After a series of component failings and consequent upgrades, I’ve decided it’s time to finally send my old, clunky 17’’ CRT into well-deserved retirement, and so, I’m currently somewhat idly looking around for a new monitor to fit my PC with – and as usual, I find it somewhat hard to come to a conclusion, so I thought I’d just do a quick opinion poll 'round here. Issues I’m concerned with at the moment are:
[ul][li]Size (yes, it does matter): 20" or 22", and is there really all that much of a difference? Price difference between the two appears to be around 25€, so it’s nothing insurmountable (especially with all the free cash from quitting smoking – that’s only like 5 packs of cigarettes!).[/li][li]Glare/non-reflecting: I kinda like the way most ‘glare’ displays look, and tend to find the non-reflective ones somewhat dull and lacking, somewhat ‘greyed-out’, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t take me long to get royally pissed off at the constant reflections, and while the room the monitor will be in can be darkened relatively easily, I don’t expect it to stay here forever; any kind of experiences would be appreciated.[/li][li]DVI vs. VGA: My opinion is that I won’t be able to tell the difference, except perhaps if I had two identical monitors next to each other; I don’t regularly wear my glasses in front of the PC, and I don’t generally care all that much about image quality – I’m usually perfectly contend with watching a DivX movie. Still, I’d like to hear opinions on that, since I’ve never had a DVI-connected TFT before, could be one of those ‘once you had it, you can’t go back’ things. [/li][li]Contrast: I think 1000:1 should be about right, mainly because I’ve never heard anybody claim it isn’t. :)[/li][li]Reaction time: Again, I believe I’ll be OK with 5ms – I’m a rather casual gamer, but when I game, it’s mostly FPS, so tell me if your experience is a different one.[/li][/ul]
Anything else I should look for? Any experiences to share? Tips, hints, resources?
Size: I’ve got a 20" and 24" and there’s not a whole lot of difference. I’d imagine that the difference between 20" and 22" isn’t all that big.
Glare: The 20" is non-glare, the other is reflective. I only notice the glare on the 24" when the sunlight beams onto the wall behind me unevenly. When windows onscreen have white or light backgrounds, like word processing or this board, minimize the appearance of glare.
DVI vs VGA: The 20" has both inputs and I’ve not been able to see a qualitative difference between them.
Stand: Most stands offer tilt adjustment only. It’s great to have height adjustment and swivel. I wish my 20" had that.
Something else that may be of interest: number of bits per pixel. By using 6 bits per pixel instead of 8, manufacturers can supply relatively inexpensive large LCD monitors. Few users notice the difference, usually only photographers doing intensive photo editing.
I would say that the resolution matters more than the size. Since a 24" monitor gives you 1920x1200 resolution, and a 20"/22" monitor has 1680x1050, you’ll have more pixels to work with if you go with a 24". Since you’re contemplating 20" and 22", I don’t see much of an advantage for the 22" displays since they have the same number of pixels as the 20" (each pixel is slightly larger on the 22"). However, if you plan to watch movies or TV on the monitor, then you might prefer the 22" because the picture will be slightly larger.
Be careful about contrast ratio numbers; different manufacturers report them differently and it’s best to read independent reviews if you really want to know how monitors perform. Specifically, don’t be fooled by the “dynamic contrast ratio”. I would take a monitor with a better static contrast ratio over a monitor with a better dynamic contrast ratio. I believe response times have the same issue; some manufacturers report gray-to-gray times instead of black-to-black, and others report the best tested response time rather than the average tested response time.
As for DVI versus VGA, I can tell a huge difference. Using a VGA cable on my LCD monitor gives a much fuzzier picture as compared to the sharpness obtained by using the DVI cable. If you are used to using a CRT, then you probably won’t notice a difference between the CRT and the LCD with a VGA cable. But that’s one thing I can’t stand about CRTs (the general lack of sharpness), so it’s a big deal for me.
One thing you didn’t mention was viewing angle. If you’re like me and use your monitor for watching TV and movies, you might want a S-PVA panel that will have 178 degree viewing angles (generally). In contrast (heh), TN type panels are cheaper but do not have viewing angles as good (probably 160 degrees typically). In any case, I would advise looking at a few models in the store to see if the viewing angle of a TN panel is good enough for you (and I suspect it will be).
So THAT’s what it’s called. I’m looking to ditch my 20" screen for a high quality one. I can’t get it color corrected to match the 24 incher. Sorta limits photo editing to just the one screen. S-PVA. Gotta write that down.
I just got a 26 incher, and although it would obviously be pricier than what you were looking into, I think it was well worth the investment. In addition to much more screen space to work with, it also comes with and HDMI port, which may be useful. Keep in mind that if you’ll be looking at this thing every day, the price difference for 6 more inches will average out to just a few cents an hour.
Thanks for all the tips, folks, just got my new monitor – 22" widescreen, non-glare, no DVI, and it’s a beaut. Frankly, I think I’d be overwhelmed by anything larger, I feel like I’m in a wholly new world compared to my old 17" CRT.
Now I’ll test how it holds up during gaming & movie watching (i.e. I’ll use this as a justification for taking the rest of the day off).
