New Monitor: Flat Screen or Regular

[Fike]

Flat screens are cool and nice, but the quality is lower for the same price.
Regular screens cost less and have better overall quality


Which is better and why? The two I am considering are:
Samsung 950P---Regular
Samsung 900NF---Fllat

 

[anime]

ofcoz you have to pay more for a flatscreen compared to regular ones. If you cant expect flat screen at the same price as the regular ones--since it's cost more to manufacture the tube. especially those fd trinitron flatscreen.

 

[fow99]

Go with the flat one. I own a SamSung 700NF which is just a smaller 900NF. And its really a pleasant to watch it.

 

[Alex]

flats are v nice

 

[Mem]

Samsung 900NF is the one you should buy of the two,why?.. it`s flat and your eyes will thank you and the image quality will be better.

 

[AMDPwred]

A flatscreen would be nice but the normal one would be ok.

 

[Wind]

I'll go for the flat if had the $$.

 

[Looney]

Definitely flat.

 

[stingbandel]

flat for sure...





Darno

 

[pillage2001]

A normal one has better quality than a flat screen?? Is that true?? How true can that be?? Then why is flat screen so expensive?? I'm yet to see any normal ones that have better quality than my 19in trinitron. Enlighten me please.

 

[Tomek]

regular screens have a better image quality than the flat screens; but get the flat screen anyway

 

[nortexoid]

it's all about price and use...

i had the same problem and ended up getting a "curved" 19" over a flat 17"....and before that i had a curved 17"

some arguments for the curved:
1) can't notice curve when using it (for the most part)
2) the curvature on modern monitors is pretty little now anyway
3) they're cheaper! (thus u can buy a larger one)
4) no damper wires like aperature grill (but u can get flat CRT)

for flat:
1) better picture in some cases (i.e. aperature grills/ slot masks - more vibrant colors)
2) less glare = better for the eyes (less strain)
3) less or no geometric distortion (but looks concave at first)

if i had to do it all over again, I'd probably get a flat 17", especially since my retailer now sells a viewsonic E70fb BLACK perfectflat monitor (match my system, looks slick as hell)...and honestly, i don't notice any huge difference in screen realestate going from 17-19 (1024x768 vs. 1280x1024)...plus the monitor is less heavy and smaller (i.e. for transporting - i.e. for lan parties)

 

[dullard]

<< A normal one has better quality than a flat screen?? Is that true?? How true can that be?? Then why is flat screen so expensive?? Enlighten me please. >>



I'll take a stab at enlightening you. Curved screens were created for one simple reason: to improve image quality. Why would a curved screen have better quality? The distance from the gun to the glass is constant for spherical glass. As the glass gets flatter, the corners of the monitor are much further from the gun than the center is. This distance change results in several possible noticible effects:
1) Blurry text at edges and especially corners.
2) Drastically varing dot pitch over monitor surface. Larger dot pitches tend to give more headaches.
3) Brightness variations (brighter in center than in corners).
4) Lines aren't perfectly straight. This is really noticible with CAD use.

These problems are often lumped into one term: convergence. Every flat monitor will have these problems, but some will have better convergence than others. High quality parts and good manufacturing techniques can reduce the appearance of convergence problems. Unfortunately this leads to higher prices.

Curved screens have one other minor benefit. Have you ever heard the phrase "the eyes in that picture seem to follow me where ever I go"? This is especially true with a curved screen. Families or friends gathered around a curved screen will all get about the same image experience regardless of the angle that they view the monitor. When gathered around a flat monitor, the person right in front of the monitor will have a different experience than those at angles. Try it yourself. Display picture of a person looking right into the camera on your screen. If it is a curved screen, that person will appear to face you regardless of your viewing angle. If it is a flat screen, the person will appear to face some odd direction unless you sit dead center.

Flat screens have two benefits:
1) Glare can only come from one angle. Thus the chance of glare is reduced.
2) Old low quality monitors were extremely curved (to keep costs down). At times, this has an effect of looking into a fishbowl. The majority of people that answer flat without giving any reason say so since they compare their new flat monitor to a 5-10 year old curved monitor. New quality curved monitors are much flatter than previous monitors. I'll bet the house that 95%+ of people wouldn't think my newer 'curved' monitor looks like a fishbowl. This was what Nortexoid mentioned - the curvature is drastically less for new monitors.

Conclusion: Take the regular monitor and put it next to the flat monitor. If the curved monitor looks like a fishbowl (large curvature) get the flat monitor. If the flat monitor has bad image quality (especially at the corners) get the curved monitor. For me personally, I could never use any current flat monitor since I do CAD like work and need high convergence all over the monitor.

 

[Fike]

Online reviews disagree whether the the standard tube (versus the flat tube) provide better overall image and text quality Here are some examples...I am providing them not because they are necessarily authoritative, but they represant a trend of reviewers:

PC World article on 19 inch monitors
PC World Chart with the standard tube at the top and the flat screen at the bottom.
Praise for the Syncmaster 900NF (flatscreen)


Is there another quality of a flat screen that is attractive...like it is cool.....which is unrelated to the more empirical qualities of convergances, that effect text and graphics usability. Perhaps it is something akin to the difference between flat wall paint versus glossy wall paint (an allusion to less glare on the flat screen). It is like the world is a little bit softer in a flat screen monitor.