With a 12ms response time, this monitor is pretty well restricted to business use. Any kind of gaming, especially with a fast paced 3D shooter, might give you some visual artifacts or 'ghosting' on screen. This happens because the display can't refresh itself quickly enough to redraw the screen in time with the software. For regular office use and even for watching videos online, this monitor will do just fine, though.
In terms of brightness and contrast, this monitor's features are quite average, though very sufficient. The 500:1 contrast ratio provides nice darks and lights that work well under fluorescent lighting, though in direct sunlight the picture may be diminished since it only has a 300 cd/m brightness. While HP did include some anti-glare features on this monitor, it still isn't totally glare-proof.
As far as looks go, this one is pretty generic. The screen is housed in a silver-coloured casing with a power button on the bottom right and 'HP L1706' on the left. Three buttons are in the center, and they allow you to adjust the screen settings, such as brightness or contrast. Although the base is round, this monitor does not swivel around. It will tilt up and down.
I was pretty impressed by the viewing angles on this monitor. It is rated at 140 degrees, but it seemed like more than that. Keep in mind a flat display is 180 degrees, so you can't look directly from the side, but who would want to? If you tilt the screen around to the left or right, you will notice the entire screen take on a yellowish color when viewed at greater angles. Looking at it from above will make the screen much whiter than normal. If you had a bunch of people standing behind your desk, they'd all be able to see your screen pretty well. Some people might not like that.
At work, we've been using these monitors for a couple of years and have had pretty good luck with them. I can only remember having to replace one, and it was in an area where it stayed on 24/7 and was constantly in use. The only major issue I've encountered was getting the screen to auto-focus properly. I've had two of them where I had to use the CD that came with the monitor to run a special configuration utility to get the display set up correctly. HP included this software that displays a bunch of circles and straight lines that are designed to maximize the efficiency of the auto-focus feature of the monitor. So far, it has worked when nothing else would.
I'll stand behind the HP L1706 17" LCD Monitor in saying that it is a solid monitor, but I wouldn't use it anywhere besides an office setting.
