Recommend me an LCD monitor

So I’m finally planning to buy a flatscreen monitor. The flyer from my friendly local Staples suggests that the most economical would be Acer, which I could get in 22" for $300. ViewSonic is about 80 dollars more. Is there anything horrible about Acer I should know about, or is it a good idea?

I don’t have a specific recommendation, just the general comment that there are few better, and more long-term-effective, ways you can spend money on computer hardware than a larger monitor. So if you can afford to dig a bit deeper and get a bigger monitor, do it.

Newegg.com is always always always pushing Acer monitors. I have no idea how good they are as a brand, but here’s a link to a page that lists their three 22" models, from which you can read a ton of reviews. Personally, I trust the reviews on there and have never been steered wrong.

I just bought a 22" widescreen (Westinghouse) from Best Buy, and I’m very happy with it so far. I previously had a 21" CRT, but this new monitor seems humongous (and so much clearer) in comparison!

I wish you’d posted this about a week ago – I’d have pointed you to the sale. I got mine for $220. I think they’re back up to $280 now.

Of course, if you can afford to spend more, I’ve always been happiest with ViewSonic monitors, but I have no reason to believe you’ll be unhappy with an Acer.

Well, this seems like as good a place as any…
How do you fix the color on LCD monitors? Every single one I’ve seen so far has been somewhat ‘off’. The reds aren’t quite as bright as they should be, the blues are too bright, the gray selection box changes color based on what it’s selecting…(in the case of the one I have right now, the selection box on the desktop is gray over black, but orange over light blue)

Is there some free utility that will let you figure out what the proper colors are?

When I bought my first LCD a couple of years ago, my research pointed to ViewSonic, NEC, and Samsung as the best. I ended up with a 19" ViewSonic and have been very happy with it. This is actually my second one. The first one turned up “dead” one morning – power light on, but black screen. I called support, expecting to be run through diagnostics (which I had already done myself), but they just had me box it up and send it in. If they couldn’t fix it within 2 weeks, they’d replace it. I had a new one in Week 3. :smiley:

One of these days I want to get a new tower and multiple-monitor setup. I’d like to replicate what one of my editor colleagues has: 2 rotatable Samsung 204B monitors in portrait mode, and one regular (the one I already have). That’ll be SWEET. I LIVE in front of my computer.

There are always deals going on for LCD monitors, I suggest you check out some hot deals sites. For example, I don’t know which particular Acer you were looking at but there’s a 22" one that can be had for 200 if you are willing to use a $50 rebate, from OfficeDepot:

These sites often have lots of user reviews too, to help you research models.

I also second the newegg suggestion, they’re great.

I’m all for Newegg, and I trust their reviews (but check Amazon as well for supplementation, and sometimes their prices are better). But beware of Newegg’s return policy for LCD monitors, they won’t take it back unless it has **eight **dead pixels. That’s rough.

I posted a thread about a month ago asking for the same advice. I got one response, so nuts to all y-all for responding to this one and not mine :rolleyes:

Still, I ended up getting an Acer AL2223WD 22" that was on sale at Best Buy (which was great because of their 14 day, no questions return policy). It’s nice, it suits my needs but is sometimes a tad too bright. Still it was $215 (marked down from $310 retail) and it’s a 22" widescreen, which is a steal, so I’m quite happy with it, all in all.

Acer makes good monitors. Not great, IME, but good. If you want a nice display and don’t want to break the bank, go for Acer. If you want something absolutely perfect and money is no object, look elsewhere.

My best advice is to check www.slickdeals.net daily. Monitors deals show up there very frequently, and that’s where I found out about the Best Buy sale. If something gets cheap on Slickdeals, check reviews for it, if the reviews check out, and there’s no harsh return policy, go for it, you could get a very nice monitor and save a lot of money. (This is assuming that the monitor is being sold from a place you trust, deals come up on SD from time to time that I don’t jump on solely because I’ve never heard of, or don’t trust, the store). Nevertheless, there are frequent sales by Best Buy, Dell, Office Depot, and Amazon.com that show up on Slickdeals.

Good hunting!

Just a note to matt_mcl and other fellow Canucks, Newegg doesn’t ship outside the US or Puerto Rico.

A good Canadian alternative is NCIX.com. They have an extensive inventory, excellent customer service and their user forums also have a lot of knowledgeable posters. Product pages often contain links to product reviews.