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I wouldn't worry too much about a 350 brightness >>
If he were to go for anything less than 300 cd/m2 brightness he will find what i did and that is you will only be able to get off white when viewing white backgrounds like in Word, especially if he turns down the brightness.
My NEC 1550M has a brightness of 300 cd/m2 and a contrast of 450:1 and IMO looks better than any CRT i have seen or owned

As for streaking - this is a common complaint of the MVA type screens as they have great pixel refresh but alas the afterglow is bad, hence the streaking
TSDible - you really need to go look at some TFT's in the flesh so you dont make the mistake i made when i got my first TFT.
If your looking for recommendations i can only recommend the 1550M which i now own and is better than anything else ive seen but alas is only 15". I only got the smaller size because i couldnt find a larger TFT at sensible money i would be happy with.
Choosing a TFT at the moment is a minefield because theres so much expensive crap on the market at the moment IMO. Not for the faint hearted if your buying blind
Dimitri - what model was that panel you owned? It sounds like you tried an MVA, yeah? My 1550M shows next to no streaking in Quake 3 so am wondering why you had problems with it?