Seeking 20-21? LCD for portrait mode

[dsilverman]

I?m looking for recommendations on a 20-21? LCD regular format (4:3) that works well in portrait mode.

I will be doing pretty much exclusively word processing (MS Word) and web browsing. Not much gaming, no DVD watching, no photo editing or graphics work. Some music production work with Cubase. (I may spend a few hours a month gaming, but I do more gaming on a PS2 or PS3 hooked up to an LCD TV).

I?ve never used a monitor in portrait mode, but I think I?ll be more productive that way since I will be using it primarily for Word and Firefox.

I?ve never used dual monitors before, but I?ve read a lot about the productivity gains, and so I thought I?d buy 2 LCD?s.

So I?m looking for a 20-21? regular format LCD. I also thought maybe a 22? widescreen would work well. But I?m leaning away from the widescreen because I think it may be too high in portrait mode, and my neck would be too busy looking up and down the screen, plus, 22? widescreens are all TN, which might be bad for portrait mode.

I?ve read a lot about the different display technologies, and I?m not sure which one is best for my applications: Word/Firefox and portrait mode. Some people say not to get a TN if I?m using it in portrait mode because of the bad viewing angle, particularly in the vertical plane. Is this correct?

I would like the LCD to swivel so I can view it in portrait mode. But if it doesn?t, I?ll buy an Ergotron stand to swivel it if the LCD is fantastic.

I?d like the price of each monitor to be under $750.

What size do people recommend? A regular format 20-21? or a 22? widescreen?

For heavy Word and Firefox use, is portrait mode really beneficial?

What kind of technology should I get? IPS? VA? Something else?

Is there a specific model that you recommend?

These are contenders, but I?m not set on any of these, and am open to others:

Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP
HP LP2065
NEC LCD2070NX
NEC LCD2170NX
Samsung 204b
Samsung 214T
Viewsonic 2030b
Viewsonic 2130b

Are there any 20-21? regular format IPS LCD?s under $750 that rotate? I haven?t checked the specs on all of the above yet. I think the Dell is IPS, but no guarantee that I?ll get an IPS model.

Thanks!

 

[postmortemIA]

204B doesn't work good in portrait mode due to sucky TN that has bad viewing angles. It looks worse in portrait mode as you guessed. So forget about it on most of TNs.

Also, portrait mode is useless, you'll break your neck looking at so wide range. It seems that you need enough vertical pixels. For US$750 you can get 1920x1200 24" monitor.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
Also, portrait mode is useless, you'll break your neck looking at so wide range. It seems that you need enough vertical pixels. For US$750 you can get 1920x1200 24" monitor.

Wrong.

Portrait mode is excellent for what the OP is looking to do.

OP, pretty much any 20" non-TN will do for that kinda thing, though the WS 1680x1050 ones are too narrow in portrait IMO.

I have a 204B & 204T in portrait mode.
Of course, the 204B looks like crap since it's a TN, but the S-PVA 204T is very nice.

I wouldn't worry too much about S-IPS vs. S-PVA/P-MVA since you won't be doing gaming/multimedia much on a portrait mode display, so any quality difference is not going to be noticeable really.

One thing to keep in mind is that last time i did a thread on it, portrait mode was pretty much ****** on nV video cards when using XP, since there's apparently no hardware acceleration.
That results in tearing & a laggy feel.
In Vista, this issue doesn't seem to exist.

ATi cards have no trouble with portrait, aside from the really old ones.