Sceptre E165W-1600HC Monitor Review

It’s been months since Sceptre released a follow-up to its popular Sceptre E225W E225W-1920 ultra-slim monitor, but the newest entrant, the Sceptre E165W-1600HC, is well worth the wait. Sporting a 16-inch screen, the E165W-1600HC offers more screen real estate than any budget monitors of its size we’ve seen to date, and its 1,366-by-768 resolution isn’t bad either.

As with budget displays, gray-scale and viewing-angle performance are sketchy, but our Editors’ Choice the HP Pavilion 22cwa delivers bold, accurate colors and sharp hi-res image (1,080-by-1,920), and is extremely versatile. For bargain hunters, the E165W-1600HC still suffices as a monitor of choice that will get the job done, well.

Design and Features

Measuring 14.8 by 11.9 by 5.1 inches (WHD) and weighing 2.2 pounds, the E165W-1600HC is way lighter than the Samsung SF350 Series (3.7 pounds). It will easily fit on most work surfaces. The display is surrounded by a glossy black cabinet, a magnet for fingerprint smudges, so ensure to bring along a polishing cloth. It is supported by a matching rectangular-shaped base that suffices for tilt adjustability, but lacks height, pivot or swivel adjustment. It also comes with four VESA mounting holes.

Installing the E165W-1600HC is easy. Simply plug in an HDMI or VGA cable into the back of the monitor and connect it to your PC or laptop, then connect the included power adapter to the mains and you’re set. When connected, the monitor will power up, and Windows will install drivers, that simple. The monitor supports Windows 10 and when installed, it will be listed as an extended display in your Graphics control panel.  At this point you can choose to have it act as a primary display, have it mirror your original display, or have it remain as an extended display.

As with many midrange monitors, it lacks USB ports and speakers. It’s also missing a DisplayPort input. Picture settings are basic and include Brightness, Contrast, and Blue Light adjustments, along with the usual analog (Position, Focus, and Clock) settings. You won’t find any advanced settings, such as the 6-Axis-Color and Gamma settings that you get with most high-end monitors.

Performance

The Sceptre E165W-1600HC’s out-of-the-box color accuracy is good, but not the best. If you go into details, you’ll realize that red and green color may be somewhat misaligned with their ideal coordinates, that when using a display rendering software, but for the plain eye it looks just OK. Nevertheless, the panel produces rich, well-saturated colors, and in testing it displayed scenes from Damien Chazelle’s La La Land on Blu-ray nicely. Gray-scale performance is also good; although it doesn’t manage the same detail that you’ll get from high-end IPS panels, such as the one used on the BenQ BL2420PT. Viewing-angles are good for a 16-inch monitor, with little color shifting when viewed from any angle.

The panel does a good job at displaying fast-moving items, though you’ll get some lag in modern games at high resolutions. Input lag (the amount of time it takes for the monitor to react to a controller command) came in at an impressive 14.6 milliseconds, which is not far-apart from the competition. The fastest we’ve had so far is 9.5 milliseconds from the Benq SW2700PT. Using this monitor won’t stress your electric bill as it uses a 12V DC adapter that uses a few watts of power in standard mode, and saves greatly in ECO mode.

Conclusion

If all you’re looking for is a fairly affordable, well-designed 16-inch monitor, then the Sceptre E165W-1600HC $66.77 at Amazon   passes as a good choice. Granted, you’re not expecting tons of features including USB ports, and Displayport inputs, and it also comes short of a fully adjustable stand. Still, it does a good job in delivering solid colors and nicely rendered gray-scale performance, and it easily fits into your budget. If you need a monitor that will deliver content at higher resolution, consider the ViewSonic VP2771, but if budget is an issue, our Editors’ Choice the HP Pavilion 22cwa offers accurate colors, sports a great design at a nice price.