17"/18" LCD Quandary

zeronimo

Distinguished
Aug 12, 2002
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18,510
Having to replace an old Viewsonic LCD that died, and cannot wait long. Unfortunately, local stores contain VERY few of the latest models, so I can't do much firsthand comparing. My PC has a graphics cards with DVI, so I am looking only at DVI monitors, and prefer 17” pivoting.

Have narrowed search to Samsung 171P, 181T, and maybe Sharp LL-1620T and Iiyama AS4332UT (concerned about response rate on these last two). Contrast ratio, brightness and response time stats make me lean toward the Samsungs. As has been mentioned elsewhere in these forums, Internet reviews are contradictory (PCWorld says the 181T “received the lowest scores to date on both text and image tests in our subjective judging,” but others say it is great, but few reviewers feel led to elaborate much on how they evaluated image quality). MaximumPC recently gave the 171P a low score (but I saw another review with a 95% score), and owner comments I saw somewhere were only 56% positive about it. Despite that, what I have read makes me lean more toward the 171P.

The monitor will be used only occasionally for games, more so for DVD playback, majority for Internet and business applications. Obviously, individual opinions differ but I would place much more weight on what people who have actually used these monitors for an extended time think. Thus, any firsthand comments regarding these monitors would help me a lot.
 

rugby49

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Aug 16, 2002
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18,510
I just purchased the Dell 1702FP and I am amazed at the color. I am replacing an Hitachi 19" CRT. I have played Serious Sam at the native resolution and did not notice any ghosting. I have also played Lord of the rings and did not notice any problems. I am still playing with the monitor and fine tuning it. I have read that the panel is made by Samsung which was one of the monitors I was looking at 181T. This is my first LCD and I am surprised that I waited this long.