Belinea 10 19 20
The 10 19 20 has already been tested. As it is up until today our favourite for multi-use, we found it only logical to oppose it to the new challengers. Also since the release of its test, its price has been reduced. It was initially around 499€.
As with previous tests we have to point out the nomenclature problem. The 10 19 20 has similarities to the VP191b in that it´s a new "old monitor". Belinea has the bad habit of keeping the same name for years even if the inner panel has changed. Changes have been quite significant: the panel was once a TN, another visibly a PVA, then an older MVA generation before including today a fast S-MVA at 8ms.
Fortunately for us, three points help us single out this monitor from previous versions. The design has been redone (the base is different). The reference number is also different as the 10 19 20 is the 11 19 19 (Belinea’s internal reference) specified on the monitor´s box. Finally, characteristics have nothing to do with the previous monitor (contrast, response time, etc).
This monitor is vertically adjustable (really easy to adjust), includes a pivot mode, DVI and analog inputs and an internal power supply, which, fortunately, is more and more common for new monitors.
Pivot mode is of interest mainly when you use dual monitors. It´s nice to keep one in landscape mode and the other one in portrait to write text and navigate in web pages which are often optimal in 1024 x 768 or less. In pivot mode, resolution changes to 1024 in width by 1280 in height. Reading text in this way is quite pleasant. Still it´s best not to install new software all the time as the portrait configuration sometime fails after installation of new programs. Regularly correcting this quickly becomes tiring.
To be ergonomically perfect, it would need a USB hub, video inputs like SCART, YUC, S-Video, and a brightness sensor for automatic color adjustments.
