Review on ASUS VA249HE 1080P Monitor: Experience Crisp Visuals and Wide Viewing Angle on a 23.8" Touch Screen Display at 60Hz by Kyle Harner

It's a really good monitor and with the built in speakers it works well as an HDTV. First the picture. It is very good. I won't say it's amazing as at times it can appear either washed out or overly saturated depending on how the Splendid Video Intelligence Technology is set up. With a push of a button at the bottom of the front panel you can switch between a range of settings such as Theater, Landscape, Night View, Gaming and an additional one or two. Each of these settings adjusts the contrast, saturation, brightness, etc. and can make an ordinary picture look very beautiful. And as a monitor it works very well. But if you're using it as an HDTV or watching movies from a computer, it can be a pain to replace as there's no remote (of course). The monitor can be quirky when viewing dark scenes as it has a low/no signal screen off feature. At first it seemed to me that the dark scenes in the movie were being stretched out a lot, then I realized that the monitor had actually gone into sleep mode! By setting the aforementioned Splendid Video Intelligence Technology to a brighter mode, this no longer happened. Quirky controls too. For some reason, Asus decided to add "+" and "-" functions to the volume and brightness buttons for the menus, as well as volume and brightness controls. Sound confusing? Well, that's for sure. For example, in an OSD system, these two buttons serve as up and down controls for various selections. When NOT in the menu, they act as smart buttons to control volume and brightness. But to change the volume, for example, you first have to press the volume button and then press it again to decrease the volume, or press the brightness button to increase it. To change the brightness, first press this button and then press either the volume to decrease it or the brightness to increase it. Let me tell you that adjusting the volume is a confusing affair the first time. In addition, the two keys are not even next to each other. In between there is another button that is used to select the menu. I don't know why they couldn't just create separate "+" and "-" buttons for this purpose. Also, the buttons are located at the bottom of the front panel, making it difficult to find the right button, especially in the dark. I prefer the buttons on the side of the bezel like Dell monitors. But maybe it's just me. All in all a good product once you get used to it. If it weren't for the silly button design and a few display quirks, I'd give it five stars.