I've tried out more LCD 20"-22" (mostly 22") than I can even count on two hands in the last week or two. Looking for the best.
In that mix were the latest 21.6" and 22" Samsungs, the new 22" LG that I talk about here, and various other brands, all pretty good brands as well. Everything I tried at least cost $250 minimum, $349 maximum.
The one brand I didn't get to try out was a Dell. But I've read a lot about dell's. They may be the best TFT if you are only going for the best picture, but even then I hear they aren't always necessarily superior in that regard compared to other higher end TFT's.
Whether they provide the best picture or not, they are not the best all around monitor due to high price and bad response times. There are the non-ultrasharp LCD's that even have as low as a 5ms response time, but from what I hear the picture is definitely not like the ultrasharp. Anyhow, they are still asking $400 for their ultrasharp 20" with a 16ms response time. If you want that sort of thing and aren't a big gamer, then maybe it is for you if you can afford it, but for everyone else, there is something better.
Now at newegg, for $349 (and $15 shipping) is the LG-226WTY (same thing as the WTQ model, I think, if not then it is a newer and better model). Anyhow, you really can't beat the price. I saw it elsewhere for $349 and supposedly free shipping, but when I checked out this place taxed me which made it a worse deal than newegg, who doesn't charge tax (unless you live in the 3 states they reside in). So newegg was the best deal, and they seem to be the only place with the "WTY" model.
Anyhow, this LCD is simply the best 22" TFT I've seen, no question. And if they make their 20" and above 22" models anything like this, then those may be tops in the TFT genre as well.
Sure, this 22" is more expensive than the Samsung 21.6" and 22" models, which everybody seems to think are great. But I saw them myself and don't think they are so great. However, as I said it is still cheaper than even the 20" ultrasharp from dell.
I'm writing this because I think I fall into the same category as many people. I want a good all purpose monitor, I want it all. I work with photoshop, text, and video. So picture is very important to me. But my rig is also built for gaming with my 8800GTS and 3.2ghz e6600, so I want to play blazing fast games without any problems as well as have the great picture. I was starting to think something like that in the $350 or less price range was too good to be true, but I'm not thinking that anymore.
So I just got the LG yesterday, I checked the box. It looked really sweet. Sleek design, nice swivel base, very sturdy and it just had the feel that it was a solid product. It didn't come with the DVI cable, but I don't care much about extra's like that, built in speakers or webcams. That stuff is often a sign that the monitor is actually made even cheaper than what you originally thought. It looks like LG put all their efforts into the monitor itself, not extras.
Besides, I had a DVI-D dual link cable already and I'm sure its better quality than the single links that come packaged with some LCD's. I'm sure a lot of people either have or can easily get a DVI cable, if not you can get a good gold plated DVI-D dual link at newegg for $15, which will work great now, and you can use it if/when you get a larger higher resolution monitor that can utilize dual link.
Of course, the LG did come with the power cord, VGA cable, and 2 cd's. One with the user manual and drivers, another that has the Forte calibration software, which I found to be even more effective than Samsungs Magicolor software. This Forte software really worked some wonders, then to touch things up I went into the nvidia control panel, upped the digital vibrance and slightly adjusted gamma. Perfect!
Was easy to set up and get going. The main reason I orderd this LG was because I wanted better picture and screen uniformity than the other LCD's I saw. All of which, including the samsungs, had some degree of backlight bleed, some had dead pixels, and more than anything I still had yet to see a screen that didn't have such an obvious uneven picture. Even on the samsungs I saw annoying color fade toward the bottom of the screens. Some say this doesn't bother them, but a lot of people are used to LCD's, which is probably why.
But for myself, just coming off using CRT's my whole life, this was one flaw that just drove me nuts with the LCD's. While the samsungs did have good color and picture, it just wasn't even throughout the whole screen and I had some pretty major issues using photoshop, aside from it just being an annoying thing.
Anyhow, after the adjustments with Forte and the nvidia driver, I went back to my desktop and was so happy to see that the screen uniformity was very good throughout the whole screen, better than any other LCD I saw, by far. While it still wasn't perfect, you simply aren't going to get perfection with any monitor in this price range or lower. But the LG is definitely perfect enough that it doesn't have any flaws that stick out like a sore thumb. The picture, colors, and uniformity are looking very close to that of a CRT, the other features and pro's of this LG definitely puts it over the top of my CRT monitor.
The vibrant yet soft colors/picture, screen is easy on the eyes, no flicker, fast refresh, amazing contrast, then of course the light weight, gaming is amazing. And on top of all that, and this may be the reason why the screen uniformity looks so good, this LG comes with 170h/170v viewing angles! You literally can NOT get better viewing angles than that on a TFT, and none of the other TFT's even claimed to have 170/170 viewing angles. The others, at best, were 170h/160v, or 160/160.
And don't think I will end this review without mentioning the response rate! Personally, I would be just as happy with this LG if it had an 8ms response rate, but it doesn't. On top of all that I mentioned, you get a blazing fast 2ms response time!
The only other LCD I tried with a 2ms response was the samsung 226bw, which is nice, but too bad it doesn't have the same great screen uniformity and picture quality that the LG has.
In summary. If you only care about fast gaming and not so much about overall picture quality, and want to save $40, then get the Samsung 226bw. If you only want the best picture and gaming is not a priority, and you have the $400+, then get a smaller 20" ultrasharp from Dell with only a 16ms response rate.
Beyond that quality are LCD's that can cost $1000 or more, but that is definitely out of my league and you are definitely beyond TFT territory at that point.
I should note that there are other LCD's in the TFT price range that have certain features and capabilities you might want over things like gaming or even picture, in that case you need to do some searching to find what you want.
But if you are like me and want the best LCD for under $400, and need great picture as well as blazing fast 2ms response times, then look no further than the LG-226WTY (or WTQ). Sure, while I tried a lot of higher end TFT's lately, there definitely was a couple brands I didn't get to try that might rival the LG, but I'm only one man! All I can say is that I don't think you'll be disappointed with the LG, that is for sure. And given that you don't want to keep taking chances, possibly ordering and constantly returning LCD's you end up not liking (which is costly in itself), you want something you know is worth its weight.
I think the LG is just the monitor, it won't dissapoint.
Btw, no dead pixels either! Less backlight bleed than any of the LCD's I've seen as well.
In that mix were the latest 21.6" and 22" Samsungs, the new 22" LG that I talk about here, and various other brands, all pretty good brands as well. Everything I tried at least cost $250 minimum, $349 maximum.
The one brand I didn't get to try out was a Dell. But I've read a lot about dell's. They may be the best TFT if you are only going for the best picture, but even then I hear they aren't always necessarily superior in that regard compared to other higher end TFT's.
Whether they provide the best picture or not, they are not the best all around monitor due to high price and bad response times. There are the non-ultrasharp LCD's that even have as low as a 5ms response time, but from what I hear the picture is definitely not like the ultrasharp. Anyhow, they are still asking $400 for their ultrasharp 20" with a 16ms response time. If you want that sort of thing and aren't a big gamer, then maybe it is for you if you can afford it, but for everyone else, there is something better.
Now at newegg, for $349 (and $15 shipping) is the LG-226WTY (same thing as the WTQ model, I think, if not then it is a newer and better model). Anyhow, you really can't beat the price. I saw it elsewhere for $349 and supposedly free shipping, but when I checked out this place taxed me which made it a worse deal than newegg, who doesn't charge tax (unless you live in the 3 states they reside in). So newegg was the best deal, and they seem to be the only place with the "WTY" model.
Anyhow, this LCD is simply the best 22" TFT I've seen, no question. And if they make their 20" and above 22" models anything like this, then those may be tops in the TFT genre as well.
Sure, this 22" is more expensive than the Samsung 21.6" and 22" models, which everybody seems to think are great. But I saw them myself and don't think they are so great. However, as I said it is still cheaper than even the 20" ultrasharp from dell.
I'm writing this because I think I fall into the same category as many people. I want a good all purpose monitor, I want it all. I work with photoshop, text, and video. So picture is very important to me. But my rig is also built for gaming with my 8800GTS and 3.2ghz e6600, so I want to play blazing fast games without any problems as well as have the great picture. I was starting to think something like that in the $350 or less price range was too good to be true, but I'm not thinking that anymore.
So I just got the LG yesterday, I checked the box. It looked really sweet. Sleek design, nice swivel base, very sturdy and it just had the feel that it was a solid product. It didn't come with the DVI cable, but I don't care much about extra's like that, built in speakers or webcams. That stuff is often a sign that the monitor is actually made even cheaper than what you originally thought. It looks like LG put all their efforts into the monitor itself, not extras.
Besides, I had a DVI-D dual link cable already and I'm sure its better quality than the single links that come packaged with some LCD's. I'm sure a lot of people either have or can easily get a DVI cable, if not you can get a good gold plated DVI-D dual link at newegg for $15, which will work great now, and you can use it if/when you get a larger higher resolution monitor that can utilize dual link.
Of course, the LG did come with the power cord, VGA cable, and 2 cd's. One with the user manual and drivers, another that has the Forte calibration software, which I found to be even more effective than Samsungs Magicolor software. This Forte software really worked some wonders, then to touch things up I went into the nvidia control panel, upped the digital vibrance and slightly adjusted gamma. Perfect!
Was easy to set up and get going. The main reason I orderd this LG was because I wanted better picture and screen uniformity than the other LCD's I saw. All of which, including the samsungs, had some degree of backlight bleed, some had dead pixels, and more than anything I still had yet to see a screen that didn't have such an obvious uneven picture. Even on the samsungs I saw annoying color fade toward the bottom of the screens. Some say this doesn't bother them, but a lot of people are used to LCD's, which is probably why.
But for myself, just coming off using CRT's my whole life, this was one flaw that just drove me nuts with the LCD's. While the samsungs did have good color and picture, it just wasn't even throughout the whole screen and I had some pretty major issues using photoshop, aside from it just being an annoying thing.
Anyhow, after the adjustments with Forte and the nvidia driver, I went back to my desktop and was so happy to see that the screen uniformity was very good throughout the whole screen, better than any other LCD I saw, by far. While it still wasn't perfect, you simply aren't going to get perfection with any monitor in this price range or lower. But the LG is definitely perfect enough that it doesn't have any flaws that stick out like a sore thumb. The picture, colors, and uniformity are looking very close to that of a CRT, the other features and pro's of this LG definitely puts it over the top of my CRT monitor.
The vibrant yet soft colors/picture, screen is easy on the eyes, no flicker, fast refresh, amazing contrast, then of course the light weight, gaming is amazing. And on top of all that, and this may be the reason why the screen uniformity looks so good, this LG comes with 170h/170v viewing angles! You literally can NOT get better viewing angles than that on a TFT, and none of the other TFT's even claimed to have 170/170 viewing angles. The others, at best, were 170h/160v, or 160/160.
And don't think I will end this review without mentioning the response rate! Personally, I would be just as happy with this LG if it had an 8ms response rate, but it doesn't. On top of all that I mentioned, you get a blazing fast 2ms response time!
The only other LCD I tried with a 2ms response was the samsung 226bw, which is nice, but too bad it doesn't have the same great screen uniformity and picture quality that the LG has.
In summary. If you only care about fast gaming and not so much about overall picture quality, and want to save $40, then get the Samsung 226bw. If you only want the best picture and gaming is not a priority, and you have the $400+, then get a smaller 20" ultrasharp from Dell with only a 16ms response rate.
Beyond that quality are LCD's that can cost $1000 or more, but that is definitely out of my league and you are definitely beyond TFT territory at that point.
I should note that there are other LCD's in the TFT price range that have certain features and capabilities you might want over things like gaming or even picture, in that case you need to do some searching to find what you want.
But if you are like me and want the best LCD for under $400, and need great picture as well as blazing fast 2ms response times, then look no further than the LG-226WTY (or WTQ). Sure, while I tried a lot of higher end TFT's lately, there definitely was a couple brands I didn't get to try that might rival the LG, but I'm only one man! All I can say is that I don't think you'll be disappointed with the LG, that is for sure. And given that you don't want to keep taking chances, possibly ordering and constantly returning LCD's you end up not liking (which is costly in itself), you want something you know is worth its weight.
I think the LG is just the monitor, it won't dissapoint.
Btw, no dead pixels either! Less backlight bleed than any of the LCD's I've seen as well.
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