VR-Zone

Widescreen monitors may be the norm today, but there are times where 'standards' may unintentionally end up causing more issues than convenence, especially where productivity is concerned. This is usually because the 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio for monitors were mostly designed with consumers and entertainment in mind, while those who actually use their PC to do work often find themselves frustrated by the lack of vertical real estate when it comes to multitasking between various applications. And this problem is even more evident on applications which make use of multiple windows as part of its workflow.

Unfortunately, most OEMs usually tend to focus more on consumers than business users, thus wokers often have to find themselves trying to adapt to their new workflow on monitors that offer essentially little to no real estate for dealing with multiple windows. Fortunately for such users, a solution seems to be at hand: BenQ has just announced the availability of a new LED-backlit monitor that makes use of the old but practical 4:3 aspect ratio.

According to specifications released by BenQ, the new BL902M makes use of the company's proprietary Senseye3 technology which is touted to an extremely advanced image correction engine. In addition, the BL902M monitor has been preloaded with five Senseye3 preset values which automatically adjust the display's colour properties to match the selected profile.

Of course, colour profiles mean nothing if the monitor is not up to scratch in meeting the needs of today's working professionals. Fortunately, it appears that BenQ's BL902M is more than capable of doing so: the company claims that the monitor supports resolutions of up to 1280 x 1024, which offers users more vertical real estate than what most widescreen monitors (save for Full HD) are capable of. In addition, the LCD panels used in the monitor boast a relatively fast response time of 5ms and a contrast ratio of 1000:1, while its display input is provided by the VGA and DVI ports located at its rear. Last but not least, the monitor also sports audio-out jacks and integrated speakers for a complete out-of-the-box experience.

That being said, it is likely that a monitor sporting the old 4:3 aspect ratio is not going to be a hit with the average consumers, and simply because no one enjoys watching a movie with two ugly black bars gracing the top and bottom of the content being played. However, workers who deal with multi-window environments will probably appreciate the gain in vertical real estate that the BenQ BL902M can offer. And if that sounds like the kind of thing you crave for you office, we've got news for you: BenQ has not released any details about the BL902M's availability outside of Japan.

But if that is not going to deter you, the monitor is reportedly selling for the market price of 18,000 yen or approximately US$217.

Source: BenQ