Soyo 17 Inch Flat Screen Monitor By Laurel1 on May 30, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about computer parts, and what's better than what. But my old CRT monitor was taking up so much room I had no space for a printer or my speakers. I looked at flat screen monitors at the local Best Buy, and found that most of them were still bigger than I wanted (I have a small space) and more money than I wanted to spend.

I turned to the Internet, and my fallback store, Overstock.com. There I found this monitor, a Soyo 17-inch with built-in speakers. The reviews were so mixed that it was hard to tell if the buyers were even talking about the same product; they ranged from no stars to five stars. Still, I figured that with that price, even if it only lasted a year I could hardly go wrong.

I've been delighted with it. My office seems suddenly much larger without that honking great CRT that filled my space. I don't need speakers; the ones in the monitor are great. The resolution is better than my old one, and plenty good enough for me. Colors are much truer than the old CRT, too. My only complaint is, as you can see in the photo (I'm blushing) is that it's a dust magnet. I got special disposable cleaning pads designed to clean and dry my monitor, for less than $1 per clean, and I try to use them once a week (clearly I did it after I took these photos, not before).

I don't know what the no-star reviewers at Overstock got in their boxes, but I got a great functional flatscreen monitor at a great price. I'd never heard of Soyo before, know nothing about this brand, but it's been working for me for over a year with absolutely no problems, so I'm a happy computer-er. (OK, I made that word up. "Camper" just didn't seem to fit!)