what ~24" 1920x1200 LCD should I get?

[phryguy]

I'm in the market for a 1920x1200 LCD (~24" range) for a new machine I just put together. Unfortunately, it seems like everything at newegg.com that's 1920x1200 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...se&amp;Order=PRICE) under <$400 is TN. :/ 1920x1200 also seems to be a dying breed. The new hotness in seems to be 1920x1080 and cheap, with cheap meaning TN. I really want my extra height and 230K more pixels.

My primary home monitors are a Dell 2001FP (S-IPS) and 2007FP (S-IPS version I believe).

I think my top 3 choices are currently:
Asus VW266H - cheap (~$245 AR) but it's TN. I saw it briefly at Fry's and it looks ok, but from reviews, it gets really mixed reviews and apparently the stand isn't even height adjustable.
HP ZR24w (H2-IPS) - semi-pricey, $418 at buy.com (I might be able to get it for a little less really) new and I've only seen 1 review so far
Dell U2410 (H-IPS) pricey, ~$450 at the cheapest, more than I'd like to spend

I'd probably run either my 2001FP or 2007FP alongside the new LCD. Thus, I might be bothered if I see a huge difference between my new bigger LCD (if it's TN?) and my older IPSes.

Can anyone suggest other reasonably priced 1920x1200 LCDs? I don't care much about input lag as I don't game and don't care about tuners nor hooking it up to game consoles.

Perhaps I'm not THAT much of a LCD connoisseur. At work, I seem to have these LCDs: 2 TNs (Samsung 2243BWX), 2 P-MVAs or PVAs (Sony SDM-X93), 2 S-IPS (NEC 1960NXi). They all look ok to me except that the resolution on 4 of them is WAY too low (1280x1024). I only noticed that TN was UNUSABLE when I tried to rotate it. I had serious viewing angle/image variation between top and bottom when in portrait.

Side note: Someone at work pointed me to this great LCD database: http://www.prad.de/en/guide/ausstattung_auswahl.html

 

[digitaldurandal]

I put up a review of the ZR24w. I do not suggest it as your only monitor. It does have some issues, perhaps they will be worked out in a later revision but for now I cannot suggest it.

I also cannot suggest the u2410 for gaming as it has notoriously high input lag (read: this is different than response time.)

Personally i have two TN panels next to the ZR24w and it is true that near the top there is a small amount of color shift, but if you position them correctly so that you sit with your eyes near the top of the screen, there is very little difference from the TN to the IPS.

Furthermore the gamma shift on the IPS means that its viewing angles are not really much better than the TN.

 

[imaheadcase]

The U2410 is fine for gaming, I use it daily for gaming sessions. It was best monitor purchase i've made in a long time. You won't notice any difference between it and other 24 inch monitors on the market for gaming.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I'm in the same boat as phryguy. I want my next monitor to be 1900x1200 and at least 24". I'm willing to spend up to $1,000 on it if necessary. But I want it to be near the best. Any suggestions?

I currently have a 20" NEC 1600x1050 display that looks gorgeous, but I'm outgrowing the resolution.

 

[MrK6]

I'm in the same boat as phryguy. I want my next monitor to be 1900x1200 and at least 24". I'm willing to spend up to $1,000 on it if necessary. But I want it to be near the best. Any suggestions?

I currently have a 20" NEC 1600x1050 display that looks gorgeous, but I'm outgrowing the resolution.

If you want to spend up to $1000, grab a bigger screen. I suggest Dell's U2711 (27" @ 2560x1440) or WFP3007-HC and WFP3008 (both 30" @ 2560x1600).

OP, sounds like you want a lot of functionality with your LCD (rotation, adjustments, etc.), and you'll have to pay for that. I've seen the U2410 in person and it is a very nice screen. Something cheaper that's a compromise between IPS and TN would be a LED-backlit TN panel. I'm not sure what's the best available on the market atm, maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in here.

 

[Jhatfie]

I am in a similar boat. I currently have a 24" TN panel that I use for gaming , but I want to move to a eyefinity setup so I am looking at getting 3 new 1920x1200 24's. I have yet to see a TN panel that the color shift does not bug me, so I am for sure willing to spend a bit more and it looks like going IPS is my best bet. I also want a display port connection as I do not want to fool with any dumb active adapters and I want height adjustments. Based on what I have read from reviews and users, the HP ZR24w and Dell U2410 are my best bets as they have acceptable input lag and little ghosting and offer the height adjustments and display port connection that I desire. Both seem to have units with problems as there are some legit complaints, but I have seen the HP for $378 shipped, so right now I am looking at it the hardest.

Nice comparison of the HP and Dell: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_zr24w.htm

 

[phryguy]

I put up a review of the ZR24w. I do not suggest it as your only monitor. It does have some issues, perhaps they will be worked out in a later revision but for now I cannot suggest it.

I also cannot suggest the u2410 for gaming as it has notoriously high input lag (read: this is different than response time.)

Personally i have two TN panels next to the ZR24w and it is true that near the top there is a small amount of color shift, but if you position them correctly so that you sit with your eyes near the top of the screen, there is very little difference from the TN to the IPS.

Furthermore the gamma shift on the IPS means that its viewing angles are not really much better than the TN.

Hmmm... Yeah, I see your review at http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2064512. I actually don't plan to game so input lag doesn't won't matter for me.

I'm in the same boat as phryguy. I want my next monitor to be 1900x1200 and at least 24". I'm willing to spend up to $1,000 on it if necessary. But I want it to be near the best. Any suggestions?

For me, my budget is definitely not $1000. For me, the U2410 is practically outside what I'd like to spend.

OP, sounds like you want a lot of functionality with your LCD (rotation, adjustments, etc.), and you'll have to pay for that. I've seen the U2410 in person and it is a very nice screen. Something cheaper that's a compromise between IPS and TN would be a LED-backlit TN panel. I'm not sure what's the best available on the market atm, maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in here.

Actually, rotation isn't that important. I don't rotate my current displays. At work, I tried rotating my Samsung 2243BWX (not even knowing the panel type ahead of time) because I was doing coding on that machine (wanted to see more lines of code), it was hooked up to the fastest machine I had and they were my highest res LCDs at work. That's when I discovered they looked terrible rotated and had to go back.

As for adjustments, well, I do expect height adjustment. I've never used or owned an LCD that didn't have it. It just seems odd that the Asus VW266H doesn't have it. I guess you get what you pay for...

Sigh... it really seems the choices are tough and it's made worse by the migration to 1920x1080, which I don't want.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Hmmm... Yeah, I see your review at http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2064512. I actually don't plan to game so input lag doesn't won't matter for me.


For me, my budget is definitely not $1000. For me, the U2410 is practically outside what I'd like to spend.


Actually, rotation isn't that important. I don't rotate my current displays. At work, I tried rotating my Samsung 2243BWX (not even knowing the panel type ahead of time) because I was doing coding on that machine (wanted to see more lines of code), it was hooked up to the fastest machine I had and they were my highest res LCDs at work. That's when I discovered they looked terrible rotated and had to go back.

As for adjustments, well, I do expect height adjustment. I've never used or owned an LCD that didn't have it. It just seems odd that the Asus VW266H doesn't have it. I guess you get what you pay for...

Sigh... it really seems the choices are tough and it's made worse by the migration to 1920x1080, which I don't want.

Maybe it'd be helpful to specify what you are looking for in a monitor.

The migration to 1080 made it difficult for me as well, I would have grabbed a third gateway 24 in but they changed the third gen to 1080

 

[Puffnstuff]

Dell has the best warranty in the industry. I just bought one and don't regret it one bit.

 

[Will Robinson]

In game mode the U2410 has virtually no detectable input lag.The above comment regarding this being a problem is incorrect.
*Note: I actually have one and game on it everyday.*

 

[MentalIlness]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824005126

 

[phryguy]

Maybe it'd be helpful to specify what you are looking for in a monitor.

- 1920x1200 res - this is a must. 1920x1080 is a dealbreaker.
- Budget is $450 to 500 tops. The U2410 is really pushing it in light of how cheap 1920x1080 (mostly TN) ~24" displays are. I was originally going to go for the Asus VW266H since it's ~$245-270 or the cheapest 1920x1200 display I could find.
- Size can be between 23" to 27" diagonal
- Prefer having at least height adjustment.
- Prefer 3 year warranty
- Prefer non-TN panels. Prefer IPS, I think as it seems TN has limited color depth.
- Don't care about input lag nor response time nor smear from motion (won't be gaming) nor scaling of non-PC sources like game consoles or anything that'd emit 1080i or 1080p
- Won't be watching movies on it.
- Don't care too THAT much about rotation
- Don't care if it has HDMI, composite, s-video or Displayport inputs. As long as I can feed it from my PC from DVI or HDMI, that's good enough.
- Don't care about speakers.
- Will not to be doing photo editing work. Don't care about calibrating it.
- Unclear if the seemingly poor contrast ratio of the ZR24w will bother me.

As I said, I'm basically I'm having a tough choice deciding between:
- Asus VW266H (TN, cheap, no height adjust, no sales tax)
- HP ZR24w (seemingly semi-mixed reviews so far but cheap for IPS, I think I can get this w/o sales tax)
- Dell U2410 (pushing boundaries of my budget, esp. since I'm pretty sure Dell will charge me ~9&#37; sales tax as I'm in WA state).

So, I'm open to reasonably priced 1920x1200 alternatives, if any. It seems nobody else has IPS priced between the 1st and 3rd displays. I'm trying to jump in and buy now as I fear reasonably priced 1920x1200 LCDs might be unavailable within a year or so.

 

[phryguy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824005126

No on that one. 1920x1080 is no go for me. Also, it's TN. I may as well buy the 1920x1200 TN Asus VW266H for less $.

 

[Puffnstuff]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...g:NextStep,rk:

It has an ips panel and is on sale right now.

 

[shortylickens]

I love my HP L2335. But I dunno if you can still find it for sale. Had it for 5 years and it still has no dead pixels.
Anandtech reviewed it a long time ago.

 

[MrK6]

I wouldn't buy a monitor new from Dell unless you had money to burn or a fantastic coupon. The same monitor is $450 in the outlet: http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...?c=us&cs=28&l=en&lob=MON&MODEL_DESC=ALL&s=dfb . I've ordered a lot of monitors from the Dell outlet and they're NIB with all the cables and a full 3-year warranty with advanced replacement.

 

[blanketyblank]

VA screens are actually very nice for work. They may lack the speed and color accuracy of IPS, but the good blacks and viewing anles make them ideal for coding. I use an MVA at home like this, and at work 2 PVAs with one rotated.

 

[imported_Septimus]

I've ordered a lot of monitors from the Dell outlet and they're NIB with all the cables and a full 3-year warranty with advanced replacement.

Are you sure? It says 'Did you know that Factory outlet monitors have a 90-day warranty?' on the Factory outlet page.

 

[killster1]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...namitedata.com Good shiet

 

[imported_Septimus]

That Doublesight looks good, except for the one review that says its' white (?) and not black. Doublesight's web site says it's a 'legacy model.'

 

[terry107]

If you're willing to gamble, you can go this route: Clicky here

I bought one a couple of months ago and it's a beautiful monitor. The packaging is crap and there were some cosmetic blemishes, but the screen itself is amazing. Can't beat the price.

 

[MrK6]

Are you sure? It says 'Did you know that Factory outlet monitors have a 90-day warranty?' on the Factory outlet page.

All of my invoices say "3-year warranty with Advanced Replacement." I can also look up my Service Tag on the Dell site and it'll tell me how many days I have left in my three year warranty. Note this is on 24", 27", and 30" monitors, it might change if you order smaller/cheaper monitors.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Hm, that Double Sight looks good for the price, but I'm also wary of the review that says it's white instead of black and has a humming noise.

For an LCD noob like myself, can someone explain what TN is and if it's something I should be looking for or avoiding in a mid to high end display? I'm thining 27" @ 1920x1200 is the way to go - am willing to spend some decent coin.

Thanks.

 

[killster1]

i actually think the doublesight is bad choice (i just say that so you guys dont buy them all) i own one of the doublesight 27" few soyo 24" mva and few 24" acer and 22" LG TN. the TN are fine for me one thing if you look at them from the side or up and down the colors change, i even use a 24" TN acer in one bedroom for a tv and a 24" soyo mva in another for a tv and i dont mind either of them.

 

[thegimp03]

I bought a U2410 two weeks ago and I have to say it's one of the best lcd's I've ever bought. Been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 on max settings with my HD5870 and it looks gorgeous. I can notice a bit of input lag in non-game mode coming from my old Viewsonic VX922 but that was arguably one of the best gaming lcd's for its time.