LG 22EA63V 21.5" IPS LED Monitor Review

It's rare to find a well-sized monitor with a generous range of connectivity options at a comfortable price. Well, if you manage to find a monitor that ticks those boxes - you'll likely be complaining that your monitor was built by a cheap, unknown, unreputable brand or that it isn't very stylish. I'll be very blunt here - the LG 22EA63V is not perfect and doesn't actually tick all those boxes, but it has a very good attempt at it!

This particular monitor is available in two sizes. The 22EA63V is a 21.5inch display whilst the 23EA63V gives an extra inch and a half of physical real estate whilst keeping the maximum supported resolution at full 1080p HD.

What's great about this package from LG is that it gives us three of the most commonly used inputs: D-SUB/VGA, HDMI and DVI. That makes it compatible with PCs, Macs, Laptops, XBox's, Sky set-top boxes, freeview boxes and a whole range of other gadgets you would find in an office, bedroom or living room.

It boasts a super-thin LED backlit display with IPS technology. This allows it too run cool with vibrant colours and deep blacks whilst only drawing at maximum 26W of power (1W at standby). Although it is built as a standard desktop monitor it handles gaming pretty well too thanks to a very modest 5ms response rate and almost a full 180 degree viewing angle!

The LG 22EA63V is stylish, boasts a generous option of connectivity options aswell as fair all-round compatibility with most medium-high end user needs but it does have a few points that do need to be addressed.

Most promotional images of the monitor show it as a bezel-free, edge-to-edge display. This is not the case. Although it does seem to have an edge-to-edge glass panel when turned off, the actual display panel behind the glass leaves a 1cm border around the sides and top. It also does not feature built in speakers, but does compenstate with an AUX-out jack so you can plug in some external speakers if you're carrying sound through HDMI.

Though these are small problems, they do play havoc when the other specs make this one of the very best pound-for-pound desktop and gaming monitors in the market right now.

However, the lack of edge-to-edge display probably will not bother most users, and at £119.99 it blows competition out of the water. There is no other monitor available for the same price with three inputs and a high response time. If monitor mounts are part of your setup, the LG will fit in perfectly with support for VESA 75-standard mounting holes alongside settings to adjust the display for vertcial and horizontal viewing.

For anyone looking for a budget monitor that ticks all the boxes for gaming and computing, the LG 22EA63V is the way to go. Though you do not get full edge-to-edge display, the monitor does look very sweet indeed when turned off and the panel runs seamlessly from edge to edge.