Product Reviews

BenQ's FP731 is a 17" LCD screen with a native resolution of 1,280x1,024 pixels. The screen looks fairly smart with its thin bezel finished in silver with six silver buttons. A simple tilt stand with a built-in cable tidy helps to keep everything neat on your desk, or the screen can be wall mounted. There's no DVI input, and it's disappointing to see that the one D-sub input provided is on the end of a non-replaceable cable.

Setting up

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the FP731 is simple. Plug in the power via the kettle-style lead, attach the D-sub connector to your PC and you're away. The front panel has a dedicated button for automatically adjusting the image. This process provided us with a pixel-sharp image every time, but if you need to tweak any settings the onscreen menus are clear and easy to use, as well as being visually appealing. The screen gave plenty of brightness and contrast without us having to adjust either of them. The only test in which the FP731 disappointed us was reproduction of a greyscale gradient, in which some banding was evident.

The FP731 is a respectable if not remarkable choice. At around £300 it's one of the cheaper 17" LCD screens available, and has a smart appearance that will look at home beside a silver PC or peripherals. Having said that, the banding is a let-down. We recommend anyone looking for a low-cost 17" LCD to consider the CTX S761A (see Hotlist, below). It costs only a few pounds more and offers better image quality and built-in speakers.