What is it? A full HD 16:9 1920 X 1080 (aka 1080p) 24″ TFT computer monitor with DVI / VGA and HDMI inputs and built in speakers for £195 including VAT from ebuyer.com. It’s sold as a 24″ monitor, but it’s actually 23.6 inches.
Is it any good? Yes – image quality is good with crisp clear pixels, and calibration using a Spyder 3 Pro (shown above in the first photo) made a slight change (making the image warmer, and slightly darker). It’s got a matte screen so there is minimal reflections from lights etc.
Why choose this over other monitors? I personally chose this one because I wanted 1080p for a PS3 using HDMI, plus the speakers are rated at a MASSIVE 
6w (2x 3w) – whereas some other similar (Iiyama) monitors deliver even less power from their speakers – the monitor has an audio jack in (for sound from the PC) plus a speaker / headphone socket (all the ports are at the back). Plus this was one of the cheapest TFT monitors with HDMI input.
Design / Looks: The black plastic casing is almost entirely matt – apart from a loop that runs all the way around the monitor including along the bottom where the touch sensitive “buttons” are. The speaker location is a little bit poor in that they point directly down, so in order to get the sound to your ears you’d really need to mount some deflectors or something to bounce the sound towards you, although saying that, I don’t know where else they could have mounted them without making the monitor appear more bulky.
Positives? Value for money, ability to take 3 inputs (including HMDI blu-ray, ps3, or xbox360), good screen. 5ms response and 50,000:1 dynamic contrast according to the specs. Comes with VGA / DVI and audio cables but no HDMI cable.
Any negatives? Quite a thick border around the screen compared to most Dell TFTs. The speakers seems adequate at best – poor for listening to music and probably not loud enough to be used in a living room. The touch sensitive buttons are practially invisible in low light – and difficult to use as there is no feedback when compared to normal buttons. Fairly small viewing angle. It would be nice if black was a little blacker – there is a tiny amount of backlight bleed. Base is a little small.
Overall: This is one of the cheapest 24″ TFT 1080p monitors available with speakers and HDMI built in. Not only that, but it offers excellent image quality, with zero dead / hot pixels. If you want a 16:9 aspect ratio then this would make an excellent choice.
More info and links: Gallery photos, ebuyer.com, Photos at ybnews.com, Dead Pixel Buddy (useful for testing TFT monitors), Forum Discussion (Whirlpool.net), HotUKDeals.
Update Nov 09: looks like the Samsung 2494HS is getting rarer to find (discontinued? / replaced by newer model?) – so you might want to look at the ASUS 24″ VH242H Wide Gaming LCD TFT Monitor (5ms, Full HD, HDMI, Black).
