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The two LCD monitors I will be looking at are the ViewSonic VG150 ,and the Olympic Tec LCD. After an extensive search for the manufacturer of the Olympic LCD monitor on the net , I must report that the manufacturer remains unknown to me  . The only details I have on the Olympic is thats its a Color TFT Active Matrix Flat panel , with 0.297 H/V Pixel Pitch , and max resolution : 1024x768 @ 75Hz . The Olympic came without drivers so I set it up to run @  SVGA 1024x768 75Hz . The ViewSonic came with drivers and was run with the drivers installed .

OLYMPIC 15" LCD

This was the cheaper of the two monitors , $665 at MSY , and came with without drivers . It took me a while to set up the colors etc , but once this was done the pic quality was not to bad , max screen res is 1024x768 with both monitors . Surfing the net I found the Olympic to perform just fine , pic quality was good , text was sharp and well defined , with good color definition . In games the monitor showed a tendency to  turn dark colors black , creating very dark zones in the game , this is a common tendency with some of the cheaper LCD monitors . Other than this one annoying thing , pic quality in games was rather good for such a cheap LCD monitor . I can not recommend the Olympic LCD monitor to gamers , but for someone looking for a Economy LCD monitor for Word Processing or surfing the web , the Olympic LCD could be just what the doctor ordered .

VIEWSONIC  VG150

Full 15" screen
The VG150 displays a full, flat 15.0" viewable area that is comparable to the viewable area of traditional 17" (various viewable) CRTs.

1024 x 768 true resolution
Displays a crisp, clear native resolution of 1024 x 768 for easy-on-the-eyes viewing.

Active matrix color technology
Active matrix color technology provides sharper images.

OnView® controls including ViewMatch®
All screen adjustments are made via an on-screen menu using simple controls. This user-friendly control system easily adjusts image quality, size, position and fine tuning for optimal viewing.

Slim 5.4" profile

Weighs only 11 pounds

VESA® wall mountable compliant
Hang the flat panel on most walls with ViewSonic's optional wall mount kit (WM-U1).

Anti-static, anti-glare screen
This treatment cuts reflection and glare while maintaining the highest image quality.

Plug & Play+
Fully supports the Windows® auto-installation standard for easy, trouble-free configuration and set-up.

TCO '99 and Energy Star® certified
This monitor complies with the world's strictest standards for low radiation, safety, ergonomics, recycling and power management while saving costs through automatic power saving modes.

PC and Mac compatible

Three-year limited warranty

ISO9001 and ISO14001
ViewSonic Corporation's QMS\EMS has been registered to ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 by the British Standards Institution.

LCD Size 15" VIS True Resolution 1024 X 768 Brightness 210 cd/m² Contrast Ratio 350:1 Viewing Angle 120° horizontal, 100° vertical Glass Surface Anti-glare, anti-static INPUT SIGNAL Video RGB Analog (0.7Vp-p, 75 ohms) Sync H/V Separated (TTL), sync on green, composite Frequency Fh:30-62kHz, Fv:50-75Hz COMPATIBILITY PC PC and compatibles (from VGA up to 1,024 X 768) Mac® Power Mac® (up to 640 x 480) CONNECTOR Signal 15-pin mini D-sub, detachable cable Power 3-pin AC (CEE22) Security Kensington® security port POWER Voltage AC 100-240V 50/60Hz (auto switch) Consumption 38W (max) USER CONTROLS Basic Power on/off, key 1, up, down, key 2 OnView® Contrast, brightness, H-size, H-position, ViewMatch® color, ViewMeter® OSD H/V-position, language, fine tune, auto sync, background, smoothing recall VIDEO INPUT Bandwidth 65MHz DIMENSIONS Physical H: 14.6"/372mm W: 15.3"/390mm D: 5.4"/138mm WEIGHT Net 5.0Kg (11.1 lbs.) SPECIAL FEATURES   Also available in black and beige, Wall mount option EMISSION STANDARD   TCO '99 POWER MANAGEMENT   Meets Energy Star® VESA® DPMS™ standards WARRANTY   Three-year limited warranty on parts labor and backlight.

Finding the Manufacturer and Downloading updated drivers was no problem at all with the ViewSonic . And the performance of the Viewsonic in games was truly amazing , rendering all colors well without the dreaded dark color problem . With such good gaming performance , it was a little disappointing to find that this monitor made text look a little fuzzy or very slightly out of focus , even at maximum screen resolution 1024x768 the text had a fuzzy edge to it , you would think you could have your cake and eat it  , but the Olympic LCD monitor was much sharper in this regard and text was as good as with a regular monitor.

CONCLUSION:

I was unable to make the Viewsonic pic sharper , and the text still remains some what out of focus in appearance , from memory the Viewsonic is $785 or there a bouts , and performs admirably as a gaming Monitor , but with the slightly out of focus look to the text , I cannot recommend it for Word processing or such as it becomes hard to concentrate on the text after a while . The Olympic LCD monitor had excellent text rendering capability , making the text sharp and clear , without any fuzziness at all , its down side being its inability to render dark colors well , making for extremely dark zones in a game . In a perfect world you would own both monitors and live happily ever after . So with neither economy LCD monitor coming out ahead in this review I can recommend the : 

OLYMPIC LCD 

I believe this product  would be excellent in an office environment where a person would be exposed to a  Monitor for long periods of time , with its excellent text rendering capability eye strain should not be anymore a problem than with a regular monitor , less the radiation and glare from the picture tube , in fact , a person should be able maintain there concentration levels for a longer period , due to less eye strain from the low output LCD monitor . And if used for gaming some of the time , one could forgive the monitors tendency to create a  dark zone and just get on with zapping your opponents .

VIEWSONIC VG150

Sick and tired of carting around that 17" Monitor , whew it's heavy , esp if you had to park your car a few hundred meters away from the Lan , walk up some stairs , finally there is an option , a 15" LCD weighing in at 11lbs . I was surprised that this LCD monitor was performing as well as it was with computer games such as Return To Castle Wolfenstein , especially considering its an economy priced model , priced well bellow the $2000 plus  top of the line products currently on offer , at under $800 this is one LCD monitor that gamers should give serious consideration to , its only short fall , being that it renders text just a little fuzzy looking can certainly be forgiven if its main use is going to be game play . I had my Mother play solitaire with both monitors , and the one thing she commented on  was the slightly out of focus look  of the text with the Viewsonic VG150 LCD screen. I believe this may be due to pixel size , with the smaller pixel going to the Olympic , Viewsonic does not give a pixel size for the VG150 except on the side of the box where it say's 0.8 megapixel  , does this mean the pixel size on the Viewsonic is over twice the size of the Olympic ? it would certainly explain why the text looks a little fuzzy , and its good gaming performance .

So there you have it , The Olympic LCD wins hands down for office applications and the Viewsonic  VG150 wins hands down for gaming applications , both LCD screens can do it all , just not as well as the other . As for giving both monitors a score out of ten , Ten being the highest , I would have to give  6 out of ten for the Olympic , and 7 out of ten for the Viewsonic . At anything but 1024x768 the fuzzy text on the Viewsonic is annoying , @ 1024x768 I could live with it . With the Olympic LCD monitor , its tendency to heap dark colors together and make them black creating dark zones in a game is equally annoying , it makes it hard to find things in dark areas , and most games today tend to have more than there fair share of dark areas . In the Olympics favor is its sharp picture quality , making text clear and precise , which is exactly what you want in office applications , and in games you can tweak the brightness , gama etc , for a better picture .    

I would like to thank MSY for making this review possible .

Matt Korhonen