Physical Features
Out of the box, this HannsG monitor looks much more high-tech than other monitors I’ve seen from the company. While the materials used – black plastic throughout – aren’t revolutionary, they seem solid in the hand. The slice of the monitor, with a smaller box of innards attached to the back produces a rather svelte product, capable of fitting into the smallest 23″ monitor box I’ve ever seen.
Probably the most notable feature is the single-piece construction; normally you’d expect to attach a separate stand and base in order to assemble the monitor. Not so for the HT231 – instead, the monitor has a larger than normal bottom bezel with integrated speakers to rest on, plus a metal fold-out stand. This approach demands more desk space, but provides a secure platform and a wide range of tilt adjustment. You can have the screen perpendicular to the desk as normal for a monitor (or even tipping forward a bit), but you can tilt it back a good sixty degrees as well. This produces a surface that works better for extended touch use and helps you avoid the dreaded “gorilla arm.” Of course, you could also push the stand back in the body of the monitor and just place it flat on your desk, if you want a true Surface experience.
Looking at the rear of the HannsG, we have all of the ports on the right hand side and all of the buttons on the left. It’s a sensible arrangement, but it works better for the ports than the buttons. There are a good range of ports here, including a VGA, a DVI and an HDMI for video inputs. There’s also a 3.5 mm stereo jack, if you don’t transport your audio over HDMI. We also have a USB Type B connector (you’ll recognise it from printers, probably) that hooks up the touch controls to your PC – without this plugged in, you’ve just got a dumb monitor. Finally, there’s the AC input, which comes via a rather minute adapter.
Now, the buttons. As I mentioned before, they’re on the left hand side (when viewing the monitor from the rear). While the arrangement is quite standard – five buttons stacked vertically – there’s no indication which button is which from the front of the monitor. Instead, you need to lean around the side of the monitor to read the legends there. Of course, when you’re doing that you can’t see the screen, which means even the most basic adjustments are exercises in frustration.
I’d like to see the touchscreen used for the On Screen Display here – imagine a button that activates the OSD, and disables touch inputs over USB while you’re in the menu. Then you can tap and drag to set your settings, then press that button again to re-enable touch input for your PC once again. It seems like an obvious application of a touch-screen monitor, but for whatever reason it hasn’t yet been implemented on a touchscreen monitor I’ve tried… and instead we’re stuck with this poorly executed and dated paradigm of invisible buttons!
So – we’ve covered the overall look, the stand, the ports and buttons… that’s about it! Let’s move onto the testing!
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