Why is EVERYONE Buying this Monitor?? - HP 22CWA
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
856 words · ~4 min read
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This right here is a $560
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gaming monitor. It's got a 240 Hz
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refresh rate, G-Sync, and 1 millisecond
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response times. I mean, gaming on this thing is way better than gaming on this
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cheapo HP. But is it six times better?
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Now, take this one. This $5,000
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8K workstation monitor for creatives.
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It is way better to look at than this peasant trash.
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But is it 55.55
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repeating times better?
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Well, your mental math is correct. This
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monitor is only $90. And welcome back to
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another episode of why the actual holy
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advertiser friendly content. Are you guys all buying this? The best
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selling monitor on Amazon.com.
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The Pavilion 22 CWA, the bestselling
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monitor on Amazon.com, has over 3600
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reviews and an average rating of 4.4 stars. And admittedly, it does look a
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little out of place next to the kinds of products that we typically cover on this
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channel. But don't let its dimminitive
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21 1/2 in size and super light 8 1/2 lb
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weight fool you. This monitor is 100%
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pretty not bad. Just check out those
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colors. So, what's the deal here? Well,
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it's not just that HP is selling a cheap monitor. In fact, the number three best
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seller is only 65 bucks. It's that
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they're selling a cheap monitor that's equipped with an IPS panel, while these
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other cheapies are sporting your run-of-the-mill TN panels. But HP
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doesn't make LCD panels. They source them from other manufacturers. So if I
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take a spudger like this and
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work it around the edge, I might be able to see who actually made this thing.
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So, the sticker says LM215WF3,
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which according to the internet is an LG
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panel with a full 1920x 1080 resolution,
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typical brightness of 250 nits and 8bit
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color. But what's really interesting is that if I type that model number into
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Amazon, I get a page full of replacement
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2012 to 2014 iMac screens. and for over
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$200. So, either these prices have a heavy
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Apple tax applied to them or HP secured
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an awesome deal with LG because 90 bucks
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for an iMac screen ain't half bad. Plus,
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you aren't just getting the panel. HP is providing you with the casing, stand,
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IO, and their one-year limited warranty, which is of course required by law.
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Haha. And the casing itself isn't too
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bad either. It's made of not terrible quality plastic that doesn't easily get
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covered in fingerprints, and it is slim all the way around. Though, of course,
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they did have to cut some corners somewhere to get the price down. And the
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stand is the worst offender. It offers
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no swivel, no pivot or height adjust
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whatsoever. though it does include a little bit of tilt to that you'll
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probably need because the stand is so short. And that isn't even the worst
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part. It's that should you take the crappy stand off and opt to use a third
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party monitor ARM instead, perhaps in a multimonitor setup, which these are
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awesome for thanks to the thin bezels. It's not Vasa compatible. So, unless you
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get an adapter for an extra $20, you're going to have to get pretty creative.
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Bringing us to the IO,
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it's pretty spartan. You get one HDMI
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port and one VGA port. That's it. I
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mean, you probably have low expectations for such a budget product, but just make
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sure that they're low enough to also not be surprised when there is no HDMI cable
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included in the box. So, who should buy this monitor then?
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Well, if you want a secondary or tertiary or quatinary screen for that
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matter to supplement your main display or displays, the wide viewing angles
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here mean that you can put it way off to the side without much color distortion.
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As for using it for your main display,
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could you use it for gaming? Sure. While
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IPS displays aren't known to have the highest refresh rates or the fastest
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pixel response times, this one's input lag is better than most TVs. And while
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you will see some smearing and fastoving scenes, it's a far cry better than value
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monitors from 10 years ago. So, do we recommend it? Actually, yeah. It's a
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great value. And if you're hung up on the crappy stand, don't worry. An
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additional 40 bucks will get you the number two bestselling monitor, which is
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also from HP and basically the same, but
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an inch bigger and with a Vasa compatible pivoting stand.
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So, thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But
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if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link
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to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also linked down
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there is our merch drawer, which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which you should
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totally join.