Are old LCD Monitors usually a lot darker than current models?

[Andrew1990]

I found this monitor in the back of my closet and it seems to be one of the early model LCDs from dell. It has a res of 1280x1024 so it isnt too bad. The thing is though the screen is pretty dark even at full brightness and Contrast compared to my other LCDs such as my Laptop LCD. I tried to hook it up to several PCs and they all produce the same result.

Now could it be a problem with the monitor or just how this thing was built? I can read text against a white background but if I load up a movie or game I can barely see it.

 

[rollacorolla]

Seems so. I recently got a new Dell 2209WA and it is sitting next to my 2.5 year old Dell 2007FP. I just calibrated them and the new one is more than double the brightness (190 cd/m^2 vs 90cd/m^2).

To get them to match I have the old one at 100% brightness and the new one at 0% brightness (contrast at 67%). Now they're both at 90cd/m white and ~0.4cd/m black. Don't worry, the 2209WA still has great black detail even at 0 brightness.