Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been out of the monitor game for awhile. From what it comes down to it's TN vs VA vs IPS. I found this monitor on sale for around $200 and decided to pull the trigger on it. What I was ultimately looking for was a large monitor with decent specifications and had HDMI & DVI. VGA, speakers a plus. I play both PC and Xbox 360 games on stream and at LAN's, so having a monitor that was capable of handling both kinds of inputs is a plus. I thought this monitor knocked it out of the park - 4 ms (GTG) response time? 27"? Speakers? Heck yeah! A company that I follow through ESPORTS? Oh boy! I also watched Linus' review of the monitor and understood it had some problems but what doesn't? Unpacking the monitor was fairly straight forward. Monitor snaps in and thumb screws to the base. It is extremely light! It also has a very very attractive look. I was really excited to hook it up. Upon connecting it all up I was almost instantly disappointed. The colors look bright and the blacks are good. The viewing angle is exceptional, which is what I heard about VA's. Good to go so far. Then I saw the ghosting. Oh god. The ghosting. This thing ghosts more than Patrick Swayze. I felt like I was misled on the response time. The actual response time is 12ms which to someone who really cares about things like response time, input lag and latency, is really high. I immediately noticed ghosting in RTS and First Person games. The colors of the grass changed from green to dark green whenever you moved. Dark, gray planets turned even darker when you panned over them. The monitor has an "AMA" feature, short for "Amazing!" AMA is a technology similar to the "Smooth Motion" technology that is in some TV's today. It's kinda like 120hz, but isn't. It interpolates the next frame so it looks more smooth. It wasn't. It definitely reduced the ghosting but it's still very noticeable. I chalked up a lot of this to the technology of the monitor by it being a "VA," so I sucked it up and tried to enjoy the 27" goodness of this monitor. When I attempted to calibrate in the menu another level of frustration came across - the on screen display. It is atrocious, laggy, and a lot of the features aren't available. It was very frustrating navigating through the different color schemes and trying to calibrate. Putting buttons on the right side of the monitor vertically is a headache. Lastly, what triggered me to return the monitor was the HDMI HDCP handshake. I cannot toggle to the HDMI connection without power cycling everything or reconnecting the HDMI cable to my Xbox. I never had a problem like this with my other monitors. I want to be able to switch it to HDMI mode and be able to play. The speakers are adequate for being built in, but I never took it to max. In closing, I was very disappointed in the technology but I took it as a learning experience. I feel that this monitor would be fantastic for those who don't notice or care about "ghosting" or want a good bang for your buck. This monitor is starting to dip to the $200 range and that's what got me into it. It's a good "budget" monitor, especially for what you get. If you're more patient than I am and want to put up with the headaches I got, go for it. Pros: HUGE! 27" Aesthetically pleasing Very lightweight, LED technology Great viewing angles Competitive pricing Plenty o' hookups (HDMI, DVI, VGA, Headphone Out) with built-in speakers Cons: On screen display is laggy and frustrating to navigate HDMI didn't work consistently, probably due to the HDCP handshake Extreme ghosting, especially without the "AMA" technology