Where can I get a decent Widescreen LCD monitor?

[guang]

Why do we have so little choice on wide screen lcd?

 

[Ap0c]

yea its a mission trying to get a good LCD in SA. In the end I got mine from the US - Dell 2005FPW. Seems to be rated one of the better LCD's on the market. So far no problems. Comes with USB Hub, Svideo in, RCA in and all sorts of cool functions like picture in picture etc.

I just got 10 of the new 2007FPW's for friends of mine. They seem to like them.

 

[mic_y]

well, i have got 2xDell 2001 FP. Not widescreen, but amazing monitors. The situation is getting better, but AFAIK Dell still doesnt have stock of the 2005 locally. sux a bit.

 

[James]

Just saw a Incredible Corruption ad in the papper which caught my eye. 19" Acer wider screen for R2200, dunno what the quality will be like but if they have it as R2200 you will find it cheaper elsewhere

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Maybe harass Dualmeister D). He wrangled a 2405 LCD from Dell.

 

[Vio]

Its quite sad yes the fujitsu-siemens scaloview is realy the only "fast response time" (8ms) wide screen 19" lcd available. Makro stocks them.(R3000)

 

[bb_matt]

Hmm, just snagged myself a Dell 19" E196 monitor, after humming and haaing over the widescreen option.

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=50799

As for the widescreen monitors, I was put off by the refresh rate. Amazon.co.uk are currently running a special on the Acer widescreen which I considered :-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...068917/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/026-4692763-6670851

Aside from the refresh rate, I wasn't overly keen on the idea of a resolution of 900 high - plus 1440 isn't that much more than 1280.

Mucho happy with my Dell - just installed it this evening, cost me a fair chunk of change - £204 with VAT and delivery - that's around R2400, a good R400 cheaper than via Dell themselves, as I got it via ebay.co.uk

I'm stoked at the options you have over here, however, I tells ya, the prices are no better than SA and in some cases, worse !

The only bonus we have here is choice - price is still a damn premium.

I've hooked my dell up to my laptop (travelmate 4100LMi) and it feels like a new machine - to go from a 15" slightly dull laptop screen to a 19" is uber cool , but I'm hanging for a good ol' desktop machine again.

Fired up HL2 with my new monitor - WOW! - what a difference, crystal clear, 1280x1024 and the frame rate didn't take that much of a hit either - HL2 auto detected the LCD somehow.

So anyhoo, I'd opt rather for a standard monitor rather than a wide screen - a 19" TFT is dang cool.

Busy working out my next purchase step, on a slow, non-credit, affordable way to upgrade from my laptop to an uber-lite desktop - prolly a 200GB hard drive in an external USB enclosure is next.

I HIGHLY recommend DELL monitors - the reason I went for a Dell at home, despite the higher price tag of them, is because they got me a new Dell at work for my Dev stuff and I was just blown away by the brightness and clarity of the monitor -

The way I see it, Dell are the Apple of the PC world, but hey, that's just me, feel free to bludgeon me into the ground with your thoughts.

 

[Darth Garth]

The way I see it, Dell are the Apple of the PC world, but hey, that's just me, feel free to bludgeon me into the ground with your thoughts.

I have a Dell Optiplex box at home ... it is a piece of cheap junk.

What makes them so special you reckon ???.

They just slap together a generic Intel motherboard with whatever cheap stuff they can buy on that particular day into a generic ugly plastic case.

Even their famed technical support and customer support has all been farmed out to India.

No wonder their sales have been dropping of late and resurgent HP is clobbering them in the desktop PC market.

 

[bb_matt]

Well, Tibby, from where I'm sitting, my new monitor is pretty damn sweet...

 

[antowan]

Incredible's got Packard Bell's for under R3000. Widescreen LCDs. Dunno if it is a brilliant deal though. But they are one of the few public stockists of widescreen LCDs I've seen.

 

[Darth Garth]

Well, Tibby, from where I'm sitting, my new monitor is pretty damn sweet...

I have 2 x Samsung 940 BF's ... they are pretty sweet as well .

Fortunately the Dell is a headless dev box so I don't need to defile these babies with it's crappy video signal although the ugly black plastic case of the Dell matches the somber tone of the monitors .

What is up with all these depressing colours ???.

 

[mic_y]

In my mind, the only thing worth buying from both Dell and Apple are their monitors. The rest of the stuff can either be found cheaper, or better or both. The monitors on the other hand are quite 1337.

 

[dualmeister]

Maybe harass Dualmeister D). He wrangled a 2405 LCD from Dell.

Hehe. Yeah and if your lucky enough to get it through one of their biggest corporate customers you might pay under R6500

 

[bb_matt]

In my mind, the only thing worth buying from both Dell and Apple are their monitors. The rest of the stuff can either be found cheaper, or better or both. The monitors on the other hand are quite 1337.

Not really sure about Apple related to this, but I really DO like the Dell monitors.

What I like about them is that the design is basic and solid - there's no design "overhead" - they are exactly what they are, monitors. Plug in and go.

I did a fair amount of research before purchasing, but this is from my perspective of what I require from a monitor. Speakers? - no, I've already got some. Wide Screen? - not unless it can do at least 1024 vertical, which then puts the price out of my range. Connections? - don't care, just a single standard connection is all I need, DVI vs Analog isn't that much of a big deal for my requirements.

My final decision was made after having used my work Dell monitor over 3 months and after having viewed plenty of TFT screens in shops. A solid workhorse is what I required and so that's what I got.

 

[mooK]

Widescreen is awesome for movies, and you actually grow to like it with applications. But with playing games it gives me a headache, almost like there's too much to focus on.

 

[Mask]

What are the benefits of a widescreen LCD? Which LCD would you recommend among these:

Acer 17" AL1717AS
LG 17" LG1750SQ
Acer 19" AL1914MS
Acer 19" Wide Screen AL1917MS (although I see that it isn't even listed on the Acer website)

Just using it for home use - no gaming.

 

[mooK]

Benefits:

Larger view of widescreen movies with an aspect ratio of 16:9 or less. This makes quite a difference, I must say!

A larger workspace area horizontally. Try to imagine - you have more space to use multiple windows at the same time because you can move things to the sides in smaller windows to maximise multi-tasking or whatever when working. I suppose this point is debatable but I find that a widescreen is much better suited to multi-tasking than a normal 4:3 one because of this.

 

[dualmeister]

I wouldnt look at anything less than 20" when it come to widescreen to be honest. BenQ has a nice 20" and it should be around R3500.00-R3800.00

 

[Ap0c]

I can get the Dell 2007FPW's for R3900. Only have 1 left.

For a bit more info on wide screen, and the dell LCD's... check

http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=2400
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/

Hope this helps.

 

[James]

I must say after reading that amazon link provided by bb_mat I am batteling to find a reason NOT to buy that Acer 19" Widescreen. 115 customer reviews and every one gave it a 5 out of 5. That has to tell you something, and at a shade over R2k what more can u ask for?