Mercury- the company mainly known for motherboard manufacturing has recently ventured into LCD monitors and the 1990TWA is part of this series. With a jet black matte finish and a cramped stand, the Mercury I 990TWA looks below average. The build quality of the monitor isn't very impressive either.

The height of the stand is very low and there is no swivel option given to adjust it. The 1990TWA is a plug-and-play monitor and this 19 incher supports 16.2 million colors with a manufacturer claimed response time of 5ms. It supports a resolution of I 440x900. There is no DVI or HDMl input, which might be in order to keep the cost low. But the 1990TWA has a pair of inbuilt 2in speakers, which are enough for general use.

After connecting it, we set it up to the maximum supported resolution1440x900 and put it through our benchmark test. Surprisingly it passed in evenly section with decent performance. The colour reproduction/depiction is fine and so is with the contrast ratio, brightness and other specs. We played some HD videos on it with the maximum available resolution and found the quality was well below the mark. Even while gaming, the 1990TWA produced a poorer quality than we had expected.

Actually the 1990TWA is not made for gaming or viewing HD movies. Its target audience is budget conscious people and SOHOs, and happily the manufacturer has catered perfectly to this segment. Getting a 19in LCD monitor at such a throw away price is nothing but a steal.