Getting the best LCD monitor
Bulky CRT screens are quickly being assigned to the rubbish tip and sleek LCD monitors are the preferred choice. But buying an LCD flat-panel screen is a tricky business, so here are a few things to consider before laying out your hard-earned cash.
The first thing to consider is the value of buying an LCD monitor.
Because monitors tend to outlast PC hardware they often get recycled from PC to PC, but the reality is that an old CRT monitor could be doing more damage to your eyes than you imagine, as well as making time in front of the PC less enjoyable than it could be.
The technology in CRT screens is older which means they often have significant screen flicker that can cause severe eye strain. LCD screens, on the other hand, don’t use cathode ray technology but rather an array of liquid crystal cells which are constantly updated. Because of this they don’t have the flicker associated with CRT monitors.
LCD monitors are also not housed behind glass like CRT monitors so they don’t have the glare problems that CRTs do. In short, LCD screens are in most cases better for your eyes as well as having superior performance and taking up less desk space.
Things to look out for
At the entry-level of the market, price is probably the most important factor in deciding on a new screen. Locally a 17-inch LCD monitor will cost around R1 400 – R1 800 depending on its quality. If you can, however, it’s worth spending a few hundred rand more for a 19-inch LCD monitor which will cost from around R1 700 upwards. The extra two-inches will prove to be well worth the additional cost over the coming months.
If you’re serious about buying an LCD monitor then it’s worth considering exactly what you’re going to be doing with it. If it’s just for general home computing, doing things such as checking email and the Internet then price is probably the key criteria. But if you’re a gamer, a movie buff or do a lot of photographic work on your monitor then other features become important.
Gamers will benefit from screens with faster screen response times. A refresh rate of 5 milliseconds or less is optimal for most gamers and with a faster response time it is easier to play fast-action games without motion blur.
Movie fans, on the other hand, are better off with a widescreen monitor and one that has fine controls for altering brightness, colour and geometry to get the best out of HD movies. Photography fans will also want fine control over the colour on the screen and the extra space on a widescreen makes working on multiple pictures side-by-side possible.
Widescreen versus standard 4:3 ratio screens is also a consideration depending on the use the screen will be put to. Movie fans will obviously want the wider screen so as to get maximum display area without sacrificing part of the display to the top and bottom black bars. Other users that are going to be doing wordprocessing and standard document manipulation can probably dispense with the widescreen because a Word document, for example, requires height rather than width to get the most out of the screen.
Choosing the right size monitor is important. Unlike CRT, which became cumbersome above 17 inches in size, LCD’s don’t require much more desk space as they get larger. So monitors in the 22-inch and 24-inch category, and larger, are now fairly commonplace, although still a little pricey.
Most users will look at the 19 to 21-inch range of LCD monitors. At almost the same cost as a 17-inch LCD, 19-inch monitors are the real entry-level and a good place to start. A good quality 19-inch LCD will cost around R1 800 to R2 000 although cheaper deals can be found. Moving up a 21-inch monitor will cost around R2 000 to R2 500 for a good quality one. Acer’s 21.5-inch LCDs start at around R2 000 on most online sites locally while Samsung’s start at around R2 200.
The leap from 21-inch to 24-inch is where the prices start to climb. A 22-inch LCD can be found locally for around R2 500 but a 24-inch will cost closer to between R3 000 and R3 500. And anything larger than 24-inch is on the distinctly pricey side.
LCD Monitor discussion
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