Looking to purchase a new monitor

[Meli Hitchcock]

For a while now, I've been looking to get a new monitor to replace my crappy Samsung 19" I've had for about 4-5 years now. While I was out getting a new mouse for my work PC, I was looking at the sizes and getting an idea of what size my home desk could accommodate, and I've come to the conclusion that the 24" monitors are about as large as I can go (it's a corner desk). So this afternoon I did some research on whats out there, and basically whittled down my options to these three:

Dell Ultrasharp 2407
Brightness 400 cd/m2
Pixel Pitch: 0.27 mm

Gateway FPD 2485
Brightness 500 cd/m2
Pixel Pitch: 0.270mm

HP w2408
Brightness 400 nits (I can only assume that's 400 cd/m2 ?)
Pixel Pitch: 0.282 mm

Contrast ratio is exactly same for all three 1000:1, but the brightness display is different. From an artists standpoint, what is preferable? Having a lower brightness that gives you better blacks? This whole LCD monitor thing kind of confuses me. I'm not going to post all the specs, most of the differences are in what devices are added in and different video support.

Most of the review sites I looked at, don't have side by side comparisons I can make, and most are also basing a lot of the info from a gamers perspective. Granted, I'm a gamer too, but from an artists stand point, shouldn't there be factors I should be considering in a display?

Although I work on a Dell at work, the thing is also pretty dang old, so I don't know how the quality has improved for some of their more advanced displays. But I have heard a lot of artists say that Dell does have very good displays as far as getting good color accuracy. However I am not that familiar with HP's or Gateways stuff, even though some reviews say the Gateway is pretty good.

Does anyone have any advice? Or are all three of these pretty much close as far as quality wise?

[h2rra]

If you are a gamer watch out for response times. Google it, there's alot of info. If it is too long you will see ghosting when watching movies or games. And if you play many dark shooters or watch a lot of movies check out for light bleeding. I've got a great and cheap lcd(syncmaster 225bw) but it has light bleeding at the top and bottom that is only noticible if the whole screen is displaying almost pitch black color.

Imho for artist the most important is big resolution, decent sharpness and color reproduction.

[DeadlyFreeze]

Contrast ratios are the bs spec that manufactures use. It isn't set to any standard so every manufacture uses their own scale to measure luminosity. If your going to ignore something ignore contrast ratios.

The most important thing you need to find out is the panel type in the monitor itself. Spec's you get from sellers can be nearly identical but if the panels are different you can get a vastly superior or inferior product.

AnandTech has a good guide for LCD's with a lot of suggestions to check out...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2049206&enterthread=y

Prad.de is a great site that has a huge database of LCD that you can compare

http://www.prad.de/en/ (of course its down atm)

[skidu]

BenQ do one of the best 24" lcd's around , check out this link

http://www.bexox.com/showdown.htm

[Seer]

Make sure it has 16.7 million colours (as opposed to 16.2).

[SgtDirtbag]

Prad.de is a great site that has a huge database of LCD that you can compare

http://www.prad.de/en/ (of course its down atm)
It's not down, you're just missing the index.html at the end. ;)

Here's their buyer's guide (http://prad.de/en/monitore/buyers-guide/start.html), I'd look especially at the section "displays for graphic work" if you intend to do use your new monitor for photoshop and co.

[Meli Hitchcock]

Sweet! Thanks guys for tossing me those links and the advice! :) These monitors have come a long way since I first bought mine (which I admit I didn't do a hell of a lot of research the first time so it's no wonder the monitor I got was bad). I want to try and avoid that this time as much I can.

[Denart]

which ones are better?
Glossy screens or "regular" screens for LCD's?

:D

[tarc]

Displays are not very hot theses days, in fact lcd are inferior to old crt tubes in many aspects, the greatest one being contrast ratio.

You might consider buying a used 21in trinitron, but they are getting older and you might get a bad one.

Concerning lcd, go for an IPS panel, they are more expensive but they don't have the annoying color shifting when you look at them at angles. They also have great color reproduction.

Good choices for art and photography (IPS panels): Nec lcd2690wuxi, Nec lcd2690wuxi. Those model have a built-in device which correct brightness homogeneity (another lcd shortcoming)

More budgetwise would be the Nec 20wmgx2
Some Planar 24 and 26in have Ips also but with less features than Nec models.

There is also 30inchers by dell and Hp who requires dual-link graphic cards to output the 2560x1600.
Theses monitors have no build-in adjustments beside the brightness, all have to be done internally by the graphic card.


Good Luck in your search!

-Tarc

[MikeMakesMonkeys]

If you are a gamer watch out for response times. Google it, there's alot of info. If it is too long you will see ghosting when watching movies or games. And if you play many dark shooters or watch a lot of movies check out for light bleeding. I've got a great and cheap lcd(syncmaster 225bw) but it has light bleeding at the top and bottom that is only noticible if the whole screen is displaying almost pitch black color.

Imho for artist the most important is big resolution, decent sharpness and color reproduction.

I've got a 24" Samsung Syncmaster at work.

*It's not the latest/best technology... but it is a bargain, the colours/picture are great and I'm looking at getting one for home as well.