Acer AL1732 Prestige

Conclusion:

With multiple items of interest with this display, it certainly is a quandary in and of itself to decide where to end. To recap some of the Acer AL1732 Prestige features are DVI and VGA input, rear-cable management, integrated speakers, metal stand, stylish, high-brightness LCD, anti-reflective coating, Kensington lock, PC and Mac compatible, VESA wall-mountable, auto-tune feature, and a friendly OSD interface. From the second we pulled the monitor out of its packaging, we were impressed by the quality of the display itself. Unlike the Acer Value series, the Prestige series, which presently consist of the AL1732, AL1932, AL2032W, AL1531, AL1731, and AL1931, use a metal base for not only improving the appearance but it can also endure more force than the plastic counterparts. Other technical features include supporting both VGA and DVI connections, 2 x 2W speakers, anti-reflective coating, and rear-cable management. Acer's specifications call for a 8ms typical response time making it also ideal for gaming.

In our Linux tests, the AL1732 showed no apparent signs of trouble and overall we were incredibly pleased with the results from general desktop usage to gaming and watching movies. Of course, during this the integrated speakers are not the best if you have audiophile tendencies. The few other downfalls with the device is the lack of integrating a headphone adapter, no additional audio/video (i.e. composite) inputs, no swivel support, and lack of pivoting/possible screen adjustments. With what we had seen from this Acer Prestige today, the AL1732 is certainly one of the better choices in the market for a sub-$200 17" LCD with enough features to please nearly anyone and doesn't cost much more than the Acer Value line. While the product was not perfect, it certainly was excellent. With Acer being an incredibly large hardware vendor around the world, we hope they will continue to come up with ingenious products such as the AL1732 that we set our eyes on today.