MAG may not be a name that all of you are familiar with due to the fact that they haven't been trading directly in the UK for very long. Worldwide, Mag are very well established and supply some of the very large direct manufacturers with OEM monitors in addition to their own brand. The UK scene is likely to change for the better for MAG as they have now set up a main UK distributor who also manages the maintenance and after sale side of the business, so hopefully the level of service should be up there with the best of them.

The MAG XJ700T is the cheapest of the monitors reviewed here, but is by no means left behind by the competition. It is still based on a Trinitron tube with a 0.25mm aperture grille allowing for a great picture quality and refresh rates. The only real downside is that it is limited to a top resolution of 1280x1024@60Hz, which is quite poor although even that is not really usable for any great length of time on a 17" Monitor.

The XJ700T did surprisingly well in our testing considering it is the cheapest monitor here, but it did fail on some it really should have passed such as the Pincushion/barrel distortion and the colour distortion. Apart from those the rest of the tests it really did excel in, passing them easily and giving very high picture quality throughout.

The main disadvantage the XJ700T has in this group is that it is not based on Flat Screen Technology, but hopefully this is more than reflected in the price making this a superb choice for anyone with a limited budget looking to buy a good quality 17" monitor. The confirmed retail price was unavailable as we were publishing the site but for the right price the XJ700T was a potential Value award.

Next