Any Monitor Savvy blokes around?

[rosbife]

Heya there everyone, I'm finally replacing my old 1280x1024 monitor which I've lately been using as a second display.
My budget was initially 150 euro, but it seems like I will probably have to up it to 200. Going over that would only be if highly justified. Will be buying in Europe, likely Portugal or Amazon UK. I'm probably looking for a standard 16:9 LED-backlit LCD monitor, although I could stand corrected.
I don't know much about monitors, been reading the last few days, but other than that. What I do know is that I'm looking for:

- Value above all. Money is tight at the moment ;
- Ideally 24'', 22 and 27 are also good options if slightly better value;
- Casual use, no heavy editing, no heavy gaming;
- 5-12ms response time. People can get super picky with this but realistically spending money on 2ms over 5ms or on 5ms over 8-12 makes no sense to me. Just too little a gap for me to even ever notice it;
- Good colors (good is used relatively ). I'm a huge multimedia fan, so even though I'm not putting big bucks into this (sadly), color quality, accuracy and whatnot is still one of the most important parts for me;


Design and versatility are somewhat important. A good looking monitor can put quite a smile on my face, and any added functional, physical versatility has its value. However, they're just bonuses, nothing mandatory.

Hoping anyone can give me a hand!

I'm currently looking at these 4:

22'' - 135 euro (Portugal) - Asus VE228H
http://www.asus.com/Display/LCD_Monitors/VE228H/

24'' - 165 euro (Portugal) - Asus VH242H
http://www.asus.com/Display/LCD_Monitors/VH242H/

24'' - 150 euro (120 pounds in Amazon UK, free delivery) - Samsung S24B300HL. Somewhat worried how issues would be handled in terms of warranty service
http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/office/monitors/led/LS24B300HL/ZA

27'' - 190 euro (Portugal) - BenQ GL2750-B. This is a great price but it scares me. I'm pretty sure it's super old, I think it uses CCFL lighting and is overall not worth it, but I might be around. Best link I could even get was this:
https://www.energystar.gov/index.cf...arameter=display_type&startnum=401&letter=ALL

I'd love suggestions as much as input on those models listed. Thank you so much!

 

[jaguarskx]

I would go with Asus monitors since they are generally inexpensive and the build quality is decent if not good. I bought the Asus VK246H back in Dec 2008 and it still works fine, although I don't really use that monitor much; only about 10 hours per week initially, now about 4 per week. I would go with the 23.6" Asus rather than the smaller 21.5" monitor unless you have limited space.

Samsung monitors are generally pretty good, but I do not have any experience with them.

BenQ is somewhat spotty in term quality from what I recall when I was researching extensively back in 2007 (when I was looking to upgrade from a 2002 Planar PX191 monitor). The higher end models were fine (not in your price range), but I believe lower end models were hit or miss back then. Now I do not know.

Those are all TN panel monitors so if you are looking for acceptable colors for the average person, then you'll be ok. If you are looking for good color accuracy, then they might disappoint the average person, and definitely disappoint anyone serious about good color accuracy.

If you want something that affordable and have good color accuracy, then you should a monitor with an e-IPS panel such as the Dell Ultrasharp 2212HM or 2312HM.

 

[rosbife]

BenQ is somewhat spotty in term quality from what I recall when I was researching extensively back in 2007 (when I was looking to upgrade from a 2002 Planar PX191 monitor). The higher end models were fine (not in your price range), but I believe lower end models were hit or miss back then. Now I do not know.

If you want something that affordable and have good color accuracy, then you should a monitor with an e-IPS panel such as the Dell Ultrasharp 2212HM or 2312HM.

Yeah that was what I got to as well, and either way there had to be a reason BenQ monitors were so much cheaper in the lower end. I've decided against a 27 incher anyways, it's a bit too large, unless a really "perfect" one comes along.

As for IPS, I seriously considered IPS because I do love color accuracy and intensity, but I read a lot about it being somewhat laggy a display when compared to non-IPS... If not then it would be worth the investment.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[rosbife]

Actually, those Asus monitors state 16.7 million colors in the Asus website. They say they're "TFT-LCD" monitors, which I know what means but not exactly what is. I thought 16.7m was IPS color-count, as opposed to 262k for TN? -confused-

 

[jaguarskx]

Ahh.. you have been doing your research. Good for you.

For argument sake, TFT and LCD are used interchangeably. As for the colors...

All monitors whether they have 6-bit LCD panels or 8-bit LCD panels will always list 16.7m colors. An 8-bit panel (VA, near all IPS) can actually produce 16.7m colors whereas 6-bit panels (TN and e-IPS) can only produce 256k actual colors. They can imitate up to 16.7m colors using temporal dithering or A-FRC (Advanced Frame Rate Control).

For example, suppose a TN or e-IPS panel cannot produce the color purple on it's own. Purple is a combination of two colors; red and blue. What these monitors do is they quickly pulsate between the two colors so fast that your brain registers solid purple rather than flashing red and blue. From a color accuracy perspective this is very imprecise because the pixels are always flashing between two colors. Say if you are a graphic artist and the person who want you to do the artwork tells you that the background needs to be Purple #156. Not a problem with an 8-bit LCD panel, but with a 6-bit panel you might be getting Purple #170. They might look the same to the average user, but for someone who demands absolute color accuracy it is quite different.

 

[jaguarskx]

As I stated above... Yes, e-IPS panels are in fact 6-bit panels which is why they can manufactured inexpensively compared to true 8-bit IPS LCD panels. However, e-IPS panels are still better at displaying colors than TN panels. The disadvantage is that an e-IPS panel monitor costs the same as the more expensive TN panel monitors and the response time is slower. However, 8ms response time is still good enough to play games, and I think I read somewhere that some e-IPS monitors are as fast as 5ms, but I could be wrong.

 

[rosbife]

Wow, thanks for the awesome explanation. I don't necessarily require IPS, however much I love a good display. I'll see the best deals I can get for IPS screens, but they sure don't sound to be in the 200 euro range.

Again, cheers!

 

[rosbife]

I see. I don't really care much about response times, anywhere downwards of 12 or 15 is fine for me. It's such a small fraction of a second... my highest APM in a game is like ~300, which is on average one action per 200 MS, at best. So it isn't going to be a 3/5/10 MS difference that will be bothering me.

But those panels are TN right? So no e-IPS, and therefore worse colors, correct?

 

[jaguarskx]

But those panels are TN right? So no e-IPS, and therefore worse colors, correct?

Are you referring to the monitors you selected? If so, then yes they are all TN panel monitors.

Basically the worse thing about TN panels are their limited viewing angles. All LCD panel tech shifts colors the more off center you are to the screen. IPS panels (excluding e-IPS) have the least, followed by VA panels, e-IPS panels and lastly TN panels. The color shift on TN is dramatic; on my Asus VK246H TN panel monitor if I were to position my head to look directly at the center of the screen and then I roll my eyes around to view the edges of the screen I can notice some color shifting. I'm thinking about getting rid of it even though I only use it maybe at most 4 hours per week. However, I'm pretty much stuck using a TN panel on my laptop; it's very difficult to find a laptop with an e-IPS panel plus all the other specifications I'm looking for in a laptop.

 

[rosbife]

Wow, I haven't experienced that kind of issue. In fact, I never quite understood the influence of viewing angles since I couldn't imagine myself positioning a monitor other than orthogonal to my eyes' direction. Now get it, even though I've never noticed it so I'm going to assume it's not a deal breaker.

I could go for very high quality but I'm upgrading my audio rig as well so money is tight. For now I'm going to stick with the Asus 24X series, even though I'm not going to make a decision yet.

Thank you so much, will update cheers