Price: £270

Verdict: A huge screen, but that and the great budget price are the only thing about this monitor that will impress. If you’re keen on high fidelity from your video card output, look elsewhere. 6/10

Tech Specs:
Size: 28-inch (27.5-inch viewable)
Brightnesss: 400cd/m²
Contrast Ratio: 800:1

Resolution: 1920×1200 WUXGA
Speaker: 2x 2W
Viewing Angle: 170°/160°
Input: VGA, Audio, HDMI, DVI-D (HDCP)

From 24-inch monitors upwards the sheer size of flat panels appears to increase exponentially, and this one is no exception. HANNS G’s 28-inch HZ281HPB is a monster that frames its 27.5 inches of viewable widescreen with an excessively large bezel, adding around three inches to the width. We don’t know whether that’s an entirely necessary feature, but if space isn’t an issue and impressing friends is your modus operandi, then it’s a bonus.

Unfortunately the novelty of bragging rights will soon wear off once you put the monitor to practical use. The speakers are predictably tinny and it uses the same resolution as a standard 24-inch monitor stretched up to 28-inches, suffering from awkward viewing angles and the washed-out black levels indicated by a 800:1 contrast ratio – far too low for a screen of these proportions. Fiddling with the contrast and brightness, which are set too high by default, yields an improved picture but really nothing like the level of fidelity we’d expect from a screen as a gamer: though we can’t complain about the refresh rate in twitchy shooters like Unreal Tournament 3, that streched resolution results in a noticeably blurrier picture than we’re used to. It’s not an ideal monitor for a hardcore PC gamer, but it could be a good budget option for big screen enthusiasts looking for a multimedia solution.

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