Until recently, displays of 24in or more in size were likely to be seen only on the desks of those with plenty of money to spend and who were prepared to put up with the thick, the cumbersome and the distastefully functional.

Even since the arrival of lower-cost 24in TN-based panels, one of which is used in the V2400W, the more consumer-friendly price of such screens has not been matched with the kind of looks we’re happy to live with in the home.

The V2400W is something new. Rather than dominating your desk, it manages to keep the same screen dimensions while maintaining a slim, lightweight look and has a casing only 24mm thick at the edges.

With its stand mounted off-centre, the display has a dynamic look, emphasising the lightness of the panel itself.

It’s a very good-looking display that looks much better in the flesh than the promotional photographs would suggest and its touch-sensitive controls enhance its elegant design.

Benq has included VGA, DVI and HDMI inputs, together with aspect ratio and 1:1 scaling options that ensure any video source is shown to its best effect. There are no built-in speakers, but any audio passed through the HDMI cable is available at a side-mounted headphone socket.

With a rated output of 250 cd/m2, this isn’t the brightest display we’ve seen, although it’s more than adequate for most desktop use. Only situations where you’re viewing the monitor from a distance and in very well-lit rooms are likely to show this up.

Overall, we were impressed with the image quality, and with designer models such as this we expect to see 24in monitors becoming considerably more popular in the near future.