NEC’s got a new monitor out to capture the ‘environmentally aware’ market. It’s Energy Star 4.0 certified and consumes just 38 watts while in use and 2 watts in stand-by. My memory isn’t completely trustworthy but this is nearly half the power my first 19″ LCD uses.

According to the PC Magazine description, I think they’ve overdone it:

Certifications aside, NEC’s MultiSync EA191M monitor has a special feature called “eco mode” that you can utilize to lower energy consumption. Every time the monitor is switched on, you’re given the option of switching to eco mode, lowering brightness to 60 percent.

To my mind, “Every time the monitor is switched on, you’re given the option of switching…” translates to “Every time the monitor is switched on, you can’t get right to work because it’s bugging you to switch.…” That’s not what I want a monitor for, thanks. If I want to switch modes, I’ll do so. Don’t bug me every time I turn it on!

I use an Acer LCD at work that insists on showing me an Acer logo during power-up, before finally displaying the computer’s output. The only thing it has managed to do is make certain that I don’t buy an Acer monitor for myself.

The NEC could be worse, however:

in the on-screen menu, a carbon footprint meter displays your activities, informing you of the monitor’s smaller footprint upon using the eco mode feature.

Thank goodness this is in the on-screen menus, and not always visible. I can just imagine there are some enviro-wankers who would want it on the screen all the time.