A new Westinghouse 24″ LCD monitor arrived at my door this week. Excited to upgrade from my 20″, I quickly unpacked it and hooked it up.

First Impressions

Despite the big-ish box, the unit is surprisingly light – it doesn’t weigh any more than my 20″.

It’s REALLY bright. It hurt my eyes a bit before I turned the brightness down, but this may be helpful if it is going to be used as a television.

The picture is amazing. Colors pop crisp and beautiful, and there is no graininess. I played Lord Of The Rings for 15 minutes, it looked awesome.

The housing is slick. It has a glossy, stylish look, no buttons or unsightly interfaces on the front of the panel.
There is a glass bezel along the bottom that looks really cool, too.

I played poker for about an hour, there’s such a difference on a big wide-screen monitor.  My eyes were relaxed and the tables were big and clear.

I Run Bad

To my dismay, I spotted a dead pixel in the center of the screen horizontally, and about 3.5″ up from the middle vertically – right where my gaze falls.

I’d be happy to keep the unit if there was a dead pixel in the lower-left corner or something, but dead center is unacceptable to me.

I called newegg.com, they gave me the runaround about needing 8+ dead pixels(lol) to return a unit.

Fortunately, Westinghouse customer support was friendly and helpful. They got me set up with a RMA number and I sent it off to be replaced.

Unfortunately, now I have to wait 2-3 weeks to get my replacement unit. Most online reviews said no dead pixels, I guess I just run bad in dead-pixel draws, haha.

Aside from the dead pixel issue, I highly recommend this monitor for anyone looking to upgrade. It’s slick, the picture is stunning, and it’s a great price at $350 after mail-in rebate from newegg.com.

If you don’t want to deal with online, you can get it at bestbuy for $550.

You do run the risk of a dead pixel, but most units are clear and if it’s in a bad location (or you have 2+) Westinghouse will replace it.