NEC AS221WM

The NEC AS221WM will appeal to businesses looking to trim their capital spending and utility budgets. It's not a high-end monitor by any means, but this 22-inch desktop display offers good performance for the money and doesn't require much power. It comes up short in terms of features and resolution though, and it doesn't have an HDMI video input.

Design and Features
The AS221WM looks like a typical business display, which is to say it is fairly bland looking. The 22-inch TN panel is housed in a plain matte black cabinet with thin (0.5 inch) matte black bezels on the top and sides and a wider (1-inch) bezel on the bottom. The non-reflective screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio and a relatively low 1,680-by-1,050-resolution. Granted, most office tasks don't require full HD (1,920 by 1,080), but there are plenty of comparatively priced monitors out there that do give you a higher resolution, including the Acer S230HL ($189 list, 3 stars) and the Asus VS229H-P ($160 list, 4 stars).

The 10.4-pound cabinet is supported by a round black base with a tilt hinge. Height, swivel, and pivot adjustments are not available on this model. The AS21WM uses CCFLs (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) for backlighting, which accounts for its somewhat bulky 2.6-inch profile. There are five small, well-marked buttons mounted beneath the lower bezel used for launching and navigating the OSD and powering up the display. Around back are DVI and VGA inputs and an audio-in jack, but this monitor is not equipped with an HDMI port, nor does it have any USB ports or a webcam. It does have a set of low-powered down-firing speakers, however.

Picture settings are very basic; in addition to brightness and contrast, you can adjust color temperature and red, green, and blue saturation. The AS221WM has three ECO modes which are activated by adjusting screen brightness. Eco Mode 2 kicks in when the brightness is set between 0 and 20 percent, Eco 1 Mode is at 21 to 70 percent, and Off is when brightness is set between 70 and100 percent. A carbon footprint meter is updated every five minutes, and tracks the reduction of CO2 emissions when one of the ECO modes is enabled.

The AS221WM comes with a setup sheet, a user guide, a VGA cable, and an audio cable. You'll have to supply your own DVI cable if you want to utilize a digital signal. NEC covers the monitor with a three year warranty which includes parts, labor, and backlighting.

Performance
The AS221WM delivers solid performance for a budget monitor. Although it can't match the performance of the IPS-based Asus VS229H-P, it was able to display most of the swatches on DisplayMate's 64-Step Grayscale test, although the two darkest shades appeared black (each shade should change with equal intensity from light to dark). Color gradation was smooth across the Color Scales test and colors appeared evenly saturated and natural-looking.

Off-axis viewing was typical for a TN panel, with noticeable color shifting occurring at around 40 degrees from the center of the screen. Top and bottom angles were much narrower; the picture degraded at around the 30-degree mark. On the upside, the panel's 5-millisecond (black-to-white) pixel response handled fast-moving images without any noticeable blurring.

The AS221WM doesn't require much power despite using CCFL technology for backlighting (LED backlighting typically uses less power). With ECO Mode set to 2 (20 percent brightness) it used 15 watts of power, but the picture was a bit too dim. ECO Mode 1 (50 percent) used only 18 watts and was bright enough for most office environments. At full brightness the monitor used 25 watts. Given its low power usage, carbon meter feature, and Energy Star 5.0 and EPEAT Silver compliance, the AS221WM earns our Greentech stamp of approval.

Conclusion
The NEC AS221WM is a capable budget monitor that will help businesses cut costs across the board. It offers reasonably good color and grayscale performance and won't stress your electric bill, but it could stand to use additional features, such an HDMI port, an ergonomic stand, or a few USB ports. A 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution would have been nice as well. For superior color, grayscale, and viewing angle performance, the Asus VS229H-P (our current Editors' Choice for budget monitors) is still your best bet.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the NEC AS221WM with several other monitors side by side.

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??? NEC AS221WM
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??? Asus VS229H-P
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