By Oo Gin Lee

IF THE svelte and slim Crystal is the Beauty, then this full-bodied monitor must surely be the Beast. At 27 inches, a monstrous body as thick as a 600-page novel and full connectivity features, the 2709W is one monitor you don't want to mess with.

The 2709W has all the connection ports you'd want - one VGA, two DVIs, one HDMI, one Display Port, one component video and one composite video. So, you can connect four computers and three consumer electronics devices to the same monitor and switch effortlessly between them with fingertip control.

I successfully connected my wife's laptop via VGA, my home desktop PC via DVI-1, my laptop via DVI-2 and my PlayStation 3 via the HDMI port. Oh, and there are four USB ports built into the left side of this ogre.

The screen quality is excellent. At a HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, it allows gamers like me to make full use of my Nvidia 8800GT graphics card and set it at full HD resolution. Which means that I am able to enjoy my console gaming and Blu-ray movies to the visual max.

What's missing, unfortunately, are built-in speakers. I had to connect external ones to the monitor for better audio output.

FINAL SAY

It's monstrous but great for your eyes.