The design of the VM223B is fairly basic but also quite elegant. The piano black bezel has rounded edges with a silver strip along the bottom. The unit has a VGA D-Sub connection and a USB2.0 port but no speakers. The stand needs to be fitted but it’s a very simple process.

We performed numerous tests when connected firstly in VGA and then via USB. In USB we also tested performance as a primary monitor and again as secondary.

Our VGA testing consisted of technical tests using DisplayMate Video Edition and gaming performance. The most immediate issue we discovered was backlight bleeding, mostly from the bottom of the panel.  While not massively noticeable when gaming, it can be distracting when viewing movies (due to letterboxing) and in darker on-screen elements. The colours and image clarity were excellent and both vertical and horizontal viewing angles were within acceptable limits. 

In DisplayMate, the only problems came in the detail tests where fine moiré dot patterns could not be rendered properly and caused a horrid mess of dancing pixels. This shouldn’t generally be a problem but will rear its head when viewing anything that uses a similar level of detail. The gaming tests showed no issues in VGA with excellent detail and clarity while also handling motion well.