Review of Belinea 1925S1W 19" Widescreen TFT

[raphael2040]

Hi all.

Thought I'd do a short review on the awesome monitor I recieved for my birthday.

Belinea 1925S1W 19” Widescreen –

Now, before I got this monitor, I had never heard of Belinea. Subsiquently, I didn't actually expect much from it. Boy, was I wrong.

Let's just break down the specs a little here:

Screen size: 19 inch widescreen
Ratio: 850:1
Response Time: 5ms
Price: ~ 135 GBP

Apart from having amazing specs, the monitor itself looks amazing. It also has built-in speakers, which is always a plus!

http://image.ebuyer.com/UK/R0114209-02.jpg

The monitor is damn easy to install, too. Just plug in, restart, and you’re away!

To make sure I wrote a fair review, I used the monitor with several applications, to see how it performed with each.


Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
Application Type: Game

I never actually expected this monitor to be this good when it came to games. I thought playing games on a widescreen monitor would just make everything look horizontally stretched, but I was obviously wrong. The monitor was excellent when it came to games, and I have, honestly, never seen a better monitor when it comes to gaming. With its amazing 5ms response time and awesome resolution (1440 x 900), playing this game has never been better.


BS Player / Lucky Number Slevin
Application Type: Media/Movies

After playing Raven Shield on this beauty, I expected movies to be the same. Well, they were. And it was common sense, really. How can you not enjoy a movie on a widescreen monitor? It was nice, being able to slide my chair back a couple of meters and be able to watch a movie. And the speakers were nice and loud, too, but I’ll get into more detail later. Overall, watching movies on this is a must.


Conclusion: I really couldn’t think of anything else to run to test this monitor, so it was just these two, unfortunately. But from the two tests above and my own, personal use, I can say that this monitor is a superb piece of kit, and is a must buy for any gaming or movie enthusiast!

Also, I did run some tests on the speakers with the game, movie and some music.

I used the onboard sound card, just for the record, and all tests were done at mid-volume, unless stated otherwise.


Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
Application Type: Game

It’s 8x more important to have good sound in a game like this than it is for any other game. Obviously, you won’t get a 1000W speaker system on a monitor, and I was expecting the speakers to be, well, crappy. Yes, I was wrong again. The speakers on this monitor are good, especially when it came to rapid gunfire. No crackles, no distortion, nothing. An awesome set of speakers!


BS Player / Lucky Number Slevin
Application Type: Media/Movies

I can’t think of any more ways to praise this monitor. It’s a work of technological art! The sound was perfect when it came to movies. I was thinking about testing it with Saving Private Ryan, but I didn’t get the time, unfortunately. Still, the sound was perfect on this movie, and I’m 100% sure it’ll be the same with others.

Winamp / Raphael’s Playlist
Application Type: Media/Music

The music test consisted of 3 songs; 1 heavy metal, 1 ballad and 1 Sync-metal. Let me present to you the results;

Heavy Metal – Trivium: Pull Harder on the string of your martyr.

At mid-level, the sound was great! They sounded almost as good as my 5.1’s. But it only sounded good at mid-level. Any higher, and the sound starts becoming blurry and crackly. I excused it, however, since it is a heavy metal song. Hopefully it won’t do it with the others.

Ballad – M.O.V.E: Looking on the sunny side

Ah, a ballad song. Again, at mid-level, the sound was nice and clear. Anxiously, I raised the volume slowly. ‘Lo, behold, the sound was fine. No crackling or blurriness; Just a nice, smooth, clear sound. Yay for ballads!

Sync-Metal – Death From Above; Machinae Supremacy – Jets ‘n Guns.

Sync-metal; all about fast-paced guitar streams. I was expecting the same kind of results as the Heavy Metal song, but no, I was wrong, yet again. Though it is metal, the song was nice and clear at mid-level, and even above mid-level volume. In fact, it was perfect even at full volume. And it’s a damn fine song, too.

Conclusion; I’m going to say that the Trivium song was an anomaly. It could be either the song itself, or the whole heavy metal genre; I haven’t had enough time to come to a full conclusion. So, in short, I say this; if you don’t like having your ears pounded ‘till they bleed by Heavy Metal songs, then the built-in speakers on this monitor are perfect.


So, my own personal ratings are below;

Gaming: * * * * *
Movies: * * * *
Music: * * * *
Other (inc. photo viewing, etc): * * * * *

Overall: * * * * ½

An overall score of 4 ½ stars out of 5, folks. If you’re intending on buying a new monitor, take this one into serious consideration. It’s price and perfection make it the best monitor I have ever seen!

~ Raphael

[Gizmo]

Looks like Daniel beat me to putting it on the Front Page, so I'll see if I can beat him to congratulating you.

Front Page Raphael! www.aoaforums.com

[Daniel ~]

Front page Birthday guy! ":O}

http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/1121/2/

[Daniel ~]

Hardly seems fair....but life's a Popsicle on a hot day! ":O}

[raphael2040]

Yay! Thank you guys! Wasn't really expecting it to be on the front page.

But thanks! And I hope this review is useful to some people. =)

[Got EpOx]

Was a good read, you make me consider purchasing a new monitor

[raphael2040]

Thanks EpOx.

I just read over it again, and I think I could have wrote a far better review if I wasn't pushed for time. Wrote it at work, ya see, so I didn't really get to review the monitor perfectly. Oh, well, there's always next time.

[Daniel ~]

We learn as we go...":O}

[The_DuDe]

Originally Posted by raphael2040

Hi all.

Thought I'd do a short review on the awesome monitor I recieved for my birthday.

Belinea 1925S1W 19” Widescreen –

. It’s price and perfection make it the best monitor I have ever seen!

~ Raphael

I have the 22' version, and i agree.. never seen, or had anything better..

http://www.the-dude.nl/pictures/Belinea-22.jpg

[Daniel ~]

Awesome appearing monitor!

[The_DuDe]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Awesome appearing monitor!

It is indeed very good.

I must say, when i went for a monitor, i didn't really have to buy one, because i had a perfectly good 19' Iliama crt, that worked ok. But i wanted to spend some money on a flatscreen. I saw a lot of them that day, in all kinds of brands, and sizes. i choose for the Belinea, because i saw the report of the person above here, it was the largest monitor available, and it was amazingly cheap, compared with other brands. I thought in the back of my head, that even if i wouldn't like it in use, i could always fall back on the crt one.

But its amazing how it adjust itself, to make games look normal, while the original screen resolution is different from widescreen. One small problem i found, is that if you set it in a resolution in game, full screen, that is not in the standard monitor resolution, your video driver, at least mine.. freezes your game... (that is without a monitor driver btw.. just the XP standard driver..) So you must choose a resolution that agrees with the monitor and the driver. And.. i cant upgrade.. because its not a option to use this driver, its the only one that works with SLI... But besides that, the 5 ms response time, and the picture itself, in game, as well as in film, is truly great.

This is a monitor to advice, if someone wants to buy a large flatscreen.