Offering a host of calibration options and a few nifty features LG's entry-level 22in unit is a fairly attractive all-purpose monitor. It does have a few image quality issues but they are far from serious and overall it performed well across a variety of tests.
Like its more high-end brother, the Flatron W2252TQ, the W2242T has a 4:3 viewing mode which is a nifty addition, particularly for DVD playback. It allows you to view non-widescreen content with no distortion or stretching by applying black bars around the frame, which many other displays don't do.
Aside from that feature it is a fairly standard 22in widescreen display. It sports a native resolution of 1680x1050, a brightness rating of 300cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 8000:1.
We started our tests with DisplayMate Video Edition, where the display performed adequately. There was a bare hint of flickering evident in the moire test patterns but nothing particularly noteworthy. All the straight line and grid charts were rendered perfectly and uniformity was good right across the panel. There was a tiny amount of backlight bleeding on both sides of the screen but it was only evident on our entirely black test screen.
It wasn't quite as impressive in the contrast tests. While the large block contrast chart was relatively well rendered, the finer intensity ramps lacked definition at both the dark and light sides; everything blended together a little. This was also evident in the colour intensity ramps along with some very minor banding in some shades. Fortunately colours were beautifully rendered straight out of the box with minimal calibration necessary. Reds and blues were rich, deep and accurate although there are extensive calibration options which we will cover later if you aren't satisfied with the default setup.
In our movie and gaming tests the W2242T showed similar results. The contrast issues found in DisplayMate were evident again here, with a little less detail than we're used to seeing. It shouldn't be too problematic but there are better displays out there if you're purely interested in film watching. Still it handled fast motion relatively well as it has a 5ms response time, which is fine for most uses. Colours were rich and black levels impressive in these tests.
Viewing angles are quoted at 170 degrees which is the norm by today's standards. Horizontally everything was pretty good, with several people able to watch the display without concern. Vertically, however, there was noticeable colour shift when moving more than 10 centimetres or so from our central point.
The included calibration options are fairly extensive with the ability to adjust colour temperature backed up by individual colour tweaks for red, green and blue as well as contrast and brightness. Phase and sharpness can also be changed.
A standard duo of VGA and DVI ports are on offer for connectivity. Design wise the W2242T is fairly plain with a matte charcoal bezel and some fairly discreet keys running along the bottom right edge. The only noticeable feature is the neon blue power light.
