Looking for Monitor

Hey guys, so i wanna get a really nice External monitor for my XPS M1710. I dont know that much about what makes a screen a good screen, but i do know that i want it to be between 21-22 inches widescreen. Thats about it. As far as price range id say 400 max. Any suggestions would be very appreciated thanks.

p.s. Ive heard dells are the best, is this still true?(i can get a school deal through dell 8-12% off listed price on website, so keep that in mind)

p.p.s Something that could connect to an xbox or other game systems would be nice too.

 

dell monitors are sooo nice, my buddy bought a 24" the other day and its amazing! but he also paid $600 for it

 

I would say either LG L204WT, Viewsonic VX2025WM, or Dell 2007FPW. I would say the LG is the best of the bunch however its up to one's preference. For connectivity Dell is the best.

 

Dells are pretty nice monitors, yes you can get nicer ones but they are pretty much an all around good unit. They look good too, and aren't to much $$.

 

The Dell 2007wfp 20.1" widescreen will be hard to be for display quality. It's also about the best you can get in the $400 range. I have one hooked up to my Dell E1505 over analog and it looks great.

 

Consider stretching your budget about $75 for a Samsung 215TW. It's more consistent then the Dell, has better quality plastics in the casing, and it has quite a bit of connectivity versatility (I don't really know what kinds of i/o the Dell has).

Dell has a habit of switching the panel without changing the monitor model.

I'd avoid TN type panels like the plague, they only have 262k colors and dither up to around 16.2 million by switching between two colors very quickly. Their viewing angles are also nowhere near what's advertised, and often times the pixel response specs are a joke (more a symptom of being a budget market). The Samsung above is S-PVA which doesn't have these problems, and IPS panels are also very good. If something is advertised as 16.2 million colors, or greater than 16 million, then it's a TN. Unfortunately they're also sometimes advertised as 16.7 million colors.

 

What are you looking to use the monitor for? Graphic design? Gaming?

If you're looking for graphic design, don't go wtih a dell. My old roomie got the 21" widescreen and the color accuracy isnt' good enough. I'm not sure if this is with all 21" lcds, but looking straight at it, there are problems viewing the bottoms and sides (ie, looks like your viewing at it from an angle and colors fade).

If you're looking for a color accurate monitor, consider searching for some sites that actually do reviews of monitors which check the deltas between actual color and displayd colors.

Of course, if you're looking for it to game with, none of this relaly matters all that much hehe...

 

First of all Dell does not use TN in their Ultrasharp panels. Second of all not all TN displays are plagues. Dell use S-IPS and S-PVA panels (new ones are PVA). The Viewsonic uses the same LCD from LG Philips as the NEC 20WMGX2 (S-IPS). Which is THE best 20in you can get however it is very expensive. The Viewsonic picture quality isnt as good however as the NEC. The LG uses a TN display yet the colors are very vibrant. New TN displays has true 8bit color instead of 6bit and the horizontal viewing angle (verticle is not that important for a widescreen) is quite good. As for pixel response times being a joke that is totally false. TN displays has the best pixels response time. Old TN panels are 6bit so their color reproduction is not as good as IPS or PVA, as I said before the new ones are 8bit the colors are quite amazing. In terms of just picture quality I would say LG > Viewsonic > Dell. In terms of versatility Dell > LG/Viewsonic. The LG has a DFC chip that digitally boosts the contrast to 2000:1 I have a LG and Viewsonic in front of me and the LG has MUCH better blacks. Anyway get Dell for connectivity. LG for picture. Just be aware that the A02 Dells still has some banding issues.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like Dells are TN. That's why I used a new paragraph.

I also did not say that TN panels have bad pixel response. That's one of their only advantages besides manufacturing cost. I said that the specs on a lot of the budget monitors which tend to use TN panels are bull. Quite often you'll find a monitor with a pixel response advertised as 6 or 8 ms, but in reality they can be over 12, 16, or even 25 ms. That's what happens when you ignore ISO standards when you set your specifications, and I'm not just talking about the deceptive gray to gray spec that's become prevalent.

I've seen some of these 8 bit TN displays, like the 740BX, and the colors are still ugly and washed out. It's nowhere near a 740T in any sense, which is closer to what you'd expect from a 215TW. And I'm sorry, but I've sampled a good number of LCD monitors and I haven't once seen a TN panel with viewing angles worth a ****. Sure, you might be able to make out what something says at 150 degrees, but anything with an image will be horrible. SXGA+ 14" Thinkpad T60 horrible. It's the way TN is, and anything that's a little better is just polishing a turd.

From flatpanels.dk
ViewSonic VX2025wm (widescreen) has a 20 inch 8 ms (g2g) P-MVA (AUO M201EW01 V0) panel

I'm sorry, that doesn't look like an IPS panel to me. No wonder it doesn't look as good as that entry level IPS NEC you referenced. It's still a pretty decent panel for the price, though, definitely better than anything that's based upon the marketing oriented TN tech. It's worse than Netburst, really.

By the way, to say that NEC is the best 20" LCD out there. Have you heard of Eizo? Or seen NEC's true high end?

 

check out this post.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1092559

that forum got many in-depth info on displays and LCDs

 

Eizo is for graphic professionals. Their displays has great color fidelity but poor brightness. I have an old Flexscan L66 and there is a FlexScan S2110W in a lab in my school. Most consumers prefer bright displays that seem "vibrant". Yet much of that done is boosting the contrast + brightness to a level that shouldnt be. NEC's top of the line business widescreen is the LCD2070WNX (notice the word widescreen). Again it is not a monitor for consumers. The OP stated that he doesnt know what is a good screen so he is pretty much a typical consumer. Color fidelity is not as important as vibrance. Also yes hardforums is a good place to get some reviews. I decided on the LG after I checked out their forums. Anyway so the Viewsonic is P-MVA which is my bad. However have you ever seen the new LG displays? Go to circuit city and check it out. If you havent then please dont say that all TN displays suck. As for viewing angle thats for the OP to decide. I didnt care much since TN has decent horizontal viewing angles and I dont think ill ever be sitting above my monitor or below it when im watching a movie.

 

Just, please don't make blanket statements that something is the best of such and such.

I look at a pair of Eizo L568's all day at work everyday, and I've had a bit of time with an S2410 auditioning (dreaming of) it for home. There are absolutely no brightness issues with them. If you want brightness issues, try turning your TN type panels up to max contrast and brightness. I've never seen a TN that doesn't wash out colors to the point of absurdity when you max out brightness. The L568's and 740T's we have at work are at max contrast, max brightness, and are beautiful.

You're right, I haven't seen the latest gen LG TN's, but I've seen the last few. Every generation of TN someone is out there saying it's the latest greatest thing, and every generation, beyond pixel response, it's garbage. I'll check them out, and I'll be hopeful, but I'm not holding my breath. Inferior tech is inferior tech, there isn't much you can do about that.

I do realize he's a consumer and not a graphics artist. Really I do. I'm not suggesting he go out and get a pro Eizo or NEC/Lacie monitor. If you recall I suggested a Samsung 215TW, and for a few reasons:

impecable Samsung quality control
no backlight bleeding in all but their lowest end monitors
a better attitude towards color accuracy than most manufacturers (still not optimal)
better build quality than most, stronger plastics, well designed OSD's
S-PVA for better viewing angles, better potential for colors

You can say all you want that vibrancy is what matters to consumers most, and you'd be right. But that's rooted in a lack of education on LCD technology, and LCD manufacturers taking advantage of that. That's not something that should be encouraged. We should be able to trust LCD manufacturers to give us monitors which make our digital photos and videos look correct, and our games look as the artists intended.

 

Im not doing anything really special with this monitor, i just want it to be relatively big(cause im kinda far away from it and trying to read my 17" 1920x1200 laptop monitor is impossible while sitting comfortably and using all my external stuff. I want a good monitor that has a good selection of i/o stuff, good brightness, and is just overall a good monitor(no big weaknesses). Ill be using it mostly for gaming and watching movies.

 

I don't know what you're lookng at, but most are 1680x1050. Look at Newegg and Monitor Outlet.

 

yea, i just realized that most of them are, its kinda hard to find the native res on some of these sites lol

 

"Just, please don't make blanket statements that something is the best of such and such."

I can say the same thing about blanket statements saying all TN suck lol. Every type of panel has their weakness. If you read my original post you would have noticed that I suggested the LG not because it is a TN panel. Also I fail to see why an average consumer will care so much about color fidelity. They dont need something thats displayed on the screen to look exactly like it will be when it is print out.

p.s. I just maxed out brightness and contrast and it looks fine to me. Its too bright to use but the colors are still great. This is because the LG has a chip in the monitor that alters the brightness to boost contrast in order to achieve a much higher contrast ratio than a typical TN is capable of. Not to mention LG is the cheapest one of the bunch since it doesnt have as much bells and whistles. Anyway go to Circuit City and check it out. If you still think its crap then Ill admit Im wrong.

 

I suggest you look at this thread if you are deciding between the Dell 2007wfp and the Samsung 215TW.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=1922113

I also prefer S-IPS panels over S-PVA and that is what is used on my Dell 2007wfp.

I prefer Dell personally because i can usually get the LCD for a good price with discounts and i prefer Dell customer service because they will pay for return shipping and replacement if i'm not satisfied for ANY reason. I havn't dealt with Samsung but i would wager to say that if there isn't something actually really wrong with the LCD they wouldn't even consider a replacement or a refund.