It did not take long for the Asus 17" PM17-TU LCD to become a favorite with gamers. Now the manufacturer has shifted into an even higher gear with the PW191, a wide-format 19" monitor with great looks. Unfortunately, its performance is not always on par with its design.

Sort of curious why this is in the "Memory" forum, but whatever...

I came "this close" to buying this monitor before this review came out.
Prior to the Tom's review, the best you could find was marketing & analyst stuff, particularly out of India and the odd CeBIT commentary. In the end, I got a ViewSonic VX2025WM which is great (and admittedly slightly larger, pricier + higher res.) - unfortunately without a 3rd party stand it doesn't rotate, but I can live without that for now.

One issue that I don't recall reading in the article is Asus' supposed 1-year (ZBD) Zero Bright-Dot guarantee.

eg. You can read about it on Asus' website:
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx [...] odelmenu=1

I noticed however that my local reseller of this item, has a disclaimer regarding warranty coverage on their product page for the PW191. (Interestingly, this wasn't there previously when the item was not in stock, but was a "we can order it for you in 5 days" listing)

http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=4475


So I'm curious if Asus offers this policy in North America, and the specifics of that policy as it applies here. According to the reseller above:

...ASUS will repair or exchange the LCD panel provided there is one of these three characteristics:

a) over 3 bright dots or 6 black dots or 8 mixed bright & black dots in total,
b) 2 adjacent bright dots or 2 adjacent black dots,
c) 3 bright and / or black dots within an area of radius 7.5mm

That doesn't sound like the Zero-Bright-Dot policy I would be expecting!

To me a Zero-Dead/Dim/Bright/In-Any-Way-Defective Pixel policy is worth extra cash. I ended up buying my ViewSonic with a 1 year worth of protection against dead pixels. And my choice of vendor was strongly based on their ability to offer this. The point being that IF the Asus ZBD applies here and is as comprehensive, then it's like an extra $60 (CDN) value.

Anyway, in the end I'm now doubly glad I bought that ViewSonic VX2025wm. Hopefully the Asus 20" or newer models will be an improvement. I was half tempted to still pick up the PW191 to have next to our MCE HTPC/projection TV ... but now that I read about the poor performance and horrible glare filter, I'll definitely pass... thanks!

another stupid article using the five-point rating system with no points in sight.

oh man if gaming performance of this lcd was gr8 i would certainly buy tht! resolution is kinda good for my gaming system im hoping tht they wud com up wid better 19 incd widescreens