My 24" Acer LCD died a few weeks ago, so I went to Fry's Electronics to browse the selection.It's been a few years since I researched LCD's, and I'm happy to report that the technology has come a long way!The HP 2709m exemplifies this beautifully.After owning and using this monitor daily for the last two weeks, I've decided to write a review for it.Here are my thoughts on the monitor:
* 27" - huge!
* Great contrast
* Great colors
* Reflective-coating (not sure what the technical name is) - turns the monitor into a bit of a mirror, but also sharpens the colors tremendously versus matte-finish LCD's so to me it's worth a bit of on-screen reflection
* Reasonable response time.Aside from working and web-surfing, I also play FPS games (e.g. Crysis) and watch movies on this monitor; I've been satisfied with the pixel response time.Ghosting is non-existent, though LCD monitors can't hold a candle to traditional CRT monitors when comparing image stability on fast-moving objects.For instance, when a camera pans the background in a movie, or when you spin your character around in a video game, just like all LCD's, there is some blurring (not ghosting, there is a difference).
* Built-in Speakers - I haven't used them, but they are there if I ever need them.
* No annoying LED's - you can turn off the power LED on the front of the monitor so that there is no annoying LED blasting you in the eyes like many LCD monitors seem to have.This is especially nice when watching a movie in a dark room - the only thing lit up on the monitor is the screen itself.
* Ambient Light Sensor - automatically adjusts the brightness of the monitor to the brightness of the ambient lighting in your room. For instance, if you are using the monitor in a dark room, the brightness is automatically decreased so that your eyes don't fry (likewise, in a bright room, the monitor brightens the back-light).This feature can be disabled; I have it turned off because I prefer a fairly dark monitor relative to what the monitor's designers must prefer, especially when reading onscreen text.The only thing I would change would be to add a user-selectable base-level for the ambient light sensor so that it can properly adjust to the environment using the viewer's personal preference as the base level.
* The stand is solid and has a small footprint.
* The look and finish is understated, glossy and bares few labels.Very nice.
Overall, I am impressed and give this monitor a full five stars.
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HP 2709m 27 Inch Diagonal Full HD LCD Monitor (Black)Product Description: Screen Size: View movies, photos and online games,1 using a 25-inch diagonal widescreen monitor. Expand your work space from either your desktop or notebook by displaying two windows at the same time. Image quality: Enjoy Full HD3 and fine details with the stunning image clarity of 1920 x 1080p maximum resolution. Sharpen images and reduce glare with HP BrightView technology.Reduce blur while enjoying sports, action movies or online games with a 3 ms Gray to Gray response time. Experience a wide range of shading effects providing deeper blacks, brighter whites and subtle colors with 60,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Design and Experience: Complement your computer by adding an HP monitor—designed to be a perfect match with any HP PC or notebook. Free up more desk space with the monitor's slim profile that fits a keyboard at its base. Share videos, photos and documents, using a wide-viewing angle. Adjust the monitor to meet your needs, using the tilt and swivel features. Optimize the display to match your experience—movies, photos, or games—by selecting one of the Quick View modes directly from the monitor. Connectivity: Connect another device using the HDMI input. Display digital content using a DVI-D with HDCP. Easily connect to more than one PC using both DVI-D and VGA ports. Widescreen technology:New 16:9 aspect ratio delivers optimized wide screenexperience for both practical computing applicationsand movie watching. From 18.5 to 27-Inches, HP has a monitor to meet your needs.
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Good LCD! But I got a dark point at near right edge. A little sad.
I bought the monitor for the New Year. Out of the box it worked fine, but soon started to develop horizontal lines and stripes on the screen, flickering and running lines and shadows that are coming from the corners of every window. I actually exchanged the monitor after a month of trying to figure it out, but the story is exactly the same with the substitute. First works fine, but in three days starts showing the same problems. Tech support of Hanns G doesn't pick up, messages left on their answering machine were not returned.
Bought a Hannspree 25" television.The remote stopped working after a couple of days.The screen went dark, and after a couple of weeks would occasionally go completely black, requiring me to have to get up (since the remote didn't work) and power cycle the TV. 
