LCD Monitor guide

A few days ago my LCD monitor started making some strange noises. I knew that it wouldn't last long. It still works, but barely (the image goes black from time to time). Although I might try to get it fixed, I immediately started searching for a new one. Normally I like to learn about all the little differences and rate the available choices. However, there's just one little problem : there's hundreds of different monitors available!! No I didn't quit, but instead of collecting all the information I started eliminating most of them based on a few characteristics. So here's what I found out.

First and most important of all: the budget. Because I didn't want to buy a very expensive monitor, I think I reduced my choices to half :D

Then there's the size. I own a 17" and I probably will buy another 17", but I still haven't discarded completely an 19" monitor. I won't get a better resolution with a 19", it's the same 1280x1024 that I get with a 17". Everything just looks a little bit bigger (mostly the fonts). I think it's not better or worse. It depends on the distance to the monitor. I read somewhere the distance from the eyes to the monitor should be twice the diagonal. Basically it comes down to which you feel more comfortable with. And I feel comfortable with the 17". Don't think it's the price...I surprisingly found a few 19" monitors cheaper than most 17". There's also the widescreen's, which may be better for some situations, like watching DVD's. But I'm still not sure about those...never worked with one so far.

At this point, the rules I outlined already exclude lots of monitors, but still there's too many and I'm lazy enough to just pick a few well-known brands instead of going trough all of them! Also, it helps if the monitor you want is available at your local stores (unless you want to buy online) and that should reduce a few more.

LCD Monitors have a lot of specifications, but not everything is important:

• Contrast ratio - The contrast ratio is an important factor, but different vendors calculate this value in a different way. So, it's not a reliable parameter. There are lots of 500:1, 700:1...and then there are a few 2000:1. Clearly this last one was measured differently. I just established a minimum here (500:1) and then pushed this parameter to the bottom of the decision-making process.

• Interface - every monitor has an analog input, and some have the better digital input (DVI). I'm not sure how much better is the digital input (some report better image quality, due to faster image render, because there's no analog/digital conversion) but I chose only monitors with DVI input.

• Brightness - this is almost everytime 250 cd/m2, so I completely ignored this.

• viewing angle - most monitors have 160/160, so I excluded everything worse than that. I like to be able to look at the monitor from different angles, and lower values don't allow good viewing.

• response time - I've seen values from 2ms to 12ms. From what I've found 12ms is very good and anything below that isn't that noticeable. Of course there are monitors with response times greater than 12ms (which I ruled out) but most of the new ones already have at least 12ms.

• dot pitch - this almost never varies, so I ignored this.

• power consumption - you could just ignore this, but if you care about the environment (and your bills) you could choose a monitor with better consumption. The best I saw was 30W when "on" and 1W in "standby".

• base - it's important to have the monitor well positioned, so the more options it gives you, the better. Possible adjustments are: rotate, tilt, height adjustment and pivot. Almost every monitor has tilt adjustment. Rotate it's also very common. Height adjustment is the most important to me, but it's not so common. Pivot is becoming more common, but I have no use for it.

• extras - some monitor have lot of extras, like speakers, USB ports, etc. I prefer not having to pay for these useless extras.

You might be asking: "so which one did you choose ?" :) Well, I have a small list but haven't made up my mind yet. And I also don't want to spoil you this wonderful experience of choosing monitors :P