The Lenovo LS2421p Wide ($219.99 direct) is an excellent choice for anyone seeking a 23.6-inch desktop monitor that will not only save you money at the register, but help cut electric costs as well. As with most affordable TN+ panels its grayscale performance is nothing to write home about, but it delivers great color quality and does a good job of displaying tiny fonts. As a bonus, it has a four-port USB hub that makes connecting to external peripherals a breeze.

The LS2421p Wide is actually a 23.6-inch monitor and not a not true 24-incher as its name would suggest. The1920-by-1080 panel has a matte anti-glare coating that works well and is non-reflective. It is housed in a piano black cabinet with moderately thin bezels and uses LEDs for backlighting. Rounded corners and a thin slice of transparent trim around the edges give the display a sleek, understated look. The cabinet is ably supported by a piano black oval stand that offers forward and backward tilt adjustment but lacks height and swivel adjustments.

To the right of the Lenovo logo on the bottom bezel is a backlit power button and five touch sensitive function keys that are invisible until you touch one of them, at which point they all light up. There are two USB ports mounted behind the left bezel where they are readily accessible, making it easy to plug and unplug input devices (keyboard and mouse) and things like USB keys, cameras, and external hard drives. There are two more USB ports on the back panel as well as a USB-PC connection, an HDMI port, and a VGA port.

The function keys provide access to a variety of settings menus including brightness and contrast, image properties, and options. The image properties menu contains a color submenu with four presets (Neutral, sRGB, Reddish, and Bluish) and a custom mode with individual RGB saturation settings. There's also a Scaling submenu where you can change the aspect ratio, and a NOVO VISION submenu with three video presets (text, web, and video mode) and a split screen mode that displays text mode on one side and Web mode on the other. Web and movie modes are a bit oversaturated, while the text mode offers the best all around image quality. Other settings include clock, phase, and automatic image setup (for use with an analog signal) as well as menu position and menu language.

The LS2421p did a fine job of displaying uniform colors on the DisplayMate Color Scales and 256 Intensity Level Color Ramp tests. You don't get the vibrancy with the matte screen that you do with a glossy coating, but colors are well defined nonetheless. Small text reproduction was also very good; fonts set to 5.3 points on the Scaled Fonts test were completely legible and well formed so you can view document pages side-by-side without sacrificing readability.

Grayscale performance was a mixed bag. The panel was able to reproduce the darkest shades of grays without issue, but it had trouble at the high end; the two lightest shades of gray were indistinguishable from white (a common characteristic of TN+ technology). There was some loss of detail on my test photos, but only in the very brightest areas. Viewing angle performance was generally good but there was some loss of color fidelity when viewed from an extreme angle (another characteristic of TN+ technology).

The LS2421p won't stress your utility bill. It used only 16-watts of power during my testing, which is exactly what the 24-inch Gateway FHX2402L ($229.99 list, 3stars) used. The 24-inch HP LA2405wg ($379 direct, 3.5 stars) used 41-watts and the Asus ML248H ($209.99 list, 3.5 stars) required 23-watts. With its low power traits and TCO and Energy Star compliancy the LS2421p earns our Greentech stamp of approval. Lenovo also covers their monitors with a generous three year warranty which includes on.

With its $220 price tag and cost saving LED backlighting the Lenovo LS2421p Wide is a smart choice for anyone looking to save a few bucks without sacrificing quality. Granted, it doesn't have the flexibility of the HP LA2405wg, but it has a four-port USB hub (the LG2405wg has two) and is considerably less expensive. Affordable price, solid performance, and a convenient feature set are all reasons why the Lenovo LS2421p Wide is our current Editors' Choice for affordable desktop monitors.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo LS2421p Wide with several other monitors side by side.

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