Three-Way 23" LED LCD Roundup: Dell, HP, And Samsung

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We've spent a lot of time evaluating the performance of graphics cards and processors, but a good monitor is almost every bit as important to gamers and professionals alike. For our first look at monitors in 2011, we are starting out with three 23" LCDs.

Black And White Uniformity, Viewing Angles

Another measurable aspect of panel performance is brightness uniformity. Most manufacturers calibrate displays based on the center point of the screen. However, every area of the screen behaves differently. Sometimes you can get better performance in one specific region. As a result, we have added a nine-point black and white luminance test to measure the performance of each monitor's panel.

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Dell SR2320L
White Luminance cd/m^2
170.3404192.1471197.5039
176.0936200.9093211.4455
175.5504200.463209.2209
Black Luminance cd/m^2
0.11680.15100.1199
0.11070.13180.1748
0.09560.11690.1520

The SR2320L appears to have slightly lower luminance near the left edge of the screen. That's why the viewing angle on the left appears worse than the right. 

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HP 2311x
White Luminance cd/m^2
176.2259198.3685179.2023
194.1763197.1751192.6677
188.7952186.0513186.7866
Black Luminance cd/m^2
0.20550.23810.2326
0.20880.26040.2121
0.25880.20760.2055

HP's 23" LCD produces good uniformity of black tones. However, white luminance performance is noticeably poor near the edges.

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Samsung PX2370
White Luminance
181.093180.5944176.8229
188.3543202.569180.8776
209.8375214.0824209.074
Black Luminance
0.11710.21360.1586
0.13270.14600.1348
0.21460.16020.1349

White luminance is fairly even on the PX2370, though the bottom portions of the screen appear slightly brighter. Black luminosity appears more spotty, as you can see from the contour plot. This also turns up in viewing angle performance. But unless you plan to game on multiple screens, this shouldn't be a big concern.

Andrew Ku
105 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jimslaid2
    Ummmm LG! How Could you have left out LG?
    Reply
  • taso11
    I think you mean DVI-D not DVD-D on your front page chart.
    Reply
  • pirateboy
    hey where did my comment go?

    anyway...
    please review 16:10 monitors next time
    Reply
  • sleeper52
    where's the NEC EA231wmi or EA232WMI? that's around $300 as well and it's an IPS
    Reply
  • aznshinobi
    Hmmm.... Could've added an LG, I love my LG W2286L
    Reply
  • Eggrenade
    Input lag!!

    http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/response_time.php
    Reply
  • fstrthnu
    I'd actually rather see a 24 & 25.5" monitor shootout, they tend to be the higher-end displays of the brands (like Dell's super-duper Ultrasharp U2410).
    Reply
  • Assmar
    A certain retailer has the samsung monitor listed for 280 with free shipping. If you don't live in CA, that's tax free, i'm pretty sure.
    Reply
  • sleeper52
    fstrthnuI'd actually rather see a 24 & 25.5" monitor shootout, they tend to be the higher-end displays of the brands (like Dell's super-duper Ultrasharp U2410).
    +1 I'd like to see that. HP LP2475w (rev 2.0) vs Dell U2410 (rev 2.0) vs ASUS PA246Q
    Reply
  • LuckyDucky7
    Why would you bother buying one of these monitors when you can get an IPS one for the same price?

    How about reviewing something like the ASUS ML239H and give us a useful review, rather than going over which one of these junk TN panels is the best? 100% sRGB is useless if you can't see it unless you're straight inline with the screen (any sometimes not even then).

    KTHXBAI
    Reply