Comparison: Seven 21" and 22" CRT Monitors

Introduction

The 21" and 22" monitor market is easy to understand. On the one hand, in the lower and middle range, there is a raft of 21: monitors of FST type with a Shadow Mask tube, which vary, and can be of best or worst quality. On the other are monitors with a Sony FD Trinitron tube and a truly flat screen, but which are decidedly more expensive. And then there are the 22" with the Mitsubishi DiamondTron tubes fitted by several manufacturers of top-range monitors.

Now don't get carried away with the idea that a 22" monitor has a working diagonal higher than a 21". DiamondTron tubes do actually measure 22 inches, and this label gives them marketing impact, but to obtain a better image quality, the maker has to eat into the edges considerably. So the paradox is that what you gain with a 22" compared to a 21" is the bit of actual on-screen image that has been removed!

For an explanation of the technologies, you can refer to the introduction to the 19" monitor test Comparison: Twelve 19" CRT Monitors .

Each monitor was tested by analyzing the following:

• Characteristics claimed by the manufacturer;
• Functions and inputs;
• Optimal adjustment;
• Display quality (sharpness, brightness, contrast, convergence, moiré, purity, evenness, legibility) using Ntest;
• Color rendering using the color charts;
• Refresh rates obtained to the nearest decimal;
• OSD;
• Performance in games.