Like most budget displays these days, the VW246H will come in two parts, the bottom and monitor-plus-stand, which click on together. The design is largely similar to that of the Asus VW223B we reviewed a year ago. Which means that (as usual) you discover a glossy black bezel, although display's back and base are matte, together with the latter sporting a ripple texture surface.
In the mere 16 mm thick, the bezel for the VW246H's is nearly as thin as that from its smaller sibling - except towards the bottom where it is 25 mm to add in the monitor's controls. Small icons above the controls make them quite simple to recognize and while the tiny blue LED on the power button can't be switched off, it's very discreet enough to not matter.
Overall, the VW246H is often a functional but largely unimaginative section of styling that wont offend but won't excite either. If it is a little panache you're after the, likes of the Samsung monitor range, as well as BenQ V2400W, will probably be of more interest.
Triple video inputs are pretty much par-for-the-course nowadays and the VW246H doesn't disappoint, offering HDMI, DVI and VGA. There exists a rudimentary clip behind the stand for cable management. Much less of any given is usually a 3.5mm stereo output in addition to the usual input, helping you to attach external speakers instead of making use of the monitor's ones. Asus also gets points for including both VGA and DVI cables, where several other manufacturers still only supply VGA.
Getting onto the OSD, it's rather tiny and slightly morose, lacking visual flair. Even though it feels a little cramped, it's very usable thanks to one of the better layouts we've run into. There are few sub-menus, so nothing is buried, tags are informative and layout logical. Merely the slightly awkward directional controls, which are placed either sides on the 'menu' button, hinder navigation.
Continuing up with the OSD, Asus' 'Splendid' technology is actually only a couple of presets - albeit very adaptable ones - and skin-tone adjustments. The presets, which comprise Scenery, Standard, Theater, Game and Night View modes, are individually configurable, so you might just lead to using some of them. Certain constraints do apply, however. In Theater mode, as an example, you cannot adjust brightness, while Standard mode doesn't permit you to play around with the sharpness, saturation or dynamic contrast (which Asus calls ASCR) settings. Scenery and Game modes give access to every adjustment, though.
