Featuring an IPS panel, the Envy 23 enables wide viewing angles, but it fails to match the picture performance of some of its rivals. The contrast performance was especially poor and a rather low maximum brightness of only 185 cd/m^2 was achieved. Although this is fine for close-up desktop work, it’s less useful for watching multimedia content from across the room, especially on a sunny day. With a measured 94% of the sRGB gamut covered, this display also produced the least impressive-looking colours. See what’s the best display? Multimedia inputs are well catered for, with the legacy VGA port supplemented by a pair of HDMI inputs, both of which offer MHL for the connection and charging of Android devices. A row of physical buttons provides access to the menu system, which is simple and easy to navigate and avoids too many complicated options or gimmicks you’re unlikely to need. Although it has no built-in speakers, the Envy 23 will take audio input from HDMI as well as an analogue PC audio connector and output it through a handy side-mounted headphone socket, branded with the Beats Audio logo. The Beats Audio system does make an audible difference to the headphone output, delivering a punchier sound with a noticeable bass boost. Whether or not you’ll like this effect is another matter. The lack of speakers and the use of an external power supply allows for the display to be kept exceedingly slim from top to bottom, although no attempt is made to hide the monitor’s unashamedly plastic construction.
