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Kogi L7EH-BL 17" LCD Monitor (Black)

Kogi L7EH-BL 17" LCD Monitor (Black)

List Price: $439.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Look before you buy
Review: After returning two Kogi monitors I went down to a local store (Best Buy) and took a good look at their displays: all terrible. I ask the clerk and he said they are so bad that he tries to keep people from buying them. They just don't last. If you don't believe me, go take a look for yourself. The text is fuzzy and jumpy. There is a reason they are so cheap: they are pure junk.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Mine arrived with a Racing Stripe
Review: Appears to be a very bright, focused monitor. Text is very clear. No problem tuning it in. Only one problem, a 1 1/2" vertical stripe down the middle of the screen. Called Gvision tech support and they said to return the monitor, but they had a curious question. The tech asked if it was a black monitor. From that I gather there may be problems with the black ones. Also, the one I received was manufactured in Dec. 2002. That makes it nearly two years old already. If it hadn't been defective it could have easily gotten 4 stars maybe five. Didn't try the speakers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great for the price, but buyer beware!
Review: First the bad news...

At the time of this review, the Kogi L7EH-BL is advertised by both Kogi's .... and Amazon's websites with a 20ms response rate and a 350:1 contrast ratio. The manual, however, states that the response rate for this monitor is 40ms and the contrast ratio is 400:1. While the higher contrast ratio is welcome, the higher-than-average response rate is not!

I contacted the Kogi's parent company, GVision ....., and spoke with Pat in technical support. Pat verified that the L7EH-BL that carries the Kogi brand name is indeed a 40 ms unit, while the same model with the GVision name has a 20 ms response rate (he said that the GVision was a more expensive monitor).

This sort of deceptive advertising is extremely annoying and I probably would not have purchased the L7EH, even with the $90.00 rebate, if I had had known up front that the response rate was so poor.

Now some good news...

The quality of this monitor seems to be quite good. At 1280 X 1024 resolution, the text is very sharp and clear; however, at lower resolutions some manual adjustments need to be made to get the text to be its sharpest. Also, there are no dead pixels -- a testament to the quality of the monitor. You will see this point echoed over-and-over again in most of the reviews for this monitor. It seems apparent that the manufacturer has really good quality control in place.

The color is very sharp and true -- in fact I think it's better than my Dell LCD at work. My house is very bright, yet the screen is still easy to view, no washout at all. Sometimes the L7EH is too bright! Fortunately, it's very easy to toggle between two user modes -- one darker than the other.

I noticed no ghosting while playing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Other reviewers have tested more graphics intensive games with this monitor with similar results. This is important because many LCD monitors with slower response rates are said to have problems with graphically intensive games. (Note: do a search on Kogi L7EH, without the "-BL", and you'll find a lot more reviews than the ones you see here).

I haven't tried the built-in speakers, so I really can't comment on them. Other reviewers have found them to be "tinny". This is typical of almost all built-in monitor speakers. No-one wanting good sound will use monitor speakers in the first place.

As of right now...

I would have given the L7EH a 5 star rating if I hadn't been misled on the response rate. GVision's Technical Support was very good and that speaks highly of GVision's (and Kogi's) commitment to the customer. It's much better than other manufacturers I have had to deal with in the past. All said, I am very happy with what I see in front of me, but I'm still concerned that I'll regret the 40ms response rate in the future. Is it enough for my to keep the monitor? Well, I plan on testing some more games and video clips to see if there are any problems. If not, then I'll probably keep it.

I have spoken to Amazon's customer service, and they have told me that they will look into correcting the incorrect information on their website. They also said that the would give me a full refund and pay for the return shipping, should I wish to return the product. I guess I can't ask for more than that!

Update 11/15/2003

I decided to keep the monitor, and I am still very pleased with it. I compared it to a friend's 17" Dell flat panel (E171FPb), and I was shocked to see that it easily blew it away in the sharpness of text and colors. I'm not sure why the reviewer immediately following my original review found the quality so objectionable. The only thing I can think of is that she wasn't running it at 1280 X 1024, which is the Kogi's native resolution.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bright, No Dead Pixels, Excellent Value
Review: For the price, this monitor can't be beat. It is very bright, and not a dead pixel. Of course, that's not a guarantee for the next person that buys. The speakers are tinny, but if you want to listen to music, you wouldn't use your monitor for that anyway. I looked high and low, and this was the best deal to be found when the rebate is included.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a very good LCD and a very good deal
Review: I bought this LCD at September when there is a $90 rebate provided by the manufacture. I like it very much. It has no dead pixels at all. Its color and brightness are just perfect.

The only thing I think it can be improved is the size of the whole panel can be smaller. Compared with other brands of same size, it needs more space. But with the price I paid, it is definitely a great deal.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great value
Review: I have had this monitor for several months now with no problems. The picture quality is great although not as good as my previous 17" CRT. It is nice to have the speakers integrated into the display. I was hoping to get rid of my desktop speakers, but the sound quality is just not the same, so I may go back. The volume control is through a menu and not a knob, so it is a little more difficult to control.
It frees up a lot of desk space. You may have to fool around with the display controls to get the quality you prefer. It was truly plug and play.

Pros
great price
plug and play
integrated speakers

Cons
Speaker quality
volume control

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: So far, good, speakers work fine with me
Review: I have had this product for about two weeks. So far, good, with the price I paid. Every one complained about the speakers, work fine with me. It is so loud I have to reduce to volume.

With regard to dead pixel, I could not find any with naked eyes.

Cable could have been a little longer, and it would be ideal if the external power adapter could have been built in.

Amazon service is good (should amazon pay me for saying this?)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good monitor for the price
Review: I just got the monitor, not bad at all.. had one dead pixel, and I had to autotune it to get it to look right.. but it seems to be working fine. I tried out tony hawk 4 on it to see how it looked in games, and it looked great, very bright.. The manual says 40ms response time, but the website says 20ms, so I dunno who to believe..

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: For $300 Bucks....it's a Deal!
Review: I needed to save some space, put the old iron to rest, and not spend a fortune. I am using this monitor in my test lab connected to a couple of W2K Servers. It was a toss up between this and the Envision, I flipped a coin, this won. I'm really surprised and very pleased with the quality. The picture is excellent, I had no dead pixels, it arrived via UPS safely. Since the unit has built in speakers, the footprint is kind of large, it dwarfs my Dell 17" Flat panel. It's a deal with the rebate. It also made me feel better that Amazon would make good on it if it turned out to be a dog. Don't be afraid of buying this Unit

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worked great for one year, then died
Review: I purchased a 17" Black Kogi LCD flat panel in November of 2003 and loved the monitor that I got for the money. The speakers were quite pathetic, but I used my surround sound system instead. The image quality was very good, and I used to brag to my friends about the low price I paid for this LCD. Well all that changed in December 2004, when the unit completely died and won't power up. My unit died just a few days after the one year warranty expired, and trying to work with this manufacturer is a nightmare -- they never call or email back ever! Because of the poor customer service and bad warranty, I can not longer recommend Kogi, but only tell you to buy an LCD that has a good warranty. I recently purchased a Princeton 714, and it comes with a great warranty (full 3 years, even on the backlight) and DVI input for less cost than the Kogi.

My Kogi has been retired to the landfill, and I will never again purchase a Kogi/GVision product.




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