Looking for 27" monitor....questions about brands

[boeckelr]

Hi everyone,

I am in the market for a new 27" monitor....While looking, I have been surprised at how inexpensive some of them are. Now I realize that alot of the time you get what you pay for...but I would expect that there are some models/brands that are inexpensive and of good quality.

In the past I have purchased Acer, Asus, NEC and Dell monitors.

While looking for this new 27" monitor I have come across some brands that I am not really familiar with - AOC, Planar, Hannspree, and I-INC. All seem to get decent ratings from buyers.

Are any of those aforementioned brands any good? If so, which ones?

Is HDMI an absolute necessity - or will DVI suffice?

What sort of response time should I look for - some are 5ms, some are less....

And what about contrast ratio and brightness? For contrast ratio, there seems to be two measures - regular contrast ratio which is usually like 2000:1; and dynamic contrast ratio, which varies greatly from monitor to monitor. What should I look for vis a vis these values?

Finally, if AOC, Planar etc are not recommended, are there any brands that are recommended? Like I mentioned earlier, I have purchased many Acers in the past...although after having an unusually bad experience with Acer I would like to stay away from them if possible.

BTW the monitor will be used in a general purpose role - some games...some browsing...some desktop applications and some photo editing. In other words I need a general purpose monitor.

Thanks in advance for any help.

FYI I tried looking online for a guide for monitors and although I didnt do an exhaustive search, I was not able to find one.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[corkyg]

Look closely at Samsung's line. They make an excellent monitor and have several 27-inchers.

 

[boeckelr]

Thanks for the quick reply - I will check out Samsung tonite.

Does anyone know how many companies source the panels to these monitor manufacturers?

I mean, I assume there are only a handful of companies that actually make the panels themselves. If that is the case, then alot of these monitors from different manufacturers might be very similar - with only the name on the outside being the main difference.

Just a theory...dont know if that is true or not....

Does anyone know if this is the case?

If a Planar monitor has the same guts as say an Asus monitor...why pay extra for the Asus? Once again, I am just theorizing....dont know if this is true or not.

 

[fstime]

Cheap 27'' monitors are going to be 1920x1080, the same resolution as a smaller 21'' monitor and use a TN panel.

The best way to go is a 2560x1440 IPS display.


http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/...g-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270

$330 IPS

For comparison, the Dell 27'' IPS display is over $800 and used the same LG panel I think.

Obviously you trading off a warranty and other conveniences of buying through a domestic company like Dell.

 

[MontyAC]

There is no trade off for warranty, you can always get a Square Trade warranty for around $50.

 

[Scout80]

Thanks for the quick reply - I will check out Samsung tonite.

Does anyone know how many companies source the panels to these monitor manufacturers?

I mean, I assume there are only a handful of companies that actually make the panels themselves. If that is the case, then alot of these monitors from different manufacturers might be very similar - with only the name on the outside being the main difference.

Just a theory...dont know if that is true or not....

Does anyone know if this is the case?

If a Planar monitor has the same guts as say an Asus monitor...why pay extra for the Asus? Once again, I am just theorizing....dont know if this is true or not.

You're correct in thinking there are only a handful of LCD manufacturers. In fact, they were accused of price fixing. This article names some manufacturers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203479104577124863769347498.html

I have a 27" Samsung that is 2560x1440. It was around 800 on CDW. Absolutely beautiful picture.