With 19-inch monitors now available at a price point occupied by 17-inch displays just a few years ago, it's becoming increasingly tempting to go for the extra workspace offered by the bigger models. Whether you're a business user or a consumer, the difference between 17-inches and 19 can be significant. Size, it would seem, really does matter.

ADI's newest 19-inch display is an elegantly styled unit that has a specially-designed short tube. This means that it takes up less space on the desktop than some of its counterparts, but still offers a viewable diagonal screen size of 18-inches. Its top resolution is 1600 x 1200, in which mode the display can be refreshed at a rate of 75Hz. That's enough to avoid flicker, but we preferred to use the monitor in its 1280 x 1024 mode, as it's less of a strain on the eyes. As far as image quality is concerned, it's hard to find fault with this monitor. There was no obvious distortion, colour impurity or misconvergence, either when viewing true-colour images, using a Windows desktop or playing games.

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The ADI monitor complies with all the major international ergonomics and emissions standards, including TUV, NORDIC, CE and TCO'95, as well as supporting Plug and Play operation and various energy-saving modes. It has a 0.26mm dot pitch and the tube is coated with an anti-static, anti-reflective and anti-glare coating, which helps to improve contrast, particularly in well-lit offices. Built into the front of the monitor's casing is a microphone, while at the rear is an upstream USB port. This is not a great deal of use without the four downstream ports, however, and they're optional extras. Also optional is the speaker add-on kit that provides stereo sound output for the user.

Just a little more expensive than a good 17-inch display, ADI's MicroScan G66 is of a sufficiently high quality that it justifies the extra expense. For home users, games and entertainment packages are much more 'in your face', while in a business environment this display will be particularly suitable for graphics designers and other users needing plenty of visual workspace.