Acer AL2216W: a worthwhile compromise?

Closing Thoughts

We've said on numerous occasions that price is likely to be a major factor for most people looking at purchasing a new LCD. While the Acer AL2216W certainly isn't perfect, the relatively low price of around $300 goes a long way towards overcoming the flaws. Users interested in getting a relatively large LCD first with features and performance being secondary considerations should be quite pleased with the AL2216Wbd. You can find Acer displays carried at a large variety of resellers, including Wal-Mart, and the three-year standard warranty should give you some peace of mind.

Is the AL2216W the best display in its category? That all depends on what you feel is important. It is no secret that there are only a few companies that actually manufacture the LCD panels, so there are quite a few other 22" LCDs on the market that use the same TN panel as this Acer model. Outside of minor differences in features and different backlights, we would expect most of those displays to perform nearly the same as the AL2216W. In fact, we are unable to locate any 22" LCDs that don't use a TN panel at this time, which is likely part of the reason that many 22" displays don't cost much more than some of the better 20" displays.

The primary issue we have with TN panels is that their viewing angles are more limited than most other offerings, particularly in the vertical plane. Since most people sit directly in front of their LCD, that really isn't a major problem. You don't get any extras with the AL2216W, and overall performance and color reproduction is acceptable if not exceptional. Image professionals would probably prefer a higher end display, but that's not the target market of this particular model. If you go into the purchase realizing that a $300 22" LCD isn't going to be in the same category as a $500 20" LCD or a $700+ 24" LCD, then you won't be disappointed with what the AL2216W offers.

We have been pleased if not absolutely wowed by what Acer is offering in this 22" display. We still definitely prefer our 24" or 30" LCDs, and if you have used something like that on a regular basis it will definitely be a noticeable step back dropping to the AL2216W. If on the other hand you are used to running an aging CRT or a smaller/older LCD, most people will feel this is a worthy upgrade. CRT holdouts still aren't going to get the high refresh rates and extremely fast response times that they're used to, but it is getting nearly impossible to find any quality CRTs these days - all of the best CRTs were made several years ago, and eventually even those are going to wear out.

The 22" widescreen LCDs are definitely a welcome addition to the display market, providing a slightly higher resolution than 19" LCDs as well as a noticeably larger display size. The dot pitch of typical 19" LCDs (non-widescreen models) is nearly the same as these 22" LCDs, so if you've ever felt that the text on the 20" widescreen displays is too small by default then the resolution/size compromise should be exactly what you're looking for. We would recommend that anyone looking for a good midrange display take a closer look at the 22" LCDs, as they may be exactly what you need. Hopefully in the future we will also see 22" LCDs that use something other than a TN panel.