Acer KN242HYL Monitor

January 27, 2016

My old Acer 22 inch monitor finally died after a few years. Yes, I had it so long that I can't remember when I got it. Anyway, it finally gave up a two days ago and although I wasn't planning on getting a new one, I had an old 14 inch monitor laying around that I used for a bit. Unfortunately it was so small and old like my old one that it was harder on my eyes. Not to mention I could not get to a small window I needed in order to update a firmware on my 3d printer. The small windows was just off to the right and the small monitor just wouldn't let me get to it. I drove to the local Fry's to check out what they had and then the local Office Depot, Staples, and Costco. I didn't find anything that I really liked.
I found that many of the new monitors only have two types of connections, HDMI, VGA, Display port, and DVI. Well it's a combination of two. The display port is less common, but you usually get a combo of the others. My old Acer had both DVI and VGA. Yes those. I like having as many as I can get on my monitor since that allows me to choose what I can use without any adapters. Needless to say I found this monitor that Acer also makes which came with one DVI, VGA and HDMI. Plus the size was also a little bigger than my old one and still fits my tiny desk just fine. I was also looking for a more budget friendly monitor and this one had all of this plus a 3 year warranty which most I think were 1 year. Aside from this, most if not all had a pretty flimsy stand. Many also didn't come with the VESA mounting holes which I also rather have. My old one had the stand on there. This new one had the shorter stand with the VESA mount holes in the middle of the monitor. It's a win win for me so far. The vesa mount can also be used to mount a small computer back there too if you have an adapter which is the other reason those can come in handy. In the end, I ended up using my old stand instead of the sorter one. So the VESA mount is used again. My old stand is much larger and the height is pretty much the same as the new one from what I could tell. I can also tilt it and route the cables through the middle so that I won't even see them. You will with the smaller stand though.

This monitor also comes with speakers and two cables. A vga and hdmi. Many will say why a vga since that is so old. That's exactly why, that has been around for so long you will find it everywhere. But another reason, is that in my case, I have a small kvn switch which uses, you guessed it, VGA. If I every find a cheap dvi or moved to all hdmi and find a cheaper one of those, then I may make the move. For now, the old vga is what I have. So far I just started using the monitor and I'm just trying to get used to the slightly larger size. I usually don't buy these things that often unless I have no choice, like when your old one dies. But it's nice to get something that's a little better than the last one. Yes, there are many others out there but this one works for me. It was budget friendly and it's the right size. I really don't care to have a huge monitor blasting me on the face. I also noticed the the wider they are, the more you have to keep turning. I like to keep this right in front of me so I don't have to keep doing that myself. Anyway, I made this page so you could see what you get.

NOTE: After using the monitor for like two weeks I have found the screen text to be a bit on the blurry side, or at least that's what it kind of looks like to me. This is something no one talks about since most are using these for playing games and watching youtube and that sort of thing. It's okay for that, but once I got to reading on it which is what I do a lot, I noticed this and it bugs me and I can't get used to it, so I will most likely be returning this monitor. I'm still debating on this. If you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about scroll down to the picture before the green box to see how the camera catches this sort of mesh on the screen. I don't see the mesh much but the text is just not sharp to me. My old monitor was a matte too but I didn't notice this on it. I went to the local store and it looks like most monitors now are very similar. I did find two that were a bit sharper with text though. Both were smaller dell monitors. So I'll need to find one soon or deal with this one. 
I decided to return this monitor in the end. I like what you get, unfortunately for me it fell short where it really matters. The actual screen for reading text.You can read the review on the dell monitor I decided to get.

The actual box you get. This one is even thinner than my last acer which is nice.

I order this yesterday and it came the morning after which was very surprising to me since the last time I ordered something from Newegg it took like a week to get to me through UPS. They used ONTRAC this time. So they get two thumbs up, not only for this but being that I'm only about 40 minutes from them, it just makes a lot of sense.

Mine came with this corner bang up, but everything seems to be fine.

All manufacturer sealed too.

Some of the cables and the included stand.

The manual and audio cable that where hidden below.

The included VGA cable. The did not include the DVI this time which they did on my last monitor. I hope they will for the complete package. Not many if any manufacturers like to included anything nowadays, which is why acer gives you a bit more bang for your buck. Plus the monitors do last too so that's even better.

I should mention that the bezel around the monitor is that glossy black. Also the stand is the same thing which is not what I would like on the stand as the dust will just settle there anyway. I really don't mind it around the trim but since the screen is the matte black, I don't get all that reflection from the lights which is good. But that just means that my screen still looks similar to my old one since that was also not glossy. The black does help making it almost disappear. My old monitor was a lighter color so it was more visible.

The back with the nice VESA mount holes. I only difference is the top of this part. My old one was a bit of a slant at the top. This one is flat which means the dust won't fall off and just settle up there behind the monitor. Not a bid deal but you will need to make sure you clean that up every now and then. The monitor just black out on me while I was typing this. My computer has been a bit on over drive lately so I'll say that is probably what caused this at the moment. Plus I'm using a kvn that can sometimes be a bit weird too.

Now here's what many don't care about, but I do. It's nice to have these options so that you can use whatever your have with you at the time. Looking for adapters and cables is no fun.

The included mount just slides right in there.

The bracket on the short piece is metal.

The bottom piece is what you screw to the base.

This is pretty much it.

Here's my old base compared to the new one. it's much larger which I like.

And it's also not glossy like my new one which I don't care for as I get a lot of dust in here.

The old stand installed instead of my new one.

I read that some people mentioned how the monitor moves when you type. Well it also moves when I type with the larger stand. I'm using a stand up desk which is not the most sturdy either, but it's not too bad. The back of my stand sits off the desk so it looks like that's why it also does this now.  I moved it forward and it's fine now, but I rather have it farther back anyway. Specially now that it's much larger and I get blasted by all this white background. It's fine during the day but at night it will be as if my light is on. Either way you get the point but hat can be turned down I'm sure.

What the new monitor looks like on my old stand.

What you get with the VGA.

The model.

The buttons on this one are on the front. My old one had them under this corner which I got used to. I do hate blue LED's though, specially on things like this. The good thing is that it's a bit dimmer on this monitor and it's farther away so I don't actually get to look at it directly. So I'll have to get use to this one which doesn't seem too bad. The buttons are not labeled however. I'm not sure how they missed that so you'll have to push them to see what they do, but it's not too bad once you use them. Now I can say that these are much better than the LG joystick menu I tested at the store. Not a fan since I found it a bit hard to use because I could not choose what I wanted when I tried it.

All the bottom icons fit right there with more space left.

I can even use two windows which is still not the best, but a little larger than before. This should come in more handy when typing stuff out. I haven't really had a need until I started looking at documents and having two side by side is nice to compare or make changes in one monitor instead of two.

Last but not least, the tiny window I couldn't get to before. I finally updated that firmware today.

Things to keep in mind. This is a budget monitor. It is slightly larger than my old one and even on the resolution it only went up one setting from the old one I had. Now if you're into graphics and games, this may not be the monitor for you, but I don't do either and it still looks good. So it works for my needs. With that said I decided to just get another Acer as I had no problems with my old one until the day it just died on me. So I had no problem getting another one. I do some CAD and basic reading and your usual things like email, youtube and usual things that most of us do. I do like the screen for my CAD which will come in more handy for that type of work.

Now for a few more pictures...

The old box next to the new slimmer but larger monitor box. This is nice.

The new monitor specifications.

The old monitor specifications.

This one was 5 ms. The new one is 4 ms. Not that I can see any difference but you can see that I went up a step on these.

The old monitor specifications. I just wanted to have a reference with these pictures.

And here's my old monitor. I took it apart to see if it could be repaired. Needles to say that by the time I got to the broken lamp, it had to literally be taken all apart. This is why you see it like this. At this point it just wasn't worth fixing. One because I didn't have a part number for the lamp, and two, it would have to be done as soon as it was taken apart. Trying to remember where each tiny screw belonged would be a nice puzzle.

There are a few layers of plastic covering the internal glass. Yes it's glass in there.

This is a very nice piece of glass too. I really had to be careful not to cut myself. There are also tiny bits of glass on the edges. So you can now see why messing with this any more just wasn't worth it.

Here's what my old front bezel looked like.

 Oh, here's the new monitor warranty card. As you can see it does say 3 years. So if it makes it that long or more, then it's all good. Unless you have a pretty bad power spike or someone knocking the monitor down I think it will be fine. Assuming the components are still as good or better than they were.

Here's the old cover and the new monitor just goes up one resolution number higher than this one which is 1920 x 1080. So all in all, not a huge jump, but definitely a nice difference from my old one.

Last but not least. Newegg charged me a re-stocking fee so I didn't get all my money back. The return was painless too so I'll give them that. I never plan on sending anything back so this was just one of those things unfortunately. I'll have to keep this in mind for larger items. The tv I got from them a while back has been fine though, but if I had to send something larger than a monitor, that would suck.