HP 2709m 27-inch LCD Monitor

Aug 23 2009 - At 27-inches, the HP 2709m is a very large monitor that offers a good compromise in terms of size between the 24-inch and 30-inch monitor sizes. The panel itself is quite bright and colorful with a nice anti-glare coating unlike most consumer monitors these days. The size of the screen does provide it with a few drawback however including color dropoff at the corners and the speakers a very underpowered given the size of the screen. With a stree price just under $400, it offers a good balance for those looking at a large display without a huge price tag.

Aug 23 2009 - HP's 2709m is the largest of their 2009 consumer series monitors. With a $450 price tag, it also is one of the most expensive. Street pricing of the display allows for them to be found for under $400 that is similar to many of the other displays on the market in this size range.

The panel in the HP 2709m uses the TN LCD technology that allows for quick response times that make them very well suited towards video and fast movie graphics. These panels do have a downside in that they tend to have color shift when viewing slightly off center. This is very apparent in the corners of the display even when looking dead center at the display. For some, this may be a minor issue and others may want to avoid it. Of course, graphics professionals would probably want a different LCD technology with high color gamuts.

One of the nice aspects of HP's 2709m is the anti-glare coating. It does a very good job at limiting reflections and glare under less than ideal lighting conditions. This type of coating does tend to reduce the color and brightness of the display but that didn't seem to be an issue as the color was more typical of a glossy coated screen.

As with most monitors right out of the box, the HP 2709m was too bright and caused some colors to wash out. After color calibration, the colors and brightness were much more functional and it reduced the blues levels that gave it a slight tint beforehand.

The screen does come with built-in 2W stereo speakers but they are almost not worth it. They produce such low levels without any bass at full volume. The audio was clear just difficult to hear. I would rate some laptop speakers as having better volume.

The system uses all the most common video connectors on the market including HDMI, DVI and VGA. It would have been nice to see HP include an HDMI cable though.