not reliable, and there is a lot of lag between touching a button and seeing the effect on the screen.
- THE BIG ONE. Unlike the FPD2185W, the display intensity and color is very viewing angle dependent. Brightness drops off somewhat with left/right viewing angle, and it shifts quickly with up/down viewing angle (bright up, darker down). Worst of all, there is notable color shift in the up/down plane. Text which is black on white when looking perpedicular to the screen develops color fringes when the top/bottom angle changes.
I invest a lot of time scanning and retouching old photos. While I can optimize the results for a given viewing angle, I can’t trust that it will appear anything like that on a different monitor. This is a problem in general, but rightly or wrongly, my FPD2185W gave me more confidence that had a relatively neutral display.
This one is going back. I wish I hadn’t peeled all the stickers off of it before I set it up.
Rating: 3 / 5
In summary, Acer H243H is cheap. Great screen. But you get crappy features with the cheap price.
Poor quality control: Bought H243H from Fry’s Electronics for $200. On the 1st unit, the screen is damaged. There is a 1/8″ watermark. It is like when you press on old LCD screen, you can see water like effect on the screen. The defect was like that, except permanent. It is near the center 2/3 of the screen. I don’t see how this got past quality control. Got a replacement unit at Fry’s.
I didn’t check for dead/stuck pixel on either unit. But there was nothing obvious that I can see. I never run application to check for dead pixels. If I don’t see it, then I don’t want to know about it.
The screen is excellent. Text looks great. The brightness and contrast has a wide range, so you can find the settings that works for you. I’m surprised how bright the display is. I am now running at brightness=38 and contrast=40 (out of 100). Plenty of room to adjust if you are in a bright room.
Sensor touch button. It is so frustrating to use the controls. It is so poorly engineered. There is a learning curve. Initially, Acer sensor touch works maybe 33% of the time. I tried Samsung and LG sensor touch buttons at the store; they are responsive and works great. There are 2 issues with the sensor touch button. First is that sensor is not sensitive. Second is that there is lag in OSD response. After like 1 hour of trial and error as I was calibrating the screen, I learned some tricks with the sensor controls. Use your thumb and cover the entire button area. Leave your thumb there for 1 sec, rather than a quick press. As the button is activated, it lights ups. But OSD has a lag and won’t show up for another sec. So be patient. Good thing is that once you have your settings right, you don’t have to use the controls again.
Speakers. This is a joke. The speakers are placed on the rear of the monitor pointing upward. You get a weird sound effect like you are in cave. And the sound is low and crappy. This is not a big deal as I plan to use external speakers anyways.
Buzzing sound. Some online reviewers complained about buzzing sound from the unit, with severity varying with brightness. Yes, if I hold my ear to unit, I can hear it. But I don’t hear it when I sit back and with the PC on. Actually, I also checked my 22″ Dell LCD monitor and Sony LCD 40″ HDTV. The Dell also has a buzzing sound and similar to Acer. Sony LCD HDTV actually has a much louder buzzing sound. Not noticeable under normal condition, but it is there if I put my ears couple inches from the unit.
The plastic surface is glossy. So I do see reflection. This is very noticeable and obnoxious with the reflection from my TV.
Rating: 3 / 5
I already had purchased two of these monitors for use at home. Could not pass up chance to buy another as a replacement for my work office monitor. Great size, color, clarity at an unbeatable price. You will not be disappointed.
Rating: 5 / 5
I upgraded to this monitor from an Acer 19″ widescreen based on the quality experience I had with that device. This monitor is no different – a great value.
Pros:
Great picture. After updating my video drivers I am now running at 1080p and all that extra real-estate pays off when working in Adobe Illustrator. I no longer feel cramped and the tunnel-vision experience that was kicking in with the 19″ I previously used is gone.
Connectivity: HDMI, DVI, VGA – this monitor can hook up to pretty much anything I could throw at it, although I have not yet attempted to use it as a PS3 monitor.
Design: Simple design should fit in with any decor.
Cons:
High-gloss finish shows dust immediately. This is more a testament to my dusty house and my lackluster housekeeping skills.
No height adjustment: I realize that this feature is absent due to the price point, but it would be perfect with height adjustment.
Built-in audio: I am not unhappy with the onboard sound (I honestly have not used it), but it is totally unnecessary for my application. I would prefer to trade the audio for height adjustment.
All the cons are very minor and nothing against the performance of this monitor. I have been very happy with this device and would recommend it to everyone in the market for a 24″ monitor.
Rating: 4 / 5