The monitor has 90% brightness and 80% contrast by default. I achieved a 100nit level of white by lowering both to 75%. Like on the VW192C, every halftone is distinguishable through the entire range of settings. There is no banding in color gradients. The brightness is regulated by means of backlight modulation at a frequency of 239Hz.

The average uniformity of white brightness is 4.2% with a maximum of 10.6%. That’s a very good result. In fact, it is the best result among all the 19-inch monitors I have tested so far. The average is even lower on black, being a mere 3.0%, but the maximum is 13.7%. Still, that’s a good result, too. The monitor seems to be absolutely uniformly bright to the naked eye.

The gamma curves lie close to the theoretical curve and to each other at the defaults settings.

Alas, the curves get worse at the reduced settings. They are still close to each other, but their value of gamma is now too low, resulting in a whitish and low-contrast image. The problem is not as big as to affect color reproduction seriously, though.

Interestingly, the gamma curves do not hit the ceiling of the diagram even at the maximum values of brightness and contrast. The curves sag, resulting in a dark and high-contrast image, yet light halftones do not merge into white.

The color temperature setup is good. It is only on the dark tones in the Warm mode that the color temperature varies greatly. In the other modes the temperature dispersion is within 600K. A minor drawback is the lack of a really warm mode (with a color temperature below 6500K).

The color gamut is standard, being somewhat larger than sRGB in greens and smaller than it in reds.

This model is somewhat slower than the above-discussed one. Its response time average is 14.8 milliseconds with a maximum of 26 milliseconds. That’s an average result as RTC-less TN matrixes go.

The maximum brightness is lower than that of the VW192C but quite acceptable. The contrast ratio is good, never lower than 250:1. The maximum contrast ratio is 400:1.

The ASUS VW193S is surprisingly better than its more expensive mates from the same series. It features very uniform brightness of the backlight, good color reproduction, and a high contrast ratio. You don’t often meet all that even in expensive monitors. So, this model is worth your consideration unless you want a fast matrix and a digital interface. Keep in mind the narrow viewing angles of TN matrixes, too. Well, there are actually no other matrix types available among widescreen 19-inch LCD monitors.

Highs:

• Nice exterior design
• Uniform brightness of the backlight
• Good color reproduction setup

Lows:

• No digital interface
• Slow matrix

Recommended usage:

• Text-based applications (documents, spreadsheets, Internet)
• Movies and games that don’t require a fast matrix
• Simple processing of graphics and photographs