Introduction

The article first appeared in Tom's Hard News Email Newsletter

This article supplements the first comparison, which was published last January . The six new monitors that we test here are:

• The Apple 15" Studio Display, which claims to offer "brighter images that are twice as sharp and with twice as much contrast."
• The Compaq TFT5030 that claims to have the shortest response time on the current market, 20 ms.
• The Continental Edison 15" TFT, a low-cost monitor.
• The HP L1520, which the manufacturer claims is aimed at "heavy users."
• The NEC MultiSync 1550X, built on an IPS.
• The Sony S51, the first low-cost LCD monitor made by this manufacturer.

These are in addition to the 14 monitors from 14 different manufacturers that have already been tested:

• ADI i612
• Belinea 10 15 35
• CTX PV520
• Cornea MP503
• Eizo L365
• Hercules ProphetView 720
• Iiyama AX3816U
• LG 575LM
• Nec MultiSync 1550V
• Neovo F-15
• Philips 150 P2
• Samsung SyncMaster 151MP
• Sony SDM-M51D
• ViewSonic VX500.

A total of twenty 15" monitors have been tested since last fall. Read about the other monitors in our previous article , A Comparison of 14 LCD Monitors.

The tests in this round include a newcomer, which provides information about the way that the colors are displayed on the screen. We displayed gray, red, green and blue patterns in succession. Each consisted of the 256 shades that the screens claim to be capable of displaying. Lighting conditions were the same for each test. We then placed the correct spectrum of the colors in the body of the test, on a scale of 0 (darkest) - 255 (lightest). You will see for yourself that these tests are often very revealing with regard to the actual quality of the screens.