Monitors for every budget

IT TOOK A WHILE to get around to it but it's time for an update to THE INQUIRER top products. This is a run down of the best kit available out there. Rather than bundle them all up into a single page like last time, the guide has been split into several articles that will appear over the weeks.

What we've done is taken all of the legwork out of finding the best new pieces of kit. Hundreds of reviews have been scoured, prices on the top retail sites compared and questions asked of industry experts. Wherever possible, we've tried to include or compare the top products with kit that we've laid our hands on. The guide is intended to be a good starting point if you're looking to get a new piece of kit.

Monitors have seen a bigger change in market fortunes than any other item since the first INQUIRER Top Products guide. Where a year ago CRT monitors were still holding their own, LCD panels now take the lead. A good job that is too, LCDs are much easier on the eye and, in comparison with last year, they are now much easier on the wallet.

CRT Monitors
There are still times when a CRT is the best thing for the job. The number one contest that a CRT wins is price; you can buy a reasonable 19" CRT for less than the price of a 15" LCD.

One of the downsides to LCD panels taking over the market is that it has become nigh on impossible to find reviews of new CRT monitors; they're just not sexy enough for reviewers these days. That combined with the products being available much cheaper than they were last year means that we've got far fewer CRTs in this guide; what was a luxury monitor a year ago is now the same price as the budget screen used to be.

17" CRT
Iiyama Vision Master Pro 413	Manufacturer's Web Site Review
Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 740SB	Manufacturer's Web Site Review

19" CRT
CTX VL950T It's cheap but very cheerful. At only twenty quid or so more than a 17" screen, it's well worth checking out.	Manufacturer's Web Site Review

21" CRT - Budget
Philips 201B10	Manufacturer's Web Site Review

21" CRT - Medium Priced
Iiyama Vision Master Pro 514	Manufacturer's Web Site Review

CRT Pitfalls
One of the things to watch out for when buying a CRT is the manufacturers' claimed resolution. For instance, it's not unusual to find a 17" monitor that can run at 1600x1200. The problem will come if you try to use it at that resolution you'll quickly discover that text is fuzzy and that the monitor is obviously stretching beyond what it's really capable of. There's a simple reason for this and it's all down to the monitor's Dot Pitch. A 17" monitor has a visible width of about 300mm. If the Dot Pitch is 0.25mm, the monitor is only capable of accurately showing 1200 pixels across.

Other figures you might find useful: a 19" screen at 0.25mm Dot Pitch is capable of around 1380 pixels across; a 21" screen at 0.25mm Dot Pitch is capable of around 1530 pixels across.

LCD Panels
The price of LCD panels has tumbled and the quality of the screens has rocketed. They're still not exactly cheap, at least not for something worthwhile. It's possible to get a 15" panel for about £160 if you shop around but you would almost certainly be very disappointed with what you got if you ever saw a decent panel in use.

15" TFT
LG Flatron L1510S Still here from last year which is a great testament to how good it was then. It's now a bit cheaper but the 400:1 contrast ratio is still good. What's not so good is the 25ms response time which means the LG is only really good for office work; DVDs and games need 20ms or less.	Manufacturer's Web Site Review

17" TFT
Hitachi CML174SXW Using a 16ms panel means that the Hitachi is easily good enough for games, DVD, video and office work.	Manufacturer's Web Site Review

20" TFT
LG Flatron 2010P Another LG and it's a real corker. Far from cheap, this 20ms, 1600x1200 beast has the same visible screen size as a 21"/22" CRT but is so much easier on the eye. A joy to use.	Manufacturer's Web Site INQUIRER Review

LCD Pitfalls
There are several nasty little pitfalls to watch out for when buying an LCD panel. It can seem hugely tempting to pick up what looks to be an OK screen at a great price but you'd better make sure you're well versed in potential LCD problem areas before you do.

First up is the Contrast Ratio, that's the difference in brightness between black and white. There is always some light that leaks through even when the screen is black and the contrast ratio tells you how much brighter white is than black. Older LCD panels let more light leak through their 'black' than newer models. Realistically, you want a panel with at worst 300:1 but even that's not too great. Modern panels are usually 400:1 or better and that's where you should be looking.

Then there's the Response Rate, that's how fast the panel can change a pixel from light to dark or dark to light. The LG L1510S manages a response rate of 25ms and that's the slowest you want to go; 25ms is just about good enough for games or viewing DVDs but it will ghost during fast action. 20ms is acceptable for most users and, although it will ghost, you'll need to know what you're looking for to spot it. The very latest panels manage 16ms and that's fast enough for pretty much anyone.

Another thing that catches even some experienced reviewers is DVI. Traditional CRT monitors use a 15 pin analogue input and almost all LCD panels can too. However, some panels also have a digital input called DVI. Many reviewers claim that the analogue input is just as good as the DVI input on modern panels but comparing identical panels on a card with both analogue and DVI outputs soon shows the difference. The problem is, no matter how good the analogue to digital converter is inside the LCD panel, many video cards don't manage to send out a pure signal on their analogue outputs. That means that the picture you get is never quite as good as it could be unless you use DVI. There's a myth that circulates about DVI that it's expensive. In fact the price difference is normally only about twenty quid. Most good graphics cards have a DVI output on them so that's not a worry either. DVI isn't essential but it's very nice to have.

Conclusion
That's it for monitors, stay tuned for THE INQUIRER guide to processors coming up in the next few days. µ