LG L1515S LCD

A couple of weeks back we reviewed a 15" LCD from BenQ with the best response time in that category. Today we have a look at an entry level 15-incher from LG. Can it do any better than the BenQ and its other competitors? Let's find out.

Firstly, let us have a quick look at its features and specifications. The LG L1515S has a 15" view area (diagonally) with a pixel pitch of 0.297 mm, a maximum brightness level of 250 cd/m" and a contrast ratio of 400:1. The horizontal and vertical view angles stand at 160 and 140 degrees respectively. Frequency response ranges between 31 KHz to 63 KHz (Horizontal) and 56 Hz to 75 Hz (Vertical). It supports a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 at 32-bit color depth and has a response time of 25 ms. While the whole world is aiming to reduce the response time, LG seems to have other ideas.

Connectors at the back include a D-Sub and a standard power input. The VGA cable and a power cable were bundled in the package. Just like the BenQ, even this LCD display sports a sleek and simple design with those smart corporate looks. It has a standard rectangular frame with 6 slim buttons on the bottom panel that allow you access to all the functions of this monitor through an OSD. The functions include Brightness/Contrast/Gamma controls, RGB color temperature adjustments, Display presets like Normal, Day photo, Day movie, Day text, Night photo, Night movie, Night text (of which Normal is the most feasible option) and a lot more.




Now it's time for DisplayMate. That software helps you get a bearing on how well the monitor performs when put through various test patterns. DisplayMate first lets you tune a monitor to get the best possible display settings and then runs it through a series of test patterns to test everything from color, brightness and contrast to screen geometry.

Just like most of the 15" LCDs that we have tested in recent time, this too has a very bright display. So much that once again I had to tone the brightness level down to under 25 percent. The sharpness and contrast were pretty good and at par with other renowned 15" LCDs. The screen geometry was perfect too and so was the color reproduction. There was absolutely no bleeding of colors. It performed very well in all the tests except for the horizontal color registration test, one in which almost all the LCDs fail to achieve 100 percent perfection. As is often noticed, there was a slight mismatch of green and red strands. To its credit, there were no dead pixels on screen.

I ran a few games and video clips on this monitor to check for any ghosting effect. There was no problem with the movies but a noticeable blurring in game and understandably so given its response time of 25 ms. This one is definitely not for gamers who like their textures sharp and blur-free.

The LG L1515S is available for a street price of Rs 10,700 with a 3-year warranty. I would term that as a bit expensive for a 15" LCD and especially for one with a 25 ms response time. Also, 17" LCDs with 8 ms response time are available for just over 3K more. They are certainly a better buy. Though everything about this model is fine except for the response time, I wouldn't recommend it, as I received info that this model is about to be replaced by the L1530S model that has the exact feature set but a lower response time of 16 ms. That logically makes it a better option. And there are always the BenQ and the Samsung in the same category if a 15" LCD is what you are looking to buy.



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