Zalman ZM-M240W Stereoscopic 3D Monitor

Product: Zalman ZM-M240W 3D Monitor
Provided By: Zalman USA
Price: Find Lowest Price Online

Introduction:

Zalman is not the first company you probably think of when it comes to 3D monitors and 3D gaming.  Traditionally, this company has spent a lot of time and effort in the cooling market.  They were the pioneer in quiet "enthusiast" computing and still maintain a line of CNPS (Computer Noise Preventative System) products.  Today we are looking at the culmination of years of research and development into 3D technology as we take a look at the ZM-M240W Stereoscopic 3D monitor.  This is not your 3Dwann Vision compatible display that requires $150 glasses.  This unit we have uses an interlaced polarizing technique to tune the image for your right and left eyes.  The upside is that glasses for this unit will set you back as little as $3.  It's not all upside though and we'll take a closer look at this as we continue through this review.

First Impression:

We've been following the progress that Zalman has been making with their 3D monitors for a while and it appears that they have a unit ready for retail with the ZM-M240W and it comes in a very nice retail package.  The display also comes with glasses, a driver CD (iZ3D drivers) and a power brick as the monitor's power supply is located out of the screen instead of built in.  I'm not sure if I'm a fan of this idea as it is nicer to not have to worry about bringing this along when you pack it to your favorite VulcLAN.   Also, the monitor is not height-adjustable, but it does tilt up for a better viewing angle if required.

Bundle

Glasses in Case

Clip-on & Full Glasses

The stand feels a bit flimsy on this unit, but it is priced accordingly.  It's not a $400 24" unit - like the ASUS 120Hz 3DVision-compatible monitors.  I guess you get what you pay for in terms of build quality.

Closer Look:

The monitor look and feel isn't all that special in a lot of ways.  Just underneath the screen in the center are the typical menu buttons that allow you to adjust brightness, contrast and more.  The center of these buttons holds the power button and just above it a small LED that indicates power status.  The monitor can use either VGA or DVI connections and this gives you a bit more flexibility that some 3D Vision monitors don't.

VESA Mount

Screen Buttons

Connections

There is also an audio port that allows you to pump some tunes into your monitor and listen to audio over the small speakers.  While this may be overlooked, this is a nice touch that gives you audio from a desktop if you don't have speakers or headphones handy.  The quality is not super great - but I've yet to hear great sound coming from a computer LCD.

If you don't like the stand and you have a 100mm x 100mm VESA mount you can remove the stand and use this instead. This is pretty standard and is nice to see included on this display.