This article evaluates the FP231W liquid crystal display (LCD) from BenQ. FP231W's 23-inch wide-screen LCD monitor makes an impressive desk trophy. But unfortunately, its performance does not live up to its great first impression. Although the monitor's se-date charcoal-and-matte-silver cabinet looks very professional, the $1999 FP231W is clearly meant for greater things than just spreadsheets. In addition to analog and digital inputs, it includes S-Video and composite inputs. The unit's vast screen, with a 1920 by 1200 native resolution, can display several applications at once--and that is not counting the picture-in-picture window for watching TV or videos. However, in the informal tests of a shipping model, regular video seemed to be a little grainy and ghosty. High-definition video was sharper, but still showed some ghosting. In any application, light areas appeared shimmery and washed out, causing black text on a white background to display as less than perfect. The FP231W offers some nice features. For example, unlike most 23-inch models it can swivel from side to side as well as tilt. Even when I raised the monitor several inches on its base, it felt stable and well balanced. Sadly, such fancy features do not overcome the unit's iffy image quality.