HP L2035

Although I set out to cover primarily mid-range LCDs in this comparison, I couldn't resist including at least one monster. With a native resolution of 1600x1200, the 20" L2035 is a beast, but in a good way. With a price tag of $999, the L2035 is twice as expensive as some of the screens in this comparison, too.

Behold 20 inches of LCD goodness:

Despite its gargantuan proportions, the 20" L2035 isn't that much bigger than the 19" screens. Still, no matter what she tells you, an extra inch matters.

In terms of panel specs, the L2035's best attribute is its 16 ms pixel response time, which is the fastest of any of the screens we're comparing. Unfortunately, HP tempers the screen's fast response time with the lowest brightness rating and contrast ratio of the lot. You can't win them all, I guess.

The L2035's telescoping base gives users several inches of height adjustment. One can also tilt the screen back or swivel the base to achieve an optimal viewing angle. Though the L2035 doesn't fold flat like HP's L1730, the screen's stand can be removed and replaced with either a monitor arm or a wall-mount bracket.

For those who prefer portrait orientations to landscape, the L2035 rotates 90 degrees. As with the L1730, the L2035's rotation relies on either third-party software or video drivers to switch display output from landscape to portrait.

In addition to DVI and VGA ports, the L2035 also includes composite and S-Video inputs. These video inputs are a nice touch that should work well with game consoles and the like.

The L2035 is equipped with a handful of buttons that can instantly activate the screen's picture-in-picture mode, switch input between its multiple inputs, and bring up its on-screen display.

In many ways, the L2035's OSD is identical to that of HP's L1730. However, the OSD doesn't give users control over the screen's contrast while using a DVI input. The screen didn't need any contrast adjustment out of the box, so the lack of DVI contrast control wasn't a big deal in our testing. Still, the L2035 is the only screen in this comparison that lacks DVI contrast control. Barring this one exception, the L2035's OSD is loaded with everything else one might need. There's even a custom scaling feature that lets users bypass full-screen interpolation for low resolutions. This kind of feature is essential if you're looking to do any gaming with the L2035. Precious few graphics cards will be capable of running the next-gen titles at the screen's 1600x1200 native resolution, and you don't want sloppy interpolation messing with a your eye candy.

A full suite of picture-in-picture controls rounds out the L2035's OSD options. Users can easily adjust the size and position of the in-picture display, which is limited to composite or S-Video input streams. Sorry, but Eizo's the only one doing picture-in-picture with VGA and DVI sources.

Without support for VGA or DVI input streams or an integrated TV tuner, I'm not sure how useful the L2035's picture-in-picture will be for most users. Still, I'm always happy to see $1000 screens offer a little something extra.

As with the L1730, HP covers the L2035 with a three-year warranty that includes a 48-hour replacement service. The L2035 is also covered by the ISO 13406-2 standard for pixel defects, but because the screen's 1600x1200 native resolution has more pixels, the standard allows for more defects. For 1600x1200 screens, ISO 13406-2 allows no more than four dead pixels and ten sub-pixel defects. The standard also allows for no more than four sub-pixel defects in a 5x5 pixel block.