Monitors

19 to 30 Inch Widescreen LCD Monitors

Last Updated: November 17, 2008

Today's Monitor Sizes

22 Inch: 1680×1050 resolution, 16:10 ratio.

24 Inch: 1920×1200 resolution, 16:10 ratio, view 1080 HD video at full size.

30 Inch: 2560×1600 resolution, 16:10 ratio, huge.

Tomorrow's Monitor Sizes

19 Inch: 1440×900 resolution, 16:9 ratio.

24 Inch: 1920×1080 resolution, 16:9 ratio, view 1080 HD video at full size.

Today's Best Choice - 19 Inch

The Hanns·G JW-199DPB offers 1440×900 resolution, 800:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m² in brightness, 170 degree horizontal and 160 vertical viewing angle, 5 millisecond response time, tilt adjustments (no swivel/height/pivot adjustments), analog VGA and digital DVI inputs, and 3 year warranty. This monitor requires a video card made in 2006 or later to support the 1440×900 resolution.

Read owner reviews from NewEgg.com (over 1,000 reviews, 5/5 stars).

Buy it for $150.

Today's Best Choice - 22 Inch, Great Value

The Acer X223Wbd comes in all black (black and silver pictured), offers 1680×1050 resolution, 2500:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m² in brightness, 170 degree horizontal and 160 degree vertical viewing angle, 5 millisecond response time, tilt adjustments (no swivel/height/pivot), analog VGA and digital DVI inputs, and 3 year warranty. This monitor requires a video card made in 2006 or later to support the 1680×1050 resolution.

Read owner reviews from NewEgg.com (over 300 reviews, 5/5 stars).

Buy it for $165.

Today's Best Choice - 22 Inch, Stylish

The Samsung 2253BW offers 1680×1050 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m² in brightness, 170 degree horizontal and 160 degree vertical viewing angle, 5 millisecond response time, tilt/swivel adjustments (no height/pivot adjustments), analog VGA and digital DVI inputs, and 3 year warranty. The glossy frame and curves make it more elegant than the Acer model above. This monitor requires a video card made in 2006 or later to support the 1680×1050 resolution.

Read owner reviews from NewEgg.com (over 490 reviews, 5/5 stars).

Buy it for $250.

Today's Best Choice - 24 Inch, Low Cost

The Acer P243WAid offers 1920×1200 resolution, 3000:1 contrast ratio, 400 cd/m² in brightness, 160 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angle, 2ms response time (gray to gray), tilt adjustments (no height/swivel/pivot adjustments), analog VGA and digital DVI and HDMI inputs.

Read a review from owners at NewEgg (over 350 reviews, 5/5 stars).

Buy it for $340.

Today's Best Choice - 24 Inch, Stylish, Pivots

The Samsung 2493HM offers 1920×1200 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 400 cd/m² in brightness, 160 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angle, 5 millisecond response time (black-white-black), tilt/height/swivel/pivot adjustments, analog VGA and digital DVI and HDMI inputs. The biggest complaint is the nearly invisible black button labels on a black background. It's hard to tell what button does what.

Read a review from owners at NewEgg (over 120 reviews, 4/5 stars).

Buy it for $410.

	Today's Best Choice - 30 Inch The Samsung SyncMaster 305T is a 30 inch wide aspect flat panel LCD monitor that offers 2560×1600 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 400 cd/m² in brightness, 178 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angle, 6 millisecond response time, tilt/height/swivel adjustments, 4 USB ports, and 3 year warranty. Trusted Reviews said it performs superbly on photos using Photoshop. The screen pulls out the detail in low light areas, but not at the expense of the black levels or vibrance. The video card must be able to support "dual-link" DVI. Read a review from an owner at NewEgg (over 80 reviews, 5/5 stars), Trusted Reviews (May 2007). Buy it for $1,180.

	Today's Good Choice - 30 Inch The Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC 30 inch wide aspect flat panel LCD monitor offers 2560×1600 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m² in brightness, 178 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angle, 12 millisecond response time, tilt adjustment (no height or swivel adjustment), DVI-D (dual link) with HDCP inputs. It has a 92% color gamut, which means 92% of all of the colors displayed are within a set tolerance (Delta E < 1). 92% is significantly above average. The video card must be able to support "dual-link" DVI. Read a review from Trusted Reviews (July 2007), Hexus (July 2007). Buy it for $1,400.

	Today's Good Choice - 30 Inch The HP LP3065 is a 30 inch wide aspect flat panel LCD monitor that offers 2560×1600 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m² in brightness, 178 degree horizontal and vertical viewing angle, 12 millisecond response time, tilt/height/swivel adjustments, three DVI-D (dual link) inputs, and 3 year warranty. It has a 92% color gamut, which means 92% of all of the colors displayed are within a set tolerance (Delta E < 1). 92% is significantly above average. The video card must be able to support "dual-link" DVI. Read a review from an owner at NewEgg (14 reviews, 5/5 stars), Trusted Reviews (July 2007), HotHardware (Feb 2007), MacWorld (Feb 2007), ExtremeTech (Dec 2006). Buy it for $1,250.

Windows Vista Certification and HDCP

Windows Vista Certification means two things. First it means the monitor will work flawlessly with Windows Vista. That's a no-brainer. The other is that the monitor includes HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) to restrict viewing of illegal copies of Blu-Ray movies. HDCP is a type of Digital Rights Management (DRM) that is built into the video driver software and/or the hardware in the monitor. Almost all LCD monitors made through 2006 do not include HDCP and therefore you can't watch Blu-Ray movies on those monitors. Most monitors 24 inches and larger don't include HDCP and therefore are not Vista certified.

Two to Six Panel LCD Display

CineMassive uses custom software and a custom LCD monitor stand to make two, three, four, five or six panel LCD arrays in a variety of different layouts and different sized screens. Unfortunately, they don't sell the software or LCD monitor stand separately. They cost about double of what the LCD monitors cost. If you're interested in this setup, please verify the video card requirements. Photo courtesy of Gizmodo.

Top row: three 17 inch monitors in landscape. Bottom center: 21 inch 1600×1200. Bottom left and right: 17 inch in portrait mode.

Two LCDs on One Computer

I've had two monitors connected to a desktop computer since 1999. The extra screen real estate improves my productivity by seeing more without having to flip back and forth between two screens. I ususally keep Firefox, PowerDesk (Windows Explorer replacement), iTunes and help screens on the second monitor to my right while everything else appears on the large monitor slightly left of center. I don't have any widescreen monitors on that computer.

I suspect one widescreen monitor would replace both of my "sqaure" LCD monitors. I've seen a computer with two 24 inch widescreen LCDs and there is way too much mouse movement to travel 3,840 pixlels from the far left to the far right. The person slide the mouse across the desk, ran out of room, had to pick the mouse up and move it closer to the keyboard. This happened twice to go from one side to the other.

Special Software for Large Monitors

Winsplit Revolution is a free Windows program that divides a large LCD into smaller sections to easily arrange different Windows. The number and size of each window can be customized.

24 to 30 Inch Monitors are HUGE

Everyone who has worked on a monitor this big always comments how they love it. The icons at the bottom of the screen help bring the size into perspective.

24 inch Dell 2407WFP courtesy of Gizmodo.

30 inch HP LP3065 courtesy of HotHardware.

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