Thinkpads Forum

I plan to purchase a 22-24 inch lcd for work such as doing programming, etc. No need to for gaming. I will use it as a third monitor on my T430s. Preferably, the screen can be tilted. Thanks!

ircfas133 wrote:I plan to purchase a 22-24 inch lcd for work such as doing programming, etc. No need to for gaming. I will use it as a third monitor on my T430s. Preferably, the screen can be tilted. Thanks!

I use an HP zr24w for this purpose attached to my T420 via a mini dock plus series 3 for mobile workstations. It's a very nice s-IPS display with crisp, sharp text at a resolution of 1920x1200. It has height adjustment as well as tilt and swivel capabilities. However, it's an expensive display.

A Dell ultrasharp 24 inch model would have similar specs as the above HP but may be more readily available - something like the Ultrasharp u2412m should do the trick.... good luck.

Many thanks for your recommendation. Both seem very nice!

Is there a mini dock compatible for both T430s and T510? The main reason for me to have a minidock is I want to link my laptop to two external monitor in addition to my LCD screen. Thanks!

How do you get a third display? Is that a feature added by using the docking station (you call mini dock)?

There are no LED monitors. There are LCD monitors with LED backlight but high-end professional monitors still use wide gamut CCFL backight with uniformity compansation because LED backlight is not able to deliver similar quality level yet.

Simply said "LED" buzzword is almost useless marketing fluff only. The most important is the LCD display technology (no TN crap) and manufacturer. NEC and Eizo are currently the only producers of serious monitors. Others made average office monitors only. Most of cheap office monitors have problem with very high brightness on minimum level that prevents comforable use if you work at nights. It is good to look for monitor that have brightness starting below 40 cd/m2. Some of these cheap office/multimedia models starts at 120 cd/m2 that burns your eyes

ircfas133 wrote:Many thanks for your recommendation. Both seem very nice!

I second both of wolfman's recommendations. In particular, 1920x1200 is far better than 1920x1080, and IPS is a nice feature that you will appreciate. I agree with Puppy that NEC and Eizo would be even better but IMO the Dell and HP would be plenty good. This is a pretty good deal for the Dell: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-NA-_-NA

Don't get tempted by all those $100 - $150 basic monitors. They are awful, especially the ones made by Acer.

EDIT: If you happen to be also looking for a powerful desktop computer, this is one of the better deals I have seen of late: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/ ... UxNEFBQUhE

If I were you I would try something like:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CROSSOVER-NEW-2 ... 1c2a8838e2

a) 27 inches
b) S-IPS
c) 2560x1440
d) DisplayPort

I've read good feedback regarding it and it's not expensive at all for what it offers. Man, it's simply gorgeous!

ircfas133 wrote:Preferably, the screen can be tilted. Thanks!

I replaced both my desktop monitors last year with a couple Samsung 2333Ts. The Samsungs are PVA LCDs and very nice, but I think if I had to do it over again, I'd get one 1080 LCD and one UXGA to use in portrait mode, both IPS, PVA or something similar. I used to have a Dell 2001FP in portrait mode and you just can't beat that 1600 vertical resolution for stuff like Internet/Office, but UXGA are more expensive and you didn't say much about your budget.

I've always find that the Apple Cinema HD Displays LED (that's the 24in and 27in) displays are very good and hellishly colour accurate, shame the company replaced it with a dreadful shiny model after July 2011. I also have had good experiences with Eizo and the P-IPS displays from LaCie but they are a little on the steep side.

Thank you everybody for offering suggestions. I'm debating between Apple thunderbolt or Dell U2713HM. I'm more of looking for cost benefit ratio than solely at budget. But the thing with Apple thunderbolt is that Apple is going to offer a newer version probably next year with USB 3.0. I'm not sure of Dell U2713HM because

1) the customer service feedback I get from online seems pretty bad
2) cannot return or repair as easily as Apple products for Apple store
3) this screens comes with anti-glare coating. so I'm not sure whether it is suitable for reading legal PDF documents, etc for a long period of time.

But the benefit is that I don't have to wait any longer. One last question is whether Dell is going to put this on sale during the holiday shopping season such as Black Friday in the U.S.? Thanks!

ircfas133 wrote:I'm not sure of Dell U2713HM because
1) the customer service feedback I get from online seems pretty bad

My U2711 started to develop issues last year and I called Dell Support. A replacement monitor arrived about two weeks later and I sent back the defective monitor free of charge. Dell Support was helpful and courteous throughout this process.

In the computer industry, the most highly rated customer service was probably IBM's back in the 1990s and early 2000s. So, out of curiosity, I once looked up online feedback about IBM's customer service and was surprised to see mostly negative comments. What we need to understand is that people usually don't say anything unless there is a problem.

ircfas133 wrote:2) cannot return or repair as easily as Apple products for Apple store

That's true, which is why you pay a lot more for Apple products.

ircfas133 wrote:3) this screens comes with anti-glare coating. so I'm not sure whether it is suitable for reading legal PDF documents, etc for a long period of time.

The anti-glare coating is a good thing because it helps you read for longer. You want to avoid glossy screens.

ircfas133 wrote:But the benefit is that I don't have to wait any longer. One last question is whether Dell is going to put this on sale during the holiday shopping season such as Black Friday in the U.S.? Thanks!

Dell Home has already published its Black Friday deals and the U2713HM isn't listed. Dell Business doesn't seem to have Black Friday deals this year. Considering that the U2713HM just came out, it probably won't be on sale for a couple months. However, you can get it for $739.99 shipped from Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... pk=U2713HM

BTW, to get 2560x1440 on this monitor, you need either dual-link DVI or DisplayPort. HDMI, regular DVI and VGA wouldn't work.

Many thanks, pianowizard. I had very bad experience with newegg for couple of purchases from them. My current Acer monitor is from newegg.com and return is very difficult. And there is a region of dead/quasi-dead pixels. I'm thinking how to get it repaired.

So maybe I'll try bestbuy.com or some local store. But thanks for your suggestion!

ircfas133 wrote:So maybe I'll try bestbuy.com or some local store. But thanks for your suggestion!

You are so lucky, Costco has it for $649.99: http://www.costco.com/Dell-U2713HM-Ultr ... 19086.html

Wow, thank you so much!