Recommendation for Good, Cheap Monitor

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hunterman223 · #1 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 01, 2011 11:14 am

Any recommendations for a good, cheap monitor?

I am looking for:
Size: 20" plus
Resolution: ~1680x1050 plus
Good Quality
Reasonably Bright
Widescreen
IPS? Not a Must Have
LED backlit

I will use it for mostly general use, with some photo and video viewing and light gaming. It is for my T400 with an Advanced Mini Dock.

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#2 Post by **GomJabbar** » Sun May 01, 2011 12:29 pm

I stumbled upon a HP 22" with the specs you mention at Best Buy for $130 2 or 3 months ago.

hunterman223 · #3 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 01, 2011 1:49 pm

Wow, that's a really good deal. Too bad I'm in the UK. I miss bestbuy...

Dell Ultrasharp 2909wa sounds good and the price is reasonable. Anyone else?

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killer · #4 Post by **killer** » Sun May 01, 2011 2:17 pm

eBay UK has a selection of HP 22" LED backlit screens. They are about GBP 165, so more expensive than you could get in the USA, so no surprise there!

billp117 · #5 Post by **billp117** » Sun May 01, 2011 2:42 pm

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_S221HQ ... ersion.asp

I have been very happy with my ACER monitors...running dual screens with Windows 7.

Supports DVI and VGA.

B

hunterman223 · #6 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 01, 2011 3:09 pm

billp117 wrote:http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_S221HQ ... ersion.asp

I have been very happy with my ACER monitors...running dual screens with Windows 7.

Supports DVI and VGA.

B

There isn't much information available on this one. Are they IPS? How are colour reproduction and viewing angles? I used to have a basic 19" Acer, I really liked it.

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billp117 · #7 Post by **billp117** » Sun May 01, 2011 3:39 pm

I have no idea if they are IPS...I doubt it for the $$.

#8 Post by **ZaZ** » Sun May 01, 2011 8:31 pm

I've no idea if they're available in the UK, but I just picked up a couple 23" Samsung 2333T LCDs for my desktop. They were to replace an aging IPS LCD and a crappy TN panel I had on my desktop. They have a resolution of 1920x1080 and pretty much span my desk. They're PVA panels and quite nice in my humble opinion. They're pretty reasonable on this side of the pond considering they're higher quality panels.

pianowizard · #9 Post by **pianowizard** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:50 pm

hunterman223 wrote:I have been very happy with my ACER monitors...

That's probably because you aren't picky. I have used four Acer LCD monitors and they are all terrible. When I got the first one, I too was happy with it, but after getting used to PVA and IPS monitors, I couldn't tolerate Acer any more. I still have two of these Acer monitors but I let my students use them. I can't stare at them for more than 2 minutes.

Considering your low budget, I think you can only get a TN monitor. Among TN LCDs, Samsung monitors are quite good and relatively cheap.

ajkula66 · #10 Post by **ajkula66** » Sun May 01, 2011 11:24 pm

pianowizard wrote:

I still have two of these Acer monitors but I let my students use them.

Is that "cruel and unusual punishment" reserved for those who interrupt your class, old friend?

hunterman223 · #11 Post by **hunterman223** » Mon May 02, 2011 4:00 am

Maybe so.

Most Samsung monitors that I have seen look nice (to me anyway) so I'll see what I can find there.

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BillP · #12 Post by **BillP** » Mon May 02, 2011 7:46 am

pianowizard wrote: That's probably because you aren't picky. I have used four Acer LCD monitors and they are all terrible. When I got the first one, I too was happy with it, but after getting used to PVA and IPS monitors, I couldn't tolerate Acer any more. I still have two of these Acer monitors but I let my students use them. I can't stare at them for more than 2 minutes.

Could you give more details about the deficiency in Acer monitors? I am in the market for a 24" widescreen with LED backlight and was considering the Acer America B243HLbmdrz. How can I reliably tell what panels are PVA from manufacturer's specifications? Is Samsung's whole product line PVA? Sorry for all the questions but I only get one shot a purchasing at new monitor and don't want to make a mistake

pianowizard · #13 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon May 02, 2011 4:47 pm

BillP wrote:Could you give more details about the deficiency in Acer monitors? I am in the market for a 24" widescreen with LED backlight and was considering the Acer America B243HLbmdrz. How can I reliably tell what panels are PVA from manufacturer's specifications? Is Samsung's whole product line PVA?

Acer monitors use the cheapest TN panels, which have terrible viewing angles and awful colors. Many Samsung monitors use TN as well but they are better TN panels. In other words, not all TN panels are bad, although all Acer TN panels that I have seen have been terrible. But if you have only seen Acer panels your whole life, you won't realize how bad they are.

I think the best way to look up panel type is through Google.

#14 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Wed May 04, 2011 9:19 am

Go to your local Staples or Frys or BestBuy and have a look to compare them physically.
Adjust the LCD to your liking (shops tend to set them at their brightest), then decide.
Then go shop at the likes of Newegg for better prices.

AMATX · #15 Post by **AMATX** » Wed May 04, 2011 9:40 am

I've bought many monitors off of ebay, in all types of conditions. Samsung works for me.

If you don't have to 'have it now', trolling ebay once every day or two over a couple of weeks oughta pop sumpin' decent for $cheap$.

pianowizard · #16 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed May 04, 2011 10:09 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:Go to your local Staples or Frys or BestBuy and have a look to compare them physically.

Unfortunately, these stores only have the cheapest (and therefore worst) garbage.

hunterman223 · #17 Post by **hunterman223** » Wed May 04, 2011 10:25 am

I've been looking at some sub-£200 Samsung led monitors on eBay. Cheap TN panels seem to be fine for me, I just want something high-res with a good refresh rate, and somewhat decent contrast. Besides that I'm not picky at all. I've also seen some dells, and I've had some good luck with them in the past.

There's only a few shops around here that sell monitors, but not a very good selection. I think when the time I right I will just read some reviews and go for it. Or course, the monitor has to wait it's turn behind an SSD, 8GB of memory, and a docking station, so I will have plenty of time to make up my mind. By then the successor to led screens may have been invented!

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pianowizard · #18 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:59 pm

hunterman223 wrote:I just want something high-res with a good refresh rate

As far as I know, all LCDs with 2 msec or faster refresh rates are TN. PVA and IPS have slower rates.

hunterman223 · #19 Post by **hunterman223** » Wed May 04, 2011 1:02 pm

I noticed the same thing in my searches, but if I actually manage to find a good deal on a display like that I will be willing to sacrifice a few milliseconds.

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